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Firstport Impact Report 2025/26

Firstport published its annual Impact Report for 2025/26 on 11 June 2026, showing a year of progress towards its strategic ambitions, growing reach, and measurable outcomes for social entrepreneurs and communities across Scotland and the North East of England.

Report snapshot
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About

Firstport is Scotlands agency for start-up social enterprise, providing business support, grants and social investment to help social entrepreneurs start, grow and scale.

Key Metrics

Ideas supported More than 500 ideas supported in 2025/26, with £2.97 million distributed including £1.69 million in grants and £1.28 million in social investment.
Five-year survival 67% of Firstport-supported enterprises still active after five years, compared with a UK average of 38%.
Support delivered 2,700 hours of start-up support and 471 hours of investment-readiness support delivered; investment-readiness participants leveraged nearly £1.5 million in additional funding.
Client outcomes 87% of early-stage clients increased turnover, 61% grew trading income, and 89% reported increased confidence; 54% said they would not have achieved the same results without support.

Key Outcomes

  • Social enterprises across Scotland and the North East of England started, grew and scaled, tackling health inequalities, access to education and community wellbeing while contributing to inclusive local economies.

Geography

Scotland

Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
8,033 children, adults and families affected by a disappearance helped in 2022/23
Key Metric 2
35,064 TextSafe® messages sent to missing children and adults; 2,960 Suicide Risk TextSafe® messages to high-risk individuals
Key Metric 3
40% of Lost Contact tracing cases successfully resolved; 1,000+ multi-agency professionals trained
30th anniversary year: over 10 years and £10 million raised by players of People's Postcode Lottery for Missing People's services
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
CHF 3 million+ total programme funding raised in 2025 — a record — with CHF 1.3 million redeployed directly to YMCA National Movements
Key Metric 2
2.5 million people reached through digital skilling initiatives via HP partnership across 30 YMCA partners since 2021
Key Metric 3
37,000 people directly reached per Community Wellbeing project (1.3 million indirectly); 85 new Change Agents enrolled from 44 countries
5,000 jobs to be created under Igniting Youth Futures (USD 5.2 million Accenture/Macquarie-funded); 750+ young people already reached at year-end
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
95 individual young people in under-16s groups; 85 in over-16s groups; 42 in Transformers (trans/non-binary); 114 young people supported through 385 one-to-one sessions
Key Metric 2
149 parents and carers supported across 44 online and in-person groups; 3,500+ participants in training and workshops across 97 sessions
Key Metric 3
96% of young people said Allsorts groups had been of help; 75% said coming to Allsorts improved their overall wellbeing
Won Investing in Children's Member of the Year Award for extensive youth voice integration; 100% of Summer Programme participants enjoyed activities
Impact Snapshot
Annual social value
GBP 2.3 million of annual social value created through football participation, volunteering and community programmes.
Grassroots football improved health and wellbeing, brought people together, developed volunteers and created opportunities for thousands of local people of all ages and abilities across Faversham and the surrounding area.