Our independence
The King's Fund is an independent charitable organisation. We pride ourselves on being trusted for the objectivity of our work and independence from vested interests, with the freedom to speak up and determine our own work programme.
Our independence is very important to us and we protect it in a number of ways.
Accountability
The King's Fund is governed by a Board of Trustees who are accountable for our work and for ensuring our independence. The Board agrees our strategy, approves our budget (including the amount we can draw down from our endowment) and holds the Senior Management Team to account for delivering our work programme.
Read more about how we are governed and see our register of interests for our Trustees, committee members and senior staff.
Our published work
We retain full editorial control for all our published work and have rigorous processes in place to assure its quality, objectivity and independence.
Responsibility for our published work is delegated by the Board of Trustees to the chief executive, who works closely with colleagues to ensure its quality, objectivity and independence. Depending on the nature of the work, we may draw together stakeholders to comment on and contribute to our work – this may include health and care professionals, representatives of national bodies and other relevant organisations, patients, academics and others.
All our publications go through a process of internal and external review before being signed off by relevant directors and the chief executive. The board is not involved in drafting reports, although from time to time the views of individual board members may be sought where they have particular expertise.
If a publication is the result of work we have been commissioned to do by an external organisation, this is made clear in the report. We retain full editorial control.
Our public position
A similar approach is used to agree our public line on policy issues. Responsibility for our public positioning rests with the chief executive who works closely with directors and other colleagues to agree our position on relevant issues. The board discusses our public positioning with the senior management team on a regular basis but is not involved in determining our line on individual policy issues.
Our funding
Our funding comes from a diverse range of sources. More than two-fifths of our funds are generated by our endowment – funds maintained and invested since our creation in 1897. This income guarantees a consistent stream of funding to support our charitable objectives, giving us a greater degree of independence than if we were more reliant on other sources of funding.
Our remaining income comes mainly from our leadership and organisational development services, commercial activities and income-generating charitable activities. All the proceeds from our income-generating work are used to support our charitable objectives. More details on our sources of income can be found here.
Working in partnership
We work in partnership with a range of organisations - for example, those who commission us to undertake research; those we work jointly with on policy projects; and our corporate partners and supporters. All our partnerships are governed by our ethical collaboration policy.