Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25

BBC Children in Need is the BBC's UK charity, raising funds and awarding grants to support disadvantaged children and young people across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In 2024-25 the charity raised £52.8 million — including £10 million from Paddy McGuinness's Radio 2 Ultra Endurance Challenge — and awarded 720 grants totalling £37.9 million to grassroots organisations. Projects are currently active in 88% of UK local authority areas. The charity's impact framework focuses on Poverty, Mental Health, Family Challenges and Equality, and in 2024-25 it launched Pudsey's Pause, its first parent-facing mental health support tool.

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Grant-making to grassroots organisations in local communities (family centres, community spaces, youth clubs, refuges, homeless shelters, hospices and helplines); GrantsPlus support for applicants and grantees beyond grant award; national programme development on child poverty; Pudsey's Pause mental health tool (launched May 2025, created with clinical psychologist Dr Julie Smith); annual TV and media appeal; school and community fundraising campaigns; sector convening on poverty, mental health, neurodiversity and positive relationships

Key Metrics

Key Metric 1 £52.8 million raised in 2024-25; 720 grants awarded totalling £37.9 million to grassroots projects across the UK

Key Metric 2 Projects supported in 88% of UK local authority areas; 2,600 supporters signed up to committed giving by year end

Key Metric 3 Paddy McGuinness's BBC Radio 2 Ultra Endurance Cycle Challenge raised over £10 million alone; corporate partners including Asda, Greggs and McDonald's contributed through in-store fundraising and customer donations

Key Outcomes

Impact framework focused on four priority areas: Poverty, Mental Health, Family Challenges and Equality; 1 in 5 children and young people in the UK living with a probable mental health condition — a key driver of grant-making priority
31% of children in the UK growing up in poverty — underpins development of ambitious national child poverty programme launched in 2024-25
Launched Pudsey's Pause in May 2025 — first parent-facing tool to support children's mental health, co-developed with Dr Julie Smith using three steps: Pause, Spot, Share; Heaviest Backpack campaign delivered during Mental Health Awareness Week focusing on Positive Relationships