The unwavering commitment of the Lord Leonard and Lady Estelle Wolfson Foundation to Tate’s Learning Programme has ensured the success, security, longevity, and growth of our learning activities for audiences with Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND). This is a crucial aspect of our programme in serving one of our core aims, to champion the right to the richness of art for everyone, and to influence thinking about the nature of art and its value to the world. We believe in the positive impact of art for young people’s intellectual, social, and emotional wellbeing and that all young people should have access to art and culture. 

Through this programme, we prioritise the comfort, ease, and sense of belonging for everyone. Inclusivity is at the core of our mission at Tate. In all aspects of our work, we aim to represent the demographic and cultural diversity of London, and to proactively engage, partner with, and amplify the voices of people and groups who have been and are underrepresented in Tate’s galleries and the cultural sector. 

Our SEND programme is one of the main ways that we can target audiences and be active in our inclusion of artists and partners with additional needs. This report provides an overview of the difference your funding has made in creating an inclusive place at Tate, including the outcomes of our Schools and Teachers, Artist Workshops, Resources, and Family Programmes, and our plans for the forthcoming year. Your generous support of £20,000 for our programme for the academic year September 2022 – July 2023 was crucial in helping us to achieve this and we hope you enjoy reading about what was made possible through the help of your donation. Read the full report here.

Sarah Monteath – Head of Programmes, Tate

 

Photo: Artist-led Schools Workshop Programme, July 2023 Tate Britain. © Tate. Larina Annora Fernandes. 

Early Birds is a sensory-friendly event organised regularly by the Science Museum. It is designed for individuals who need a quieter environment to enjoy the museum, since the busy hours with the general public can be overwhelming. Those with autism spectrum conditions or with sensory processing differences can benefit from adjustments.

“We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Trustees of The Lord Leonard and Lady Estelle Wolfson Foundation for their support towards Early Birds and Night Owls since 2014. Your generous contributions over a decade have played a crucial role in enabling these cherished events to accommodate the sensory needs of several families.”

FEEDBACK

“I wanted to say a huge thank you to the staff at the museum for putting on the Early Birds event last weekend. My two children are both autistic and my daughter in particular has very complex needs and usually would not be able to manage visiting somewhere like a museum. However. because of the early opening. which meant a quieter journey. the ability to park nearby. the quieter museum and reduced sensory stimulus. she was able to engage in very fun and educational visit. I am so grateful to everyone involved in putting on such an inclusive event!”

·1 just wanted to say thanks for having the event yesterday. which I attended from Oxford (handily parking in blue badge space right outside) with my 20-year old daughter and 17-year old son – who never want to do stuff together – as we are all autistic/ADHD. It felt incredibly special to be in the museum after hours and the quiet and low lights were lovely. We had an amazing time exploring the main museum and were blown away by the Power Up exhibition. which is the main reason I took my son (he’s doing gaming at college but otherwise never leaves the house). For a couple of hours we got to relax. enjoy ourselves and have fun. The staff were all really lovely and helpful. I’m definitely going to look out for similar events in future. [ … ] Thanks again for holding this event – it makes such a tremendous difference to have things like this available.”

“I wanted to thank the museum for doing these sessions for our SEN kids. I can’t tell you what it means to us parents to have these offered. My daughter is Autistic and really struggles with noise and crowds. She also cannot stand or walk for too long as she suffers from severe joint pain which is also linked to her Autism. She is passionate about Aviation and hopes to work in airline safety or for Air Traffic Control one day. Being able to visit the museum during Early Birds when it is quiet is her absolute joy. We all had such a lovely morning together. So many people write our kids off just because their brains have some different connections. But some of the greatest minds in history were neurodiverse. So thank you for including our kids in your museum events and enabling them to explore their passions to the max. We look forward to visiting again soon.”

Read the full report here.

“We remain extremely grateful to the Trustees of The Lord Leonard and Lady Estelle Wolfson Foundation for their generous grant of £60,000 awarded in July 2019 towards the V&A’s delivery of three accessible learning and interpretation projects: Performances for families with interpretation for deaf audiences; Young people’s SEND programming development: Hospital Schools; and Accessible interpretation for V&A FuturePlan Projects. This report provides an overview of 2023/24 actives and describes how the Foundation’s support has had a positive impact.”

Read the full report here.

Citation for Lady Estelle Wolfson

Pro -Vice-Chancellor

It is a pleasure and an honour to be able to give this oration and propose Lady Estelle Wolfson for an Honour and a Doctorate in Liverpool University. She has been a central figure in generous philanthropic support in medicine and healthcare for more than 30 years, firstly with her late husband Leonard Wolfson for the Wolfson Foundation and, since 2012, with the charity she has chaired and run – the Lord Leonard and Lady Estelle Foundation – in memory of her husband who had died two years earlier.

It is perhaps not surprising that she has a strong interest and understanding of health matters given the tragic brain damage sustained by her first child Jonathan at birth and then the loss of her first husband from cancer when she was only 39. She was left with three young children, two of them here today, Antoinette and Edward. She took up voluntary work at the Royal Free Hospital…..but her life was to change just five years later when she met and married Leonard Wolfson.

She has done so much since for the welfare of others and it is so fitting we are making her an Honorary Doctor today. Her Fellowships of Academic and Medical organisations are too many to enumerate and she has the Freedom of the City of London, but I don’t think she has a doctorate before. While we would have loved to get Estelle to Liverpool for the award, the logistics were just too difficult – but Liverpool has come to you, Estelle, in the shape of an Honorary Scouser of 43 years myself, and a true born and bred Liverpudlian, Professor Louise Kenney, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Health Sciences at the University of Liverpool. It is also fitting that the ceremony should be here at a place that has benefitted so much from your hard work and support, Estelle.

She has been a Trustee of the Royal College of Physicians; she has worked with the College in advancing the role of women in healthcare and emerging women leaders. One of the women leaders celebrated at an exhibition here was Professor Dame Margaret Whitehead, from the University, a pioneer in our understanding of Health Inequalities. Also, from next year there is to be an RCP Lady Wolfson Annual Lecture in Translational Medicine – bringing medical research breakthroughs to the bedside for the benefit of patients.

We have here today a young researcher from the University, Dimitrios Charalampopoulos, who has real reason to be grateful to Lady Wolfson and her Foundation, as they have funded his Lectureship in wellbeing within the School of Public Health.

Pro-Vice-Chancellor, in the name of the Council and the Senate of this University, I present to you for admission to the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa in this University, Lady Estelle Wolfson.

 

Read the full letter here.

“We are delighted to present this report to Lady Wolfson and the Trustees of The Lord Leonard and Lady Estelle Wolfson Foundation and provide an insight into the progress and impact of the Dawnosaurs events programme over the past year. Dawnsosaurs events have been further enhanced this year with the addition of new themes, activities and initiatives to provide a special and enriching experience, tailored specifically for the enjoyment and needs of neurodiverse children and their families and carers. We hope you enjoy reading this overview of the accomplishments of this important programme made possible by your generous support.”

Read the full report here.

Watch below the Natural History Museum’s Dawnosaurs event for neurodivergent children (nwlondoner.co.uk)

 

At the Wallace Collection, equality, diversity and inclusion are values that guide all of our work. Through our access programme – designed for people who may face barriers to participation in museums – we invite diverse audiences to engage with the Collection’s extraordinary artworks. As you will read in this report, the programme consists of events both onsite and online as well as digital resources. Among our offerings are ‘relaxed mornings,’ in which we offer particular groups exclusive access to the Collection or a special exhibition for a few dedicated hours. All of these relaxed, friendly events are delivered by our learning team and underpinned by robust learning pedagogy. 

This year, we expanded our onsite offerings for blind and partially sighted adults and adults who are D/deaf, reconnecting with past participants and reaching new audiences. From April 2022 to March 2023, we delivered 15 events – including talks, tours and workshops – to 154 people. 

We remain immensely grateful to the Lord Leonard and Lady Estelle Wolfson Foundation for your continued support, which makes these important programmes possible.

Read the full report here.

“Dear Estelle, this is an opportunity to thank you personally for your support of the AHA yet again. We would not survive without you and I hope the attached shows that your generous support is really making a difference to people’s health and wellbeing.” Ian Gilmore

Read the full review here.

We are excited to share our final report with you, just over three years since the programme was launched in 2019. It details the achievements and impact of this year’s programme on the lives of these incredible women, as well the impact your support has had since the beginning of the programme. We also look to the future and what’s next for the Emerging Women Leaders Programme at UCL.

Read the full report here.

We are delighted to present you with an update from the Francis Crick Institute, including a summary of the advances made in the Cell Cycle
Laboratory, and how its new PhD students are settling into their projects.

Read the full report here: Impact Report – November 2022.

We are delighted to present this report on the Dawnosaurs programme to Lady Wolfson and to the representatives and Trustees of the Lord Leonard and Lady Estelle Wolfson Foundation. This report will outline the impact of the Foundation’s final instalment of £30,000 made in 2021, fulfilling the total donation of £90,000 towards supporting this programme pledged in 2017. Read the full report here.

We would like to extend to you our sincerest thanks for your generosity and joining with us to support our life changing research. You will find in this report an update on Dr Dimitrios Charalampopoulos, Lecturer in Wellbeing and Public Health Technologies, a post made possible thanks to your incredible gift.

Read the full report here.

The Alcohol Health Alliance UK (AHA) is an alliance of more than 60 non-governmental organisations whose mission is to reduce the harm caused to health by alcohol. Our members include medical royal colleges, charities, treatment providers and alcohol health campaigners. We work together to:

– Highlight the rising levels of alcohol-related health harm;
– Propose evidence-based solutions to reduce this harm; and
– Influence decision makers to take positive action to address the harm caused by alcohol.

Our work to tackle alcohol harm could not be possible without generous grants and contributions, in particular from the Lord Leonard and Lady Estelle Wolfson Foundation, Cancer Research UK, the Institute of Alcohol Studies and the Royal College of Physicians. We would also like to specifically thank the members of our Steering Group and the Communications and Advocacy Group, who give their time to provide strategic oversight and direction, as well as their expert knowledge.

Read the full review here.

We are delighted that The Woosnam Foundation and The Lord Leonard and Lady Estelle Wolfson Foundation have very generously chosen to support the Stroke Unit at UCLH over the next three years with a joint annual donation of £100,000 to The Michael Feldman and The Lady Estelle Wolfson Bursary Fund.

The Woosnam Foundation, via Mr Michael Feldman, has provided generous support to the Stroke Unit since 2019 and we are incredibly grateful that this support will be continuing for a further three years alongside The Lord Leonard and Lady Estelle Wolfson Foundation.

Read the full report here.

We are delighted that The Woosnam Foundation and The Lord Leonard and Lady Estelle Wolfson Foundation have very generously chosen to support the Stroke Unit at UCLH over the next three years with a joint annual donation of £100,000 to The Michael Feldman and The Lady Estelle Wolfson Bursary Fund. The Woosnam Foundation, via Mr Michael Feldman, has provided generous support to the Stroke Unit since 2019 and we are incredibly grateful that this support will be continuing for a further three years alongside the Lord Leonard and Lady Estelle Wolfson Foundation.

Read more here: Stroke Unit UCL Hospitals

Women are predicted to become the majority in the medical profession in the next few years. However, at present, they remain under-represented in senior leadership positions. The Estelle Wolfson Emerging Women Leaders Programme is designed to address this under-representation by helping participants to develop the essential knowledge, skills and behaviours for future senior leadership positions within the medical profession. 

Read the full report here: The Estelle Wolfson Emerging Women Leaders Programme at UCL – 2021 Report