Quilter Cheviot to award £150,000 funding as part of its Dementia Initiative

Quilter Cheviot (part of Old Mutual Wealth) continues to demonstrate its commitment towards dementia awareness by offering £150,000 to a charity as part of its national Dementia Initiative.

Registered charitable organisations, who are currently working to support people living with dementia or those that are affected by the condition, will be able to apply for £50,000 a year for three years to help fund their projects. The project should look to create new ways of meeting the needs of those affected by dementia, or take an existing service and implement an innovative change to it.

From the initial applications the judging panel will select a shortlist of charities that will then be required to pitch their proposed project.

The panel will comprise of three external members:  Tracy Paine, Deputy Chief Executive of Belong, a charity which provides accommodation, services and support to people living with dementia; Fred Walker, author of Alzheimer’s: An Engineer’s View and a fundraiser; and Kate Baldwin, who combines working as an Associate Professor at the University of Law, with providing consultancy services to Quilter Cheviot. They will be joined by Stewart Perry, Responsible Business Manager at Old Mutual Wealth, and Mark Macleod, Chief Financial Officer at Quilter Cheviot.

There are currently 850,000 people in the UK living with dementia. This figure is set to rise to over 1 million by 2025, and over 2 million by 2051. This masks the true depths of this epidemic as there is believed to only be a 50% diagnosis rate of those who are living with the condition. It is the only one of the top 10 causes of death that can’t be prevented, and currently a third of the UK’s population is estimated to be impacted by dementia.

“The average age of Quilter Cheviot’s clients is 64. Given the nature of our cross-generational client base we are highly cognisant of the issues facing people with dementia, and this is one of the reasons we have introduced our national Dementia Initiative,” said Mark Macleod, Chief Financial Officer at Quilter Cheviot, and chair of the panel.

This is the most recent stage in Quilter Cheviot’s Dementia Initiative. The investment management firm previously provided training to 19 Dementia Champions across its regional office network. These Dementia Champions act as experts and train other employees across the business to better understand the challenges of living with dementia.  To date, over 200 Quilter Cheviot employees have attended a training session.

The firm has also launched a series of interactive seminars to financial advisers on the issue of dementia, and how to work with clients affected by it. Furthermore, all employees will be provided with computer based training on vulnerable customers.

The Dementia Initiative forms part of Quilter Cheviot’s responsible business ethos.

“Responsible business is business as usual for us. It is about doing the right thing by all of the stakeholders that we come into contact with, whether that is our colleagues, our clients, prospective clients, the intermediaries that we work with, the suppliers that we do business with, and the communities we operate within; whilst also being cognisant of the impact we have on the environment,” says Gemma Woodward, Director of Responsible Investment at Quilter Cheviot.

“We see this as a social movement, turning understanding into action. It comes at a time when the population is ageing and the issue is becoming ever more critical,” Gemma added.

The closing date for charities to apply is 5pm on 12 April 2018, please email completed applications to responsiblebusiness@quiltercheviot.com

For more information visit: https://www.quiltercheviot.com/dementia-initiative/

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