Key Life Chances Report 2024/25

Thomas Pocklington Trust (TPT) is a national charity achieving equality and inclusion for blind and partially sighted (BPS) people, with over half its staff and more than 200 volunteers having lived experience of sight loss. In 2024/25 — the first year of its Key Life Chances strategy — TPT delivered employment support to 350+ people through Works For Me, with 58 securing jobs, and ran 31 Get Set Progress internships, 85% of which led to full-time employment. 333 students received education support and a new joint service with Guide Dogs launched in April 2025. TPT's 25 Sight Loss Councils expanded into Scotland, its #CutItBack campaign reached 100,000+ people, and it co-developed an NHS accessible bowel cancer screening tool. A YouGov-backed APPG report with 21 government recommendations was published jointly with RNIB, and TPT hosted the sector's first Lived Experience Leadership conference.

Report snapshot
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📋About

Works For Me employment support; Get Set Progress internship programme (with RNIB funding); Sight Loss Councils (25 active, across England and Scotland); Young Voices and Student Voices volunteer programmes; education information, advice and guidance (new partnership with Guide Dogs from April 2025); VI awareness training for healthcare professionals; grant-making to partner organisations; #CutItBack and #MakeHealthAccessible campaigns; transport accessibility work; LEX Lived Experience Leadership conference

📊Key Metrics

350+ people received personalised employment support through Works For Me; 58 secured employment; 31 Get Set Progress internships delivered with 85% transitioning to full-time work Key Metric 1
333 students supported through education services; 25 active Sight Loss Councils across the UK including new expansion into Scotland Key Metric 2
Total income £4.26m (net property income £3.93m, grants and donations £329k); total expenditure £5.33m including £745k grants to other organisations and £4.47m internal charitable expenditure Key Metric 3

Key Outcomes

  • Co-authored report with RNIB and APPG on Eye Health containing 21 recommendations for government, based on YouGov poll of 2,000 employers; residential employment and assistive technology course oversubscribed fourfold
  • #CutItBack campaign on overgrown street vegetation reached over 100,000 people prompting local authority action; secured Your Station Your Community grant improving accessibility at six rail stations; UK's first e-learning course on inclusive transport design launched with CIHT
  • 325+ pieces of print and 25 broadcast media coverage generated; NHS bowel cancer screening tool co-developed to make testing accessible to people with sight loss; VI awareness training delivered to 250+ medical students at Newcastle University

📍Geography

UK-Wide

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