RBS Staff Raised £176,350 as CHAS Seeks £20 Million

Royal Bank of Scotland staff raised £176,350 for Children’s Hospices Across Scotland, beating a £100,000 target set on 22 April 2025. The money came from thousands of colleagues across a year of walks, abseils and branch stunts, not from a single head-office cheque.

By 2 December 2025 the bank was calling it a record colleague total. Four months later CHAS asked the country for £20 million to rebuild Rachel House in Kinross and renew Robin House in Balloch, the only two children’s hospices in Scotland.

Staff Beat the £100,000 Target by £76,350

The April 2025 deal named CHAS as the bank’s colleague charity partner for Scotland. Judith Cruickshank, then chair of One Bank Scotland, said CHAS “offers a lifeline for families in Scotland at a time when they need it most,” and promised local fundraising, Kiltwalk and Team GB activity, plus volunteer hours at CHAS sites.

The December result landed £76,350 above that target. NatWest Group, which owns the Royal Bank of Scotland brand, published a record £176,350 for CHAS and said thousands of staff had run hundreds of events, including the bank’s One Week in September, when people are asked to volunteer in work time.

THE 2025 COLLEAGUE YEAR

• The target: Staff committed in April 2025 to raise £100,000 for CHAS.
• The total: The bank posted £176,350 on 2 December 2025.
• The surplus: That is £76,350 above the figure colleagues set themselves.
• The workforce: NatWest Group says it employs 11,000 people in Scotland.

Fiona Easton, deputy chair of the Scotland board, tied the total to Christmas care rather than to buildings. Rami Okasha, chief executive of CHAS, thanked staff for a year of fundraising and said the sum would help the charity keep delivering care in hospices, hospitals and at home.

Royal Bank of Scotland staff have gone above and beyond this year in their activity to raise money for CHAS. From Kiltwalks to sponsored abseils, it has been a real team effort right across the country.

Fiona Easton, Deputy Chair of the Scotland Board, Royal Bank of Scotland, December 2025 press release

Okasha said last year CHAS had supported over 500 children and young people with life-shortening conditions and their families. Later in 2026 the charity put the caseload at 540 babies, children and young people across hospice, community and hospital settings, plus 1,800 family members.

The £20 Million Appeal the Year Could Not Cover

The staff total is operating money. The bill CHAS published in 2026 is capital. On its appeal page the charity asks for a £20 million More Than a Hospice appeal to rebuild, renew and widen care so families can choose a hospice, a hospital or home.

Rachel House, opened in 1996 by the Princess Royal, is the centrepiece: a £17 million rebuild because rooms are cramped, kit has nowhere to go, and there are no dedicated quiet spaces for grief. Robin House, opened in 2005 near Loch Lomond, needs £2 million for accessible rooms, sensory space and therapy. The last £1 million is meant to expand CHAS at Home, embed teams in children’s hospitals, and extend a specialist advice line.

STAFF HAUL BESIDE THE CAPITAL ASK

Those three capital lines add to £20 million. The colleague year is separate, and it is under 1% of that ask. CHAS said it has ring-fenced some reserves for Rachel House and that work would start on site in 2026. It is also asking supporters to host afternoon teas throughout October 2026 for the same appeal.

Okasha called the campaign the charity’s biggest fundraising drive since Rachel House was built. CHAS was founded in 1992. The first hospice followed four years later, and Robin House nine years after that.

What a Colleague Charity Partner Means

A colleague charity partner is a staff campaign with a named Scottish cause for the year. People raise the cash. The bank supplies paid time, events kit and a national brand. Royal Bank of Scotland staff get three days a year to volunteer on top of annual leave, which is how a fundraising target turns into hours on CHAS sites as well as money in the account.

That is the second move, and it matches how CHAS already runs. The charity’s own 42,000 volunteer hours in 2024-25 came from 860 people, work it valued at £827,874. Across NatWest Group, colleagues raised over £4.3 million for community causes in 2025 and gave 142,000 worktime hours. Direct community investment was £11.0 million, or £29.4 million once management costs and in-kind help are counted.

Cruickshank said in April that CHAS “directly and indirectly touches the lives of so many of our customers and colleagues.” The December write-up showed what that looked like on the ground: a mobile bank van wrapped in the CHAS logo with a QR code for giving, branch teams on ropes, and walkers in kilts.

Rachel House, Robin House and 32 Councils

CHAS is the only specialist children’s hospice charity in Scotland. It covers all 32 local authorities and works with babies, children and young people aged 0 to 21. Care is free at the point of use.

WHERE THE CARE HAPPENS

• The hospices: Rachel House in Kinross and Robin House in Balloch offer respite, end-of-life care and whole-family stays, including Rainbow Rooms after a death.
• The home team: CHAS at Home, launched in 2008, sends nurses and support staff into family houses, including 1,856 home visits in an earlier counted year.
• The hospitals: Joint teams sit inside Scotland’s three children’s hospitals in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and CHAS funds specialist medical posts the NHS does not.

On the appeal page CHAS says the number of children living with life-shortening conditions has risen 40% in the last ten years. Public Health Scotland’s ChiSP3 study, commissioned by the charity, put the count at over 16,700 children aged 0 to 21. About three children a week in Scotland die from an incurable condition.

Hospice stays have risen 45% in three years, CHAS said, and the number of families using its support has risen 17% over four years. Medicine is keeping more children alive for longer, with more kit and more night-time need, which is why a 1996 building is now the £17 million problem.

How CHAS Pays the Bills Each Year

The staff haul is large for a workplace campaign and small on the charity’s books. The Scottish Charity Regulator’s figures, compiled on Find that Charity, show £26,244,000 of income to March 2025, against spending of £25,380,000. A year earlier, income was £22,763,000 and spending £23,832,000.

CHAS GROUP INCOME AND SPEND

£176,350 is under 1% of the 2025 income line. In the year to 31 March 2024, the Scottish Government put in £9.6 million for hospice services and local authorities put in £763,000 for family support. The rest is public giving, shops, events, a profit-for-purpose venue at Ardoch Loch Lomond, and gifts in wills, which brought in over £4 million in 2024-25.

CHAS told supporters that 74p of every £1 went to work with families, with 26p used to raise the next pound. York Health Economics Consortium, in an updated study of 2018-19 activity, found that for every £1 of statutory funding the charity generated £6.24 of public value, including about £15.6 million of costs avoided by the NHS.

That is the mix the RBS year dropped into: a charity that already needs government grants, legacies and fun-runs to keep two buildings and a national outreach team on their feet, now adding a once-in-a-generation rebuild on top.

Staff Walked 1,000 Miles for the Hospices

The December release listed the stunts that produced the extra £76,350. They are the sort of local feats Scottish branches can actually do, and they explain why the total beat the target without a single giant donation being named.

HOW BRANCHES RAISED THE MONEY

• Kiltwalk: Staff walked 1,000 miles between them in the bank’s long-running tie-up with the mass walking events.
• Aberdeen: The branch completed a static cycle billed as John O’Groats to Land’s End.
• Dundee: Colleagues abseiled off the Forth Rail Bridge.
• Arbroath and Forfar: Teams abseiled off the Kelpies.
• The van: One mobile bank van was wrapped in the CHAS logo and a giving code.

Cruickshank had flagged Kiltwalk and Team GB in April. Easton, closing the year, pointed to the same walks and the sponsored abseils. Okasha said the £176,350 would help families “make the most of every precious moment together.”

After the Target, the Hospices Keep Working

The colleague year is closed. CHAS is still the service for a child who may die young in any of the 32 councils, and it is still asking for the £20 million that turns two ageing houses into buildings that can take today’s equipment and tomorrow’s longer stays.

Three children in Scotland will die this week from an incurable condition, on the measure CHAS and ChiSP3 have used for years. The bank’s staff put £176,350 behind the teams who sit with those families. The rebuild of Rachel House is a different, larger bill, and it remains on the table.