Health & Wellbeing Education & Young People Enhanced 2024
Guide Dogs (The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association)

Annual Report and Accounts 2024

Guide Dogs supports people with sight loss to live the life they choose through guide dog partnerships, vision rehabilitation and specialist services. In 2024, 518 new guide dog partnerships were created — a 10% increase beating targets. Over 17,500 volunteers gave 12 million+ hours, and 7,000+ training sessions were delivered in tech, travel and life skills. £47m was raised through Sponsor a Puppy. 1,864 children attended My Time to Play sessions. The new Forward Together strategy to 2040 was launched, responding to technological change and targeting a £20m structural financial gap through cost reduction and income growth.

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📋About

Guide dog training and matching; Vision Rehabilitation Specialists (tech, travel, life skills sessions); children and young people services (My Time to Play, habilitation, large-print books); buddy dog partnerships (400th matched); Tech Selector online tool; Sponsor a Puppy programme; volunteer programme (dog walkers, fundraisers, puppy raisers, fosterers); community fundraising

📊Key Metrics

518 new guide dog partnerships created in 2024 — 10% increase beating projections; 1,379 new puppies from breeding programme; 400th buddy dog partnership matched Key Metric 1
17,500+ volunteers giving 12 million+ volunteer hours collectively; 2,400+ volunteers looked after dogs; 7,000+ training sessions on tech, travel and life skills delivered by Vision Rehabilitation Specialists Key Metric 2
£47m raised through Sponsor a Puppy; £3.1m from raffles; £8.3m increased income from gifts in Wills; 3.45 million clicks to digital information and advice content; 5,900 visits to new Tech Selector assistive tech review tool Key Metric 3

✅Key Outcomes

  • 1,864 children and family members attended My Time to Play sessions; 6,852 large-print books delivered; 5,991 habilitation sessions completed to help children learn essential skills; 432,817 online learners accessing digital content
  • New Forward Together strategy to 2040 launched — 5 objectives: strengthen foundations, move beyond mobility, personalised support at key life moments, harness technology, reframe perception; identified future ongoing annual shortfall of £20m — plan to cut costs by £15m and grow income by £5m
  • Identified £20m future annual shortfall in 2023; transformation of guide dog service; redundancy processes underway during growth — 'strength of character' of teams praised by CEO; Isabel Hudson joined as Chair September 2024; 90+ year history; charity reg. 209617

📍Geography

UK-Wide

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