Rennie Grove Peace Hospice Care merger

In 2020, the Chief Executive of Peace Hospice Care departed for a new role in a different hospice. This vacancy led to discussions between Rennie Grove and Peace Hospices about whether there was an opportunity for more collaborative working.

The Chair of Trustees, Vice Chair and Company Secretary from each hospice formed a working group to explore the possibilities to collaborate in more detail. They ran two ‘test projects’: one on learning and development, and the other a review of outpatient services.

The projects were successful, and it was agreed that the hospices should consider whether a merger would be beneficial to them and the communities they serve. 

Early in the process, it was agreed that a ‘group’ structure would be best for Rennie Grove Peace Hospice Care, if the merger did go ahead.
 

The hospices developed a set of “reasons to believe” that a merger could be beneficial. This gave them a framework to explore the possibility in more detail.

Hospice UK’s Future Vision Programme was a key part of the exploratory phase. It helped everyone focus on what the future of hospice care might look like, and what action would be needed to make sure both hospices were sustainable in the future.

The hospices focused on the Nine principles of sustainability, deep-diving into the “collaborate” element in Board away-days.

Before the merger could be approved, the hospices developed nine conditions of approval. These included getting agreement on:

• the governance & leadership structure
• management structures
• financial planning.

They developed a project plan and carried out strategic planning, and both hospices ran their own due diligence process.

In March 2022, both Boards of Trustees approved the merger. A new Executive Board was created and Stewart Marks was appointed as Chief Executive.
 

Key facilitators

Rennie Grove and Peace Hospice have been working collaboratively since 2018. Since 2019 they have also been working closely with The Hospice of St Francis, Berkhamsted, to provide a joint Rapid Personalised Care Service (Fast Track) to people in West Hertfordshire. This means there was already a good working relationship between the two hospices’ leadership teams. The trustees were supportive of the idea of a merger, and open to working together.

To enable the hospices to discuss the idea of a merger in more depth, they signed a Memorandum of Understanding and Non-Disclosure Agreements. 

The hospices went through a thorough process when deciding whether to merge, and this built more trust between the two hospice teams. Once the merger was agreed, a Shadow Board was formed to bring together the trustees of both hospices who wanted to move forward in the new organisation.

The Boards of Trustees had strong enough skills to carry out their own due diligence, but external support was sought from auditors, legal advisors and merger project specialists.
 

Challenges

As Rennie Grove was a membership organisation, it was more complex to agree the merger. The intention to merge needed to be announced and a vote held at a meeting in July 2022. 96% of voters approved the changes. 

It took longer than expected to get approval from the Charity Commission for the merger. This meant there was a period of time when the new organisation was registered at Companies House, but still operating with two boards of trustees.