About Asthma UK

Asthma UK works together with people with asthma, health professionals and researchers to develop and share expertise to help people increase their understanding and reduce the effect of asthma on their lives.

• We are the largest independent funder of research into asthma in the UK funding approximately £3 million of research each year.
• The Asthma UK Adviceline provides independent and confidential advice from asthma nurse specialists.
• We provide information on asthma for people with asthma, carers, schools and healthcare professionals.
• We fund projects to improve the care for people with asthma.
• We run educational holidays for children and young people with asthma.

Asthma UK is the charity dedicated to improving the health and well-being of the 5.4 million people in the UK whose lives are affected by asthma. Our vision is ‘control over asthma today, freedom from asthma tomorrow.’

The Asthma UK Adviceline is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm and provides confidential and independent advice on asthma from specialist asthma nurses. You can also call our Supporter & Information Team on 0800 121 62 55 or email them at info@asthma.org.uk. Asthma UK’s website and our resources for people with asthma, their carers and healthcare professionals provide a wealth of information on asthma and the latest developments in care and treatments. Visit your doctor or asthma nurse specialist for regular asthma reviews and ask for a written personal asthma action plan to help keep your asthma under control.

At Asthma UK we are committed to providing the best possible standards of customer care to all our supporters and customers. To help us achieve this we are constantly looking to improve the service we offer and therefore we value all feedback, both good and bad.

To give us your feedback, please fill in the feedback form.

If you wish to make a complaint, please view our complaints procedure.

The history of Asthma UK goes back to 1927 when the Asthma Research Council (ARC) was founded to research into the ‘cause and cure of asthma from a firm scientific foundation.’ By 1972 the Friends of Asthma Research Council was set up to raise funds for the ARC. In 1989 the two merged to form the National Asthma Campaign. In May 2004 we became Asthma UK.

Asthma UK has offices in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. The offices in Wales and Northern Ireland opened in 2005.

Why is the head office in London?
Asthma UK started in London and has only recently expanded across the UK. We have to balance cost of location with our need for a strong skills base to cover the range of specialist professional requirements for our work. Having a head office in London helps Asthma UK retain staff with this specialist professionalism. Being the centre of influence in the country, London also has more organisations of the kind we need to work with than anywhere else in the country. Being near them minimises the time and cost of travelling across the country. However, we do feel that it is important to have a presence in all four parts of the United Kingdom and have offices in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

We follow good practice procedures and regularly review our location and associated costs.

Asthma UK has approximately 100 paid staff based at the head office in London, seven staff members in Scotland, three in Wales and three in Northern Ireland.

Why does Asthma UK pay staff when people will volunteer?
It isn't a question of either staff or volunteers. We believe our work is very important and to fulfil our mission we need both paid staff and volunteers. In the financial year 2007/8 we had approximately 94 paid staff. Asthma UK requires people with specialist knowledge across a broad range of charitable activities and it is not feasible to think we could rely entirely on a voluntary basis to provide this. Therefore in order to attract the calibre of staff needed to run the charity, it is necessary for us to advertise for and recruit, paid staff. We need to run a professional organisation to ensure Asthma UK is efficient and provides the best possible service to its beneficiaries and supporters.

Asthma UK has 1,400 volunteers including over 100 Speak up for Asthma (SUFA) volunteers across the country who visit organisations and groups by invitation to talk about asthma and the work of Asthma UK. Each year, many volunteers including healthcare professionals give their time to volunteer at our Kick Asthma holidays for children and young people. In addition we have numerous volunteers who help out at fundraising events and collections around the country.

We are also currently recruiting people with asthma, and parents and carers of people with asthma to influence our research and policy work. 

Asthma UK does fund a small number of projects that involve the use of animals. Asthma UK only funds research involving animals if all other possibilities have been carefully considered and the research is likely to give essential information that could not be achieved by alternative methods.

Our research adheres to the Home Office’s commitment to refining experimental techniques used on animals; reducing the number of animals used in the research; and replacing animals in research wherever possible. All researchers have to be licensed by the Home Office to perform this research and this is monitored by Asthma UK.

Asthma UK is a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) who give guidance on good research practice and expects high standards of integrity from researchers we fund. For more information visit www.amrc.org.uk.

Consideration of DDA (and other areas of potential discrimination) are an integral part of our various employment policies including our recruitment and selection code of practice and training and development policy.

• We have a policy of guaranteeing an interview for all job applicants who have a disability and who meet the essential criteria for the role for which they are applying.
• We value the contribution that people of diverse backgrounds and abilities can make to our work - both paid and unpaid.
• We have a flexible approach and supportive culture. We encourage applications for flexible working, which can often be advantageous to people with disabilities affecting them at work.
• We are committed to making reasonable adjustments to the working environment and the nature/content of jobs to ensure everyone’s needs are accommodated as far as is reasonably practicable at work.
• We moved our London office in 2005 to improve access and to improve our compliance with the DDA.

Asthma is an independent organisation and therefore we do not endorse any commercial products over other products. We would always advise people with asthma to visit their doctor or asthma nurse specialist for an asthma review in order to ensure they have the right medication to help control their asthma.

We cannot recommend individual specialists to people. However, our Adviceline offers confidential independent advice and can advise on what to ask your doctor or asthma nurse specialist.

Asthma UK encourages third party websites to link to its website wherever possible. Please inform Asthma UK’s Web Editor and this can be discussed.

We do not encourage websites to use our web content as we have no means to check it remains correct or to update it. It’s best that they link to the relevant information on our pages. If they do use it, they should credit Asthma UK, add the date it was taken, and link to our website.

Links from Asthma UK website
Asthma UK does not automatically agree to requests from other organisations or individuals to link to their website from the main Asthma UK website. Nor does Asthma UK automatically agree to any reciprocal links arrangements.

Asthma UK will not link to third party sites that could compromise our independence or that make unproven claims to help the health and well-being of people with asthma.

Only where it is appropriate and beneficial for website visitors/users and for Asthma UK would we include links to third party websites. This might include:

• links to website of a funder of Asthma UK’s work
• links to website of sponsors of Asthma UK’s work
• links to website of partner organisations
• links to website of partners on specific campaigns or initiatives
• links to relevant web service as part of an enhancement to the website infrastructure.
  

Contact
Any organisation or individual wishing to place a link to or from Asthma UK’s website should e-mail webeditor@asthma.org.uk

At Asthma UK we are committed to ensuring we operate as effectively and efficiently as possible. In the current economic climate in particular we, like all charities, are dependent on the generosity of our supporters in giving their time and money to enable us to carry on our vital work. We are looking at all our activities and assessing where we can make savings to protect us from any drop in income, although our priority remains to deliver projects which improve the health and well-being of people with asthma. If you would like any further information about our work please contact the Supporter & Information Team on 0800 121 62 55 or email them at info@asthma.org.uk.