To ensure our longer-term sustainability, the RSPB has reviewed its operations across the UK so that everything we do aligns to our charitable and strategic aims and delivers the most impact for nature and wildlife possible. We must focus on what we do best and where we can do this most effectively, with the resources available to us.
Our most recent challenge has been the global and domestic financial pressures of the past two years which have had an ongoing impact; not only on our finances, but also on the finances of our partners, members, and supporters, who are so crucial to helping us save nature.
As part of this review, we looked at our nature reserve operations, and RSPB Rainham Marshes was part of this. The outcomes have been shared with our site staff and volunteers, and they involve changes to the way we operate the reserve.
First and foremost, the RSPB will continue to own and manage the nature reserve. Places like Rainham Marshes, especially given its location on the outskirts of London, are vital spaces where people can connect with nature and wildlife. It will remain open to the public to enjoy, and it will continue to be core to the RSPB’s work to restore nature in the UK.
However, we do need to make changes at Rainham, to focus our resources where they can have the most impact.
As a charity, it is essential that we generate income to fund our work. We cannot afford to subsidise loss making facilities at the expense of our important charitable and strategic aims, especially at a time when nature and climate are in crisis. This means we will be closing the site cafe and shop at Rainham. The provisional plan is to be open until Christmas and shut fully in the new year, and there may be some changes to cafe and shop opening times in the coming weeks.
The visitor centre will remain open, but over the next 12 months we will be looking at how it operates, especially for the benefit of the local community.
We will also be changing the schools visiting scheme at Rainham. We have always analysed and refined our work to focus our resources and ensure we have the biggest impact we can. Following a comprehensive review of our education programmes, we have taken the difficult decision to cease the existing programme of school visits and education sessions guided by RSPB learning officers at RSPB Rainham Marshes, and across the UK.
We are now developing a new education model that we believe, over time, will reach even more children and allow them to connect with nature.
Our education work will now focus on those areas where we can have the greatest impact and where we have a unique role to play. Whilst we will cease the existing programme of school visits and education sessions guided by RSPB learning officers at Rainham Marshes, we will explore new ways to welcome schools to the reserve for free in the future – this will include providing resources to support teachers in planning their visits, the resources to deliver inspiring learning at Rainham and the guidance on how to extend the value of their visit once they’re back at school. We will be able to share more details about this new offer in 2025.
In the meantime, we remain committed to supporting schools and teachers through activities such as Schools Wild Challenge and Big Schools’ Birdwatch, and by maintaining our current digital resources for teachers on our website. We are also increasing our work with schools through our new 'Environment Leaders' qualification and the development of a teacher CPD programme (Continuing Professional Development) that will build the skills and confidence of teachers to support learning in, through, about, and for nature.
Change of course is always challenging. Since the RSPB began 135 years ago, we have been working to help create a world where wildlife and people can thrive. As a responsible and prudent charity, we monitor the external environment closely and for the RSPB to continue to tackle the nature and climate emergency, we need to be able to adapt and evolve to the ever-changing external environment around us.
Thanks to the generosity of our members, supporters, partners, funders and volunteers, the RSPB is the UK’s leading charity for nature conservation. For this to continue for years to come, we will be even more focused on where this generous support can have the biggest impact – boosting numbers of birds and wildlife, restoring the vital habitats they need, creating better nature havens for members to visit, and bringing more people together who love birds and wildlife and who want to take action to restore the natural world.