Working hard for you

Together with our inspirational members and supporters, we have achieved great things for the Crohn’s and Colitis community over the past 42 years. But there’s still more work to be done. In developing our new strategy, we’ve identified areas in which there’s room for improvement and set out our vision for where we want to be in three years’ time.

We will become experts in your lived experience

Everyone with Crohn’s and Colitis has a different experience. We want to understand this diversity and ensure that everyone sees themselves reflected in our work, and their challenges recognised and addressed.

Over the next three years, we’ll pull together all the statistics and evidence on the ways Crohn’s and Colitis affect people, identify gaps in our knowledge and commission research to fill them. This will help us shape our services and campaigns to improve the experiences of those living with the conditions.

We will continue to build our information and support resources

Over time, the charity has developed award-winning information and support services, with hundreds of publications available to our valued members and supporters. However, we know that many people affected by Crohn’s and Colitis aren’t aware of everything we have available.

We’ll work to make our resources more targeted and tailored to your needs at different stages of your journey with Crohn’s or Colitis. We’ll create education materials so that doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers can help people living with Crohn’s and Colitis learn more about their conditions. And we want to help you speak to others affected by the conditions, no matter where you live, so that no one feels isolated and alone.

We will campaign for better healthcare

We have a strong track record in working with leading healthcare organisations and other charities to measure standards of care for people living with Crohn’s and Colitis. This has laid the foundations for real change in how IBD services can better support people with the conditions. We want to use this work as a launchpad to persuade NHS decision-makers and leaders that IBD care needs to be prioritised.

We’ll continue working to raise awareness of the symptoms of Crohn’s and Colitis with healthcare professionals and the public to speed up diagnosis. We’ll also ensure that the IBD Standards are consistently used as the measure of quality in NHS services and we’ll continue to support the work of IBD nurse specialists.

We’ll also speak up on other issues that affect your quality of life. Our Not Every Disability is Visible campaign raised awareness among organisations, employers and the public about the needs of people with invisible conditions. Our employment campaign, Are You IN? is improving understanding and awareness of Crohn’s and Colitis and other invisible conditions in the workplace. We can now build on those campaigns to help make practical changes in public spaces, educational institutions and workplaces.

We will drive vital research

Our charity has always supported pioneering research. We’ll continue to do so, making sure people with Crohn’s and Colitis are consulted about and involved in research that affects them.

Research is increasingly undertaken by fewer but bigger teams, attracting multimillion-pound funding from well-resourced institutions. We can use our influence to ensure Crohn’s and Colitis are considered as part of these major research programmes.

Thanks to our work, a £4.5m programme focusing on pain will now include Crohn’s and Colitis. The treatment of pain is overlooked and under-researched and the programme will address this. We’ll extend this approach to drive more resources towards meeting the needs of our community.

We’ll still support research directly, but we’ll ensure it’s more targeted and can lead to more investment by others.

We will support you in a positive and professional way

Our supporters are what make us Crohn’s & Colitis UK. Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, you have continued to fundraise, campaign and be part of a supportive community that looks out for each other. We couldn’t do all this work without you, so we’ll work hard to be there for you. To take our new strategy forward, we’ll ensure we have skilled and passionate staff, bring in outside expertise when needed and continue to involve you in the development of our work. Together, we know we can achieve even more for the Crohn’s and Colitis community.