We’ve come a long way since 1969, when a woman called Mali Jenkins founded the charity in a one-room office in Putney, London. Today, we’re the largest charitable funder of Parkinson’s research in Europe, driving forward the search for better treatments and a cure, at home and internationally. We are a dynamic network of expert staff, health and social care professionals, volunteers and researchers, all focused on delivering to and learning from our incredible community. Parkinson’s UK is a dynamic and progressive charity seeking to find a cure and improve life for everybody affected by Parkinson’s. Our dedicated and skilled staff, talented and passionate community, and responsible fundraising capability provide us with the foundations to break through the many challenges. We aim to harness the rapid advancements in medical science and technology to improve our services and develop new treatments that slow, stop or reverse Parkinson’s and manage its symptoms and side effects.
A key element of our approach is to use the money we have in the charity’s reserves to improve services for people with Parkinson’s and accelerate our research agenda, while also ensuring that we are financially resilient in the future. We’re a growing organisation with complex operations, major parts of which are in a phase of significant transition. To deliver these most effectively, in July 2023 we brought together our financial and operational management into one directorate.
By bringing together our operating functions, we have a clear vision and infrastructure for our financial and technological advances to underpin and support our growth. We also recognise the growing demand on expertise and have increased the finance team’s capacity, creating a real opportunity to develop the role of this team within the charity.
This role will create an opportunity to direct the charity’s strategic business planning and performance by identifying and prioritising key projects and critical business issues, ensuring there is robust challenge and monitoring of our impact to ensure we can deliver the impact and changes we want for our community.