The Point of Care Foundation

What The Point of Care Foundation does

The Point of Care Foundation was a UK registered charity (charity number 1151628) that operated from 2013 until its closure on 19 December 2025, having originated as a research project within the King's Fund in 2007. The Foundation delivered consultancy, training, and structured programmes aimed at improving staff wellbeing and patient experience across the UK and Ireland health systems, principally the NHS. Its two flagship offerings were Schwartz Rounds — structured forums where healthcare staff discuss the emotional and social challenges of their work, which the Foundation introduced to the UK and Ireland and scaled to over 260 sites — and Experiences of Care, built on Experience-Based Co-Design (EBCD) methodology for working with patients and families to co-design service improvements.

The portfolio extended beyond these two cores to include the EBCD Training programme, the Foundations in Patient Experience course, the Sweeney Programme for patient-focused quality improvement, and the Humanising Care Fellowships (funded by a bequest from Drusilla Harvey). Supporting assets included an evidence and resources library of over 150 pages, the EBCD and PFCC toolkits, and the Humanising Health & Care podcast. Distribution combined direct commissioning by NHS trusts, a member-only Schwartz Community platform, and co-development partnerships with organisations including the Care Quality Commission, National Voices, Picker, and THIS Institute.

The Foundation generated income through a mix of training and programme delivery fees paid by NHS and healthcare organisations, project grants (notably £635,394 from the Regulators' Pioneer Fund for the ICS Health Inequalities framework with CQC and National Voices), and charitable bequests. It operated with a small staff (11-50) and a single London headquarters, and announced its permanent closure in December 2025 after 13 years.

Name

The Point of Care Foundation

Legal name

The Point of Care Foundation

Website

https://pointofcarefoundation.org.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Closed

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Point of Care Foundation was a UK charity that delivered training, consultancy, and structured programmes — chiefly Schwartz Rounds and Experience-Based Co-Design — to NHS trusts and healthcare organisations to improve staff wellbeing and patient experience, scaling Schwartz Rounds to over 260 UK and Ireland sites before closing in December 2025.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Healthcare Quality Improvement Services

NAICS

Educational Support Services (61171), Other Individual and Family Services (624190)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742), Services-Health Services (8000)

akta.pro primary industry

Health & Medical Research Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAL)

akta.pro secondary industry

Family Caregiver Coaching, Education & Support (HSABAIAI)

Keywords

• Patient experience improvement
• Healthcare staff wellbeing
• Schwartz Rounds facilitation
• Experience based co-design
• Humanising health care

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel

Revenue model

1. Training and Programme Delivery: The Foundation delivered training programmes including EBCD training, Foundations in Patient Experience courses, and Schwartz Rounds implementation support to NHS trusts and healthcare organisations, likely generating revenue through course fees.
2. Grants and Project Funding: The organisation received grant funding for specific projects, such as the Regulators' Pioneer Fund grant (£635,394) awarded to CQC for the ICS health inequalities framework project, of which the Point of Care Foundation was a recipient alongside National Voices.
3. Charitable Bequests: The Humanising Care Fellowships were made possible by a bequest left to the Foundation by Drusilla Harvey, demonstrating legacy giving as a revenue stream.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The Point of Care Foundation delivered training, implementation support, and evidence-based programmes to healthcare organisations to improve staff wellbeing and patient experience. Its core offerings were Schwartz Rounds — structured forums where healthcare staff discuss the emotional and social challenges of their work — and Experiences of Care, which uses Experience-Based Co-Design (EBCD) methodologies to involve patients and families in service improvement. Supporting training courses, fellowships, toolkits, and a podcast extended these programmes.

Product overview

The Point of Care Foundation offered a portfolio of human-centred healthcare improvement programmes built around two core offerings: Schwartz Rounds (a structured forum for healthcare staff to discuss emotional and social challenges of their work) and Experiences of Care (using Experience-Based Co-Design methodologies). Supporting these were training programmes (EBCD Training, Foundations in Patient Experience), the Sweeney Programme for quality improvement, and the Humanising Care Fellowships for emerging leaders. The Foundation also produced the Humanising Health & Care podcast, published impact reports and toolkits (including the EBCD Toolkit and PFCC Toolkit), and developed the ICS Health Inequalities Framework with partners. All offerings focused on humanising healthcare through compassion, staff wellbeing, and patient involvement rather than technology products.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Schwartz Rounds A structured forum where healthcare staff from all levels come together to talk about the emotional and social challenges of working in healthcare, designed to create more compassionate working cultures. Introduced to the UK and Ireland by the Point of Care Foundation and scaled across more than 260 sites.
• Experiences of Care Programme developed to improve health and care services by working with patients and their families using approaches such as Experience-Based Co-Design (EBCD). Targets NHS and healthcare organisations seeking to involve patients in service improvement.
• EBCD Training (Experience-Based Co-Design) Training programme teaching the Experience-Based Co-Design methodology for quality improvement in healthcare settings, including adaptations for learning disabilities care. Targeted at NHS and healthcare organisation staff leading quality improvement projects.
• Foundations in Patient Experience A course building knowledge on using patient experience data for improvement and partnership working with patients in co-designing solutions. Commissioned by NHS trusts and clinical groups for clinical and non-clinical staff and patient advisors.
• Humanising Care Fellowships A scheme supporting emerging leaders to develop approaches to humanising health and care. Fellows included GP Alison Convey, speech and language therapist Sinead Rothrie, and researcher Juliet Rayment.
• Sweeney Programme Patient-focused quality improvement work aimed at helping healthcare staff, patients and organisations improve services.
• ICS Health Inequalities Framework A self-assessment and improvement framework for Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) developed with the Care Quality Commission and National Voices to reduce health inequalities. Targeted at regulators and ICS bodies in the UK.
• EBCD Toolkit Step-by-step toolkit for improving processes of care and staff-patient interactions using Experience-Based Co-Design methodology, including supporting videos from staff and patients involved in EBCD projects.
• PFCC Toolkit (Patient and Family-Centred Care) A step-by-step guide to improving processes of care and staff-patient interactions, helping organisations demonstrate commitment to patient experience while motivating staff.
• Evidence and Resources Library Digital library containing videos, toolkits, papers, reports and other documents designed to offer practical support to healthcare staff and patients, with over 150 pages of resources.
• The Humanising Health & Care Podcast A podcast exploring what humanising health and care means with a range of guests sharing perspectives on giving and receiving care, covering topics such as Schwartz Rounds, mentoring, relationships in care, and end-of-life care.

Quantifiable outcome

• Healthcare staff who regularly attend Schwartz Rounds experience less psychological distress and have increased empathy and compassion for patients and colleagues.
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core, flagship and minor.

• National VoicescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 February 2024The Point of Care Foundation and National Voices were selected to work with the Care Quality Commission on a project supporting Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) to reduce health inequalities. Funded by the Regulators' Pioneer Fund (£635,394), the project aimed to develop a framework for ICSs to measure how well they listen to the experiences and needs of people and communities to reduce health inequalities.
• Care Quality Commission (CQC)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 February 2024CQC received grant funding from the Regulators' Pioneer Fund and partnered with the Point of Care Foundation and National Voices to develop a self-assessment framework for ICSs to assess their progress in reducing health inequalities through understanding community needs.
• PickerflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 November 2023Picker and the Point of Care Foundation co-hosted a Care Experience Symposium on 2nd November 2023, bringing together care professionals and people with lived experience to take a holistic look at experiences of care and consider how stories and data can drive positive, lasting change.
• THIS Institute (The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated on the 'Developing a visual identification method for people with cognitive impairment in institutional settings' (DA VINCI) project, investigating visual identifier systems for patients with cognitive impairment in healthcare settings.
• DA VINCI Contributor GroupminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMulti-institution collaboration including researchers from various universities and healthcare organisations contributing to the visual identification systems research project.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• The Beryl Institute: Global community of practice dedicated to improving the patient experience in healthcare; comparable niche focus, community-led GTM, and resource library model that mirrors the Point of Care Foundation's playbook.
• National Voices: UK coalition of health and care charities focused on patient voice and person-centred care; co-recipient of the Regulators' Pioneer Fund grant with the Foundation to develop the ICS Health Inequalities Framework.
• Picker Institute Europe: UK charity focused on patient experience measurement and improvement; co-hosted the Care Experience Symposium with the Point of Care Foundation and serves overlapping NHS trust customers with complementary patient-experience tooling.
• THIS Institute (University of Cambridge): UK research institute producing evidence on healthcare improvement, staff experience, and patient safety; partnered with the Foundation on the DA VINCI project and addresses overlapping NHS quality-improvement buyers.
• The Q Community: UK-wide community of thousands of health and care improvement practitioners funded by the Health Foundation and NHS England; an adjacent member-network peer for NHS improvement leaders and frontline staff.
• The Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare: US non-profit that originally developed and licences Schwartz Rounds in North America; the most direct peer given the Point of Care Foundation held UK/Ireland rights and scaled the same methodology with shared programme DNA.

Broad incumbents

• The Health Foundation: Large UK health improvement charity funding quality improvement, staff wellbeing, and patient safety research; operates overlapping programmes at materially greater scale and budget than the Point of Care Foundation.
• The King's Fund: UK health and care policy think tank that incubated the Point of Care programme from 2007 before it spun out as an independent charity in 2013; remains a broader-portfolio peer in NHS leadership and improvement.
• Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI): US-based global leader in healthcare improvement science and convening, including patient- and staff-experience programmes; overlaps with the Point of Care Foundation's EBCD and quality-improvement remit at much larger scale.

Others

• NHS Confederation: Membership body for NHS organisations in England; not a direct competitor but an ecosystem participant that influences commissioning of patient-experience and staff-wellbeing programmes like the Point of Care Foundation's.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/PointofCareFdn

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about The Point of Care Foundation