The ROS is looking ahead to 2022 and beyond

Health charities are among the most profoundly affected of all by the dramatic impact this global pandemic has had on society.  Our support services have experienced almost two years of record demand as NHS services operate at severely restricted capacity.  We know the health system’s recovery will take time, so we need to be at the top of our game to make sure people get the support they deserve.  

Even before the pandemic, the treatment gap for osteoporosis was startlingly wide, with two-thirds of women missing out on the interventions they need – and similar proportions of men.  Backlogs caused by the pandemic have widened that treatment gap still further.  Action is now beyond the point of urgency. 

That’s why we’ve just completed a wholesale review of our mission, strategy and how we leverage our resources.  As well as a brand new corporate strategy, launching in January, we’ve changed our accommodation, recruitment practices, working patterns and culture.  Most tangibly, we’re in the final stages of selling our office building in rural Camerton, eight miles outside of Bath, which has been our home for the last 25 years.  Early in 2022, we’ll move to a better-connected rented office in Bath city centre.  Once there, we’ll embrace a flexible system of hybrid working which gives our staff the best of both worlds between home and office work. 

The pandemic has shown that employers have nothing to fear from home working.  Having developed this mutual trust over the last eighteen months, it would be churlish of ROS to force people back into 35-hour weeks in the office.  Our employees, quite understandably, prefer one or two days in the office every week, with the rest of the time spent working from home.  This works well for both sides:  Hybrid working reduces travel costs, makes caring responsibilities easier and improves morale, while helping us employ more diverse employees and people who live further afield.  It works for the planet too:  Previously, around 40 cars would have pulled up daily at our Camerton office.  When we get to our new city centre home we’re anticipating a revolution in car-pooling, park-and-ride usage and cycling to work . 

Crucially, this move allows us to change the balance of our resources, unlocking capital held in property to invest more heavily in research, new support services and the professional development of our people.  ROS has only £1 to spend on each person with osteoporosis, so if we want to achieve our mission we need to squeeze the most we can out of all our resources.  Under hybrid working, our Camerton building, which in the past accommodated 85 people, would have been criminally underused. 

Instead, we’ve chosen an office with a smaller floorplate, putting a premium on first-rate collaboration spaces and modern meeting facilities, all brought to life with a creative, inspiring layout and design.  Our new normal will be home working for ‘head-down’ tasks such as report-drafting, and pre-booked office working for team-based activities like training and workshops.  

Most importantly, this move will be a catalyst for our new strategy, which will be marked by a step change in campaigning, public engagement and advocacy.  Osteoporosis is called ‘the silent disease’ because of under-diagnosis, under-treatment, low public awareness and dangerous myths that its symptoms are ‘just part of getting old’.  In reality, the fractures it causes are one of the most serious threats to living well in later life.   To beat it, ROS needs to be a bold, campaigning charity which makes the strongest case for reform in the NHS, social care system and other public services.  And we’ll invest significantly more in public outreach to challenge unhelpful myths, reduce stigma and empower people to take positive action for good bone health. 

We know that no charity can successfully bring about social change on its own.  Funders regularly remind us of their preference that charities should find more opportunities to work together.  We want the new ROS to be much more about networks and a movement, rather than just a service provider.  We won’t feel the need to ‘own’ everything ourselves. Instead, we’ll become more collaborative, better at partnership-working and stronger at holding others to account.  A city centre location on the doorstep of universities, hospitals, businesses and partner charities will be a powerful accelerator for that change. 

And we’re looking forward to throwing open the doors of our new base to our members, volunteers and other visitors who want to be part of making it happen.

Craig Jones

Chief Executive