WELLCHILD

Registered charity 289600 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q22909743 · Wikipedia · also known as CHARICO, CHILDREN NATIONWIDE MEDICAL RESEARCH FUND, THE WELLCHILD TRUST · also registered in Scotland as SC045010 (OSCR)

WellChild is the UK's national charity for sick children. The charity's work is focused on ensuring that all children and young people in the UK - especially those with serious illness, complex health conditions or long-term care needs - have the very best possible quality of care and support.

Objects

THE OBJECT OF THE CHARITY IS THE RELIEF OF SICKNESS, PRIMARILY BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY AMONG SICK AND SERIOUSLY ILL CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE AND THEIR FAMILIES AND CARERS, BY:3.1 THE PROVISION, PROMOTION AND ADVANCEMENT OF CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES AND SERVICES TO CARE FOR AND SUPPORT THE SICK AND SERIOUSLY ILL, AND THEIR FAMILIES AND CARERS, TO ENSURE THAT THEY HAVE THE BEST POSSIBLE QUALITY OF LIFE;3.2 THE PROMOTION, FINANCING, MAINTENANCE AND FURTHERANCE OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH RESEARCH AND ENSURING THE EFFECTIVE DISSEMINATION OF THE USEFUL RESULTS OF SUCH RESEARCH BY SUPPORTING, INFORMING AND EDUCATING THE SICK, THEIR FAMILIES AND THEIR CARERS;3.3 THE PROVISION OF INFORMATION AND EDUCATION ON THE AVOIDANCE OF SICKNESS AND THE PROVISION OF HEALTH AND WELFARE;3.4 ACTING ON BEHALF OF, PROMOTING AND FURTHERING THE NEEDS AND WELFARE OF THE SICK AND SERIOUSLY ILL AND THEIR FAMILIES AND CARERS; AND3.5 SUCH OTHER CHARITABLE PURPOSES AS THE TRUSTEES IN THEIR DISCRETION SEE FIT.

Area of benefit: NOT DEFINED

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Financial health, per its FY2026 accounts

The charity reported a total combined deficit of £260,646 for the year ended 31 March 2026, resulting in unrestricted reserves of £653,594. The trustees state that these reserves are below the policy target of four to eight months' operating expenditure, which equates to 3.1 months at year-end. Despite this pressure, the trustees and auditors confirm the charity is a going concern with strong cash levels and secured income for the forthcoming year.

Automated summary of the FY2026 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Godfrey Wilson Ltd. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

• Reserves position vs the charity's own policy moved from "within" (FY2025) to "below" (FY2026).

Comparing this charity’s FY2025 and FY2026 accounts as analysed by this site.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investing charity funds policy and procedures
• Investment
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures
• Volunteer management

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — WellChild (matched by registered charity number).

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2026)

Reported reserves equal ~2.2 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Other trading activities (66% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 39.6% of total income — above the 90th percentile for charities its size (median 5.3%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (04/09/2023) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Amanda Wilkinson
• Anna Ruth Jones
• Benjamin James Bedford
• Claire Watson
• David Craig Hatch
• Dr Hazel Jean Evans
• ROSALIND CHARLOTTE FUTTER
• Simon Hardy

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Northern Ireland · Scotland · Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Grants marked “Unverified read” were flagged by automated checks as possibly misread from the funder’s filed accounts. They are listed, but left out of the totals, counts and funder relationships this site computes.

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with AllChild.

• AllChild income £7.3m
• WELLFIELD EDUCATION income £81k
• VARIETY THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY income £7.2m
• UK CARE FOR CHILDREN income £1.7m
• WELL WINDSOR income £120k
• THE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL CHARITY income £5.4m

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.