Health & Wellbeing Community & Social Justice Free 2026

Bristol Mind Trustees Report and Financial Statements 2024–25

Bristol Mind is a small but impactful Bristol charity supporting 2,620 people in 2024/25 — a 23% year-on-year increase — through counselling, telephone emotional support (Mindline), community wellbeing services for asylum seekers and hate crime victims, and two systems-change projects. The Mindline received 31% more calls than the previous year and Meeting Minds counselling referrals rose 17%, with 38% of clients presenting with severe depression. The charity almost doubled its asylum seeker reach to 1,469 people, including drop-in support across three Initial Accommodation hotels and counselling for women. Despite a 22% budget reduction year on year, Bristol Mind returned to surplus (£18,389) and established a Lived Experience Advocate pathway with three paid roles. Total income grew 13% to £570,540.

Report snapshot
54 Views

📋About

Infoline (information and signposting, 3 mornings/week, 1,438 callers); Mindline (free confidential telephone emotional support, 5 evenings/week, volunteer-led with lived experience); Meeting Minds counselling (£5–£35/session, up to 16 weeks, 35 counsellors, online and face-to-face, trainee and qualified); Asylum seeker drop-in and signposting in 3 Initial Accommodation hotels (partnership with Borderlands, 1,206 people); CCC 6-session emotional support conversations for newly arrived asylum seekers (pilot, 37 people, Jan–Mar 2025); Greenspace cooking, gardening and walking at St Werburghs City Farm (111 people); Women Without Borders counselling for female asylum seekers (73 women, partnership with Refugee Women of Bristol — ended March 2025); Hate Crime and Discrimination 1:1 casework and workshops (partnership with Bristol Hate Crime and Discrimination Service — 19 casework clients, 120 workshop attendees); Workplace Wellbeing training (MHFA, ASIST, Lunch & Learn — recommenced January 2025); BNSSG Psychological Therapies Review systems-change project (partnership with Womankind and AWP, co-designed new Integrated Care Model); Equitable Wellbeing in Asylum Accommodation systems-change project (Lloyds Bank Foundation funded, 2-year project from April 2024); new £5 counselling pilot for people in financial crisis; free counselling for 10 young adults 18–25 Custom geography from upload: Bristol and South Gloucestershire, UK

📊Key Metrics

2,620 unique beneficiaries across all services — a 23% increase on 2023/24 (2,123); 1,438 people helped by Infoline; 726 people on 1,861 Mindline calls; 336 counselling clients Key Metric 1
1,469 community wellbeing service users (up from 798 in YE24) — including 1,206 asylum seekers in Initial Accommodation hotels; 111 asylum seekers in Greenspace; 73 female asylum seekers in counselling; 19 hate crime victims in 1:1 casework Key Metric 2
£570,540 total income (13% increase); £552,151 expenditure (10% decrease); £18,389 surplus (vs £113,827 deficit in 2023/24); 134 volunteers giving 10,500+ hours Key Metric 3

Key Outcomes

  • 90% of counselling clients reported reduced depression; 86% reported reduced anxiety; 38% of clients started with severe depression symptoms — demonstrating high complexity of need now being served
  • 100% of Greenspace participants (26% sample) reported improved happiness and decreased isolation; 83% of female asylum seeker counselling clients felt improved coping skills; 85% of hate crime victims better equipped to cope; 65% more confident to report hate crime
  • Moved to new co-location premises at 48 Fairfax Street with Citizens Advice Bristol in October 2024; 31% increase in Mindline/Infoline calls year on year; 17% increase in counselling referrals; Lived Experience Advocate pathway established with three paid leadership roles

📍Geography

Other

2026 Enhanced

Impact — Winter 2026

Total income £18,180,000 and total expenditure £18,560,000 (year ended 31 December 2024, charity no. 1084958 England/Wales and SC039654 Scotland); in 2024 spent £3.8m on charitable activities including £1,079,000 on research, £1,366,000 on EB Community Support, £943,000 on public education, £270,000 on EB healthcare and £185,000 on respite breaks
Key Metric 1
700+ members supported through in-person visits and support calls in 2025; 697 support grants allocated in 2025 for essential items including specialist clothing, cooling fans and sheepskin liners; 2 new holiday homes purchased in 2025 with over 700 guests enjoying holiday homes; £34,000 raised through 2025 winter 'The Longest Night' appeal
Key Metric 2
Largest global investment in EB research to date: multi-million-pound drug repurposing trial provisionally agreed with LifeArc partner at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London; EB Priorities Setting Partnership study completed mapping global research priorities for all four main EB forms
Key Metric 3
£34,000 raised in 2025 winter appeal supporting families like Darcie's with specialist items, emotional support and research; 697 support grants delivered in 2025; first Members Connect event in Northern Ireland; EB Priorities Setting Partnership study completed providing global research roadmap
2025 Enhanced

Impact Report 2025

22,507 households helped through RBL casework and specialist support services across 66 countries
Key Metric 1
22,600 grants given to those in need, totalling £11.8 million
Key Metric 2
733 beneficiaries represented at tribunals, resulting in £24.5 million in War Pensions awards
Key Metric 3
1,548 new families living with dementia supported by RBL Admiral Nurses service
2025 Enhanced

Our Impact 2024-25

3,600 blind veterans received support across the UK; 447 new blind veterans started receiving support in 2024/25
Key Metric 1
1,598 referrals to rehabilitation services completed; 313 veterans received assistive technology training
Key Metric 2
997 volunteers donated 26,824 hours of support; befriending service awarded Quality in Befriending Excellence — one of only 11 organisations in the UK to achieve this
Key Metric 3
1,831 National Creative Wellbeing Project packs issued to help veterans reconnect with creativity and independence