Celebrating Our Impact in 2023-24

We’re thrilled to share our 2023-24 Impact Report, highlighting the difference we’ve made for people and communities across Sussex.

Everything we’ve achieved was made possible by the dedication and hard work of our employees and volunteers, collaboration with our local authority, NHS, and VCSE partners, and the valuable input from those who access our services. We extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone involved.

Key achievements highlighted in the Report include:

• Supporting More People: We increased the number of individuals we supported by 5% year on year, reaching 11,367 people.
• Positive Feedback: According to our 2023 Client and Tenant Satisfaction Survey, 90% of our clients and tenants expressed overall satisfaction with our support, and 87% reported that our services have positively impacted their lives.
• Expanding Mental Health Services: We launched UOK East Sussex after securing a five-year contract to lead community mental health support across the region. We also continued to develop the UOK Brighton & Hove network, partnering with 18 providers city-wide.
• Enhancing Crisis Prevention: Our Staying Well mental health crisis prevention service in Brighton & Hove transitioned to an open access model, embedding a Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust clinician within our team. This shift led to a remarkable 165% increase in the number of people supported. Our Staying Well services in Eastbourne and Hastings are in the process of following suit in 2024.
• ‘Good’ Care Standards: All our learning disability support services received a ‘Good’ rating from the Care Quality Commission, with some areas marked as ‘Outstanding’.
• Safe and Decent Housing: As a landlord for 502 tenants, we reported 99.8% compliance with the Decent Homes Standard, the social housing benchmark for what tenants should expect from their home, making sure it is safe, warm, and decent.
• Addressing Homelessness: We supported 1,074 individuals through our Rough Sleeping Initiative and Complex Needs Homeless Service across East Sussex.
• Fair Compensation: We ensured all employees received a pay increase, with all salaries above the real living wage.
• Introducing the Southdown Beacon: We launched a new, bespoke, psychologically-informed framework to guide our work with people who access our services and our colleagues.
• Partnership working: We conducted research with service commissioners, partners, and the wider Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise sector to gather feedback on how we do things. This led to five actionable steps to develop what we do to be the best partner we can.
• Development of Community Mental Health: Our Chief Executive, Neil Blanchard, alongside other colleagues, played a role in supporting the development of community mental health across Sussex. Neil represents the VCSE sector in various governance structures and is a founding member of the East Sussex VCSE Alliance. He also chairs the Sussex Mental Health VCSE Strategic Leadership Group, working to expand the role of the VCSE in shaping and delivering non-clinical mental health services.

Read the full report here.

Thanks again for everybody’s support.