2025 Free

Play Gloucestershire Impact Report 2025

Play Gloucestershire is an 18-year-old Gloucestershire charity delivering outdoor community play and therapeutic playwork for school-aged children and their families, particularly those from disadvantaged, rurally isolated communities or those impacted by adverse childhood experiences. In 2025 it delivered 15,076 play visits across 52 locations, supported 640 children through targeted Play Nurture sessions, and received a National Playwork Award. The National Lottery Community Fund extended its Play 2 Nurture project funding, and a county-wide Play Strategy is being co-developed with statutory partners. Play Rangers act as trusted adults — providing therapeutic, relationship-led play that has led to housing interventions, family stabilisation and children disclosing their identities for the first time.

Report snapshot
80 Views

About

Community Play sessions delivered by Play Rangers at 52 locations across urban and rural Gloucestershire; Play Nurture targeted therapeutic playwork for children experiencing emotional or economic hardship; Play Sanctuary indoor/outdoor therapeutic space; Play 2 Nurture school programme funded by National Lottery; Festival of Play for children in care (in partnership with the Virtual School); Park Activists social action programme; midday supervisor play training (Gloucestershire Learning Alliance); playwork training for The Belong School; play advocacy and county-wide Play Strategy development; Young Volunteer programme; transport support removing access barriers for vulnerable families Custom geography from upload: Gloucestershire, UK (52 locations across urban and rural communities)

Key Metrics

Key Metric 1 15,076 play visits across 52 locations in 2025; 640 children supported through targeted Play Nurture therapeutic sessions
Key Metric 2 National Playwork Award received in 2025; National Lottery Community Fund extension secured for Play 2 Nurture project
Key Metric 3 Playwork training delivered to educators, early help teams and other trusted adults across Gloucestershire; Young Volunteer cohort trained and deployed across county

Key Outcomes

  • A child with complex needs who initially stayed close to familiar adults began taking a Play Ranger's hand to lead her to chosen activities — school staff noted he was calmer, more engaged and better able to manage change
  • Three brothers fleeing domestic abuse, supported through play sessions and transport to The Play Sanctuary — Play Rangers escalated housing concerns leading to the family being moved into a permanent four-bedroom home shortly before Christmas
  • Children disclosed gender and sexual identities to Play Rangers for the first time with a trusted adult — made possible through a non-judgemental, play-led relationship rather than direct intervention

Geography

Other

Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
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...
Key Metric 2
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...
Key Metric 3
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...
£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
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
22,507 households helped through RBL casework and specialist support services across 66 countries
Key Metric 2
22,600 grants given to those in need, totalling £11.8 million
Key Metric 3
733 beneficiaries represented at tribunals, resulting in £24.5 million in War Pensions awards
1,548 new families living with dementia supported by RBL Admiral Nurses service
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
3,600 blind veterans received support across the UK; 447 new blind veterans started receiving support in 2024/25
Key Metric 2
1,598 referrals to rehabilitation services completed; 313 veterans received assistive technology training
Key Metric 3
997 volunteers donated 26,824 hours of support; befriending service awarded Quality in Befriending Excellence — one of only 11 organisations in the UK to...
1,831 National Creative Wellbeing Project packs issued to help veterans reconnect with creativity and independence
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
349,000+ people completed the Know Your Risk tool to assess their risk of type 2 diabetes in 2024
Key Metric 2
£4 million invested in 17 new research projects; total active grants portfolio worth over £45 million
Key Metric 3
32% of people completing NHS England's Path to Remission programme — which Diabetes UK campaigned for — put their type 2 diabetes into remission
Type 1 Diabetes Grand Challenge invested over £23 million in 19 projects across 161 experts from 47 institutions in 8 countries since 2022