Every year I have commented how busy it has been – but the last 12 months have been unprecedented in terms of the change and uncertainty, not only for West Sussex Mind, but for all partners involved in the important work that we do. Despite this I am pleased to report that West Sussex Mind has made good progress in the first year of our new 5-year strategy, as well as laying down the foundations for future sustainability.
I reported last year that we had engaged with the Mind Quality Mark (MQM) and, as well as achieving this essential standard, we were nominated for two national Excellence Awards. I am delighted to report that West Sussex Mind was successful in being awarded a national Excellence Award for our Equality and Diversity work. Alongside this we were also highly commended for our Effective Services. It’s rare to achieve a double award, and we were delighted with the recognition of our work in these two vital areas. I am particularly proud of the journey we have been on and progress we have made around Equality, Diversity Equity and Inclusion – the award reflects the vital but challenging work we have been doing. A particular focus this year has been to understand the steps we need to take to become a truly anti-racist organisation. Following some important learning and reflection, building on our thinking over a number of years, I am delighted that our Board agreed our first public anti-racist action plan at the end of the year. We hope that our journey will inspire others to join us.
This year we have continued to work closely with our colleagues in the Mind Federation, but most particularly with our sister charity in Sussex, Mind in Brighton and Hove. We have been pleased to take concrete steps together to develop an exciting and forward think Memorandum of Understanding between our charities, outlining the ways that we will respond to the needs of the people of Sussex. We are also looking at how we can work collaboratively to meet an opportunity in Surrey now that the NHS in Surrey and Sussex have merged to become one system. I look forward to our ever closer working in the coming years.
One of the most significant milestones of the year was the outcome of the West Sussex Mental Health Support Services tender process. We were delighted that the new 5 – 7 year contract was awarded to our valued partner BHT Sussex, and their collaborative bid that West Sussex Mind supported. We are a lead sub-contractor for their work, delivering 4 Neighbourhood Mental Health Teams, as well as expanding our Help Point to be the front door for voluntary sector mental health support in West Sussex. Alongside this we are responsible for the data and communication elements of this contract, in recognition of our skills and expertise in these areas. You can read more details about this in the report below.
Alongside this we have seen need continue to rise for mental health support. I am pleased that our crisis service Staying Well Worthing is now fully open access in collaboration with our partners at Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, and is supporting large numbers of people every evening and weekend. Despite this, as a charity we are concerned about the growing levels of need and complexity for children and adults across the county, which we are seeing directly through the stories and experiences that people share with us, as well as the growing demand for our support. We continue to work with our partners to share this intelligence and people’s stories influence the response.
I am delighted that we have continued to make significant progress in important strategic areas for us, including training and involving more peer volunteers in our work. This year we have passed over 100 active volunteers in our organisation – a really significant milestone.
A highlight of the year has been working alongside the High Sheriff of West Sussex Dr Tim Fooks, who chose his year in office to champion mental health and to tackle stigma. The alignment between his vision and our strategy allowed us to amplify both of our messages, and his community conferences we supported with our partners, led to some genuinely powerful and important conversations. We are grateful to Tim for his support during the year and were honoured to receive a High Sheriff’s award in recognition of our work to the local community.
I want to close by acknowledging the support and dedication of our employees, trustees, volunteers, members, supporters and funders. It has been a year of unprecedented change – thank you for everything you have done on this journey, which has at times been very challenging. Your dedication and commitment to our mission has helped us to achieve so much, and West Sussex Mind goes into 2026-27 a stronger and more resilient organisation as a result.
The trustees present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2026.
The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the accounts and comply with the charity's Memorandum and Articles of Association, the Companies Act 2006 and “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)” (as amended for accounting periods commencing from 1 January 2019).
Our Objects are to:
Promote the preservation of good mental health in particular around enabling and empowering everyone experiencing mental health problems to live with, manage and recover from their condition.
Relieve the needs of people with mental health problems by working to increase understanding of mental health and mental health problems, by gathering and disseminating information and working to raise awareness, promote understanding and challenge stigma and discrimination.
To achieve these Objects:
We actively promote our website where anyone can access free mental health self-help, on-line learning and development courses, videos and blogs. Once on our website, individuals can also complete a simple e-referral form asking for help.
We provide telephone and email advice, information and signposting to local support for anyone who contacts us through our website, via email or phone through our Help Point service.
We offer individual and group mental health and social support in person, by phone and through video call and conference to children and young people, families, adults and older adults who feel they would benefit from this. This support helps people develop the skills and confidence to manage their own mental health and well-being. It also helps people connect socially and to give and receive peer support.
We offer evening and weekend crisis prevention support in Worthing to support individuals struggling to cope out of hours.
We offer services across Adur, Arun, Worthing, Chichester and Horsham districts from our buildings in Southwick, Worthing and Littlehampton and from a wide range of community venues in other areas including GP practices, community centres etc. We also work proactively and in partnership with many other health, social care and community organisations to deliver our support.
We recognise that people who need us most may not easily find or access our support so we reach out to people through outreach and community roles to tackle these health inequalities.
We also work to raise awareness and to challenge stigma and discrimination in our local communities. We do this by providing online and face-to-face training courses for people working in West Sussex around emotional and mental health issues, and by engaging with members of local communities through campaigning, workshops, activities and events online and using social media and in person.
The Trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in section 17 of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit including the guidance “Public Benefit: running a charity (PB2)”. The nature of the charity’s objectives outlined above help to ensure that all of our activities are undertaken in the public benefit.
1. Providing Mental health support
During the year we continued to offer our individual and group mental health and social support for children and young people, adults, families and older adults provided in person and through phone, email, text and video-call. Our services have flourished, with a growing diversity of services. In 2025- 2026 a total of 8,199 individuals reached out to us for help (including 2,849 getting advice) which is more people than ever before. For those we went on to support, we delivered 29,834 individual and group mental health support interventions to these individuals.
Through acting as the West Sussex strategic partner to support the Community Mental Health Transformation (CMHT) in Sussex, and through the Head of Adult Mental Health Services job-sharing a secondment as VCSE Transformation Systems Lead for West Sussex with a colleague from BHT Sussex, we have been well placed to influence and actively support the development of mental health services in West Sussex, and more broadly across Sussex.
Neighbourhood Mental Health Teams (NHMT) have been embedded across West Sussex this year. This has led to an exciting opportunity for VCSE, including West Sussex Mind, NHS partners and GP surgeries to provide a more streamlined service which ensures people get the right help from the right service. To achieve this, services in the NMHTs are moving towards a single shared recording system, so that support can be coordinated effectively.
During the year our main adult service contract was retendered and BHT Sussex were successful in becoming lead provider for this new 5-year contract with us as their main delivery partner. In addition, West Sussex Mind will be providing the lead role on data collection and reporting for the contract. We are really excited to be working closely with BHT in mobilising this new contract and strengthening what was already a great relationship we had between our two organisations.
This new contract was launched in December 2025 and included welcoming employees from two other local organisations who joined our team through the TUPE process and extending our area to cover the whole of Chichester District and the whole of Arun District where we use to cover only part of these areas. At the same time our Chanctonbury team moved to BHT to be part of their Horsham area team.
In 2025-26 our Help Point, which offers a single access point for all phone and email communication, continued to provide coherent and effective front door for all our support services. Trained employees and volunteers have given advice, information and signposting to local services as well as triaging referrals into our own support services. They are also responsible for responding to all web referrals from both service users and professionals as well as supporting with enquiries. During the year we have taken 8,866 phone calls. A total of 2,849 people were given advice, information and signposting and we received 4,441 web and phone referrals in the year – receiving on average around 370 referrals per month. In December this year as part of the new Mental Health Support Service contract our help point was extended to cover the whole of West Sussex for our adult services, taking referrals for BHT as well as West Sussex Mind, a testament to the strength of this model.
For adults, our social activities programme has continued to offer a varied in person and online programme. It gives people an opportunity to connect socially, give and receive peer support, as well as developing confidence and skills to engage in wider community services and support. During the year around 110 activities were offered each month, with 314 individuals benefiting from accessing these sessions. Many of these activities are supported or led by our growing team of volunteers. The social activities offer has been developed in Bognor and Chichester as part of the new Mental Health Support Services Contract.
As demand for support from children and young people grew through 2025-26, we were pleased to continue providing our children and young people’s social prescribing service across a range of GP practices with six Primary Care Networks. The parenting support service has continued to provide virtual and face-to-face support with parents and carers across West Sussex as well as creating new animations this year. The service now includes a five-week course for parents and carers which has been delivered in three different locations around West Sussex and online with great success. We also received funding to continue to deliver the self-harm learning network including the production of animations aimed at supporting young people themselves. A total of 461 children and young people received support from our team of GP practice-based social prescribers, and 360 parents and carers accessed our parenting support service. Trainee Children’s Wellbeing Practitioners have also joined the team this year. These posts are fully funded by NHS England to undertake training at the University of Sussex and provide low-intensity CBT interventions with children and young people seeking support through our PCN partnerships.
Our Families in Mind service supporting families of children aged nought to five were success in securing a further three years of funding from the National Lottery Community Fund. This funding secures the project continuation in supporting parents and carers across Adur, Worthing and Arun through groups and courses reducing isolation and improving outcomes for families. Over the past twelve months, the service has reached a total of 188 parents and carers.
Our young people’s service, BeOK, has continued to support those aged 16 - 25 through the child to adult transition period with strong connections at sixth forms and colleges across the patch. The team have focused on providing one-to-one support with those aged 16 – 18 whilst still opening up groups and workshops to those aged up to 25. Regular space has continued to be used to meet young people in Chichester and Bognor Regis whilst utilising our buildings elsewhere. The service has supported 323 people this year. The Catalyst project funded through the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Kent, Surrey and Sussex was completed this year. The team piloted a new model of training other organisations to provide mental health support in the community. Early research results showed this was a success, but the model would need ongoing funding to continue. Partnerships with Esteem and AudioActive were strengthened through the work. Funding to explore barriers to accessing sexual health services was also secured this year leading to engagement with service users around sexual health and contraception. Additional funding has been secured for the next year to raise awareness including stocking condoms and STI kits in all toilets across West Sussex Mind buildings. Trauma informed practice has continued to be a key area of focus with teams reviewing paperwork and agreements from this lens. A West Sussex Mind employee has also continued to work with National Mind to deliver training across the network and is now developing a train the trainer training module to further develop trauma informed principles across the network.
Our Worthing crisis prevention service, Staying Well, continued to operate throughout the year, offering evening and weekend support. The service offers a safe alternative to A&E for people who were struggling with their mental health out of hours and offers predominantly face to face support. 2025/26 was our first full year working in the open access model, meaning that people can walk into the service with no appointment. This has significantly enhanced the service we can offer people and confirmed Staying Well’s role as a genuine alternative to A&E. During the year the service supported 550 people.
This was the first full year of delivering the Community Rehabilitation Service alongside SPFT. We have 4 Mental Health Rehabilitation worker roles, one based in Bognor Regis, one in Horsham and 2 in Worthing. They work alongside the SPFT Multi-Disciplinary Team to support patients on the psychosis pathway to engage with their support and treatment plans. This includes encouraging attendance at appointments and community services. During the year, we supported 71 service users on the psychosis pathway.
During 2025-26 we continued to hear that inflation and the national cost of living crisis had a huge impact on people’s mental health and well-being. With the help of a legacy from the Flint Will Trust we continued our peer welfare support, to help address financial challenges faced by service users, 84 service users were supported by this service. This included helping them access advice and support via Citizen's Advice, signposting to other support and helping people apply for funding and grants.
Communities in Mind continued to offer support to our service users aged over 65. The focus of this contract is to reduce social isolation amongst older adults. Support is provided by offering one to one support, befriending and groups (including a walking group, art and board games). During the year this service supported 173 service users, provided 720 one to ones and ran 150 groups. We also provided 2 Short Breaks contracts, one in Chanctonbury which offered support for carer and one in Midhurst which supported those with dementia, providing respite for those who care for them.
We were really proud to be Highly Commended by National Mind at their Excellence Awards this year in the category of Effective Services as well as an award from the High Sheriff for Outstanding Community Service.
All of this work has been supported and enabled by strong and effective partnerships with a wide range of organisations. In 2025-2026 this included:
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and other West Sussex mental health providers involved in the Pathfinder West Sussex Alliance
Tim Fooks, High Sheriff
University of Chichester
Guild Care and Age UK West Sussex & Brighton & Hove
Carers Support West Sussex
NHS primary care networks, GP practices and NHS Sussex
Borough and District councils and West Sussex County Council
Early Help
Turning Tides
Citizens Advice in West Sussex
YMCA Downslink Group
Mind
Mind in Brighton and Hove
Friends, Family and Travellers
Sanctuary in Chichester
AudioActive
Chichester College Group
Esteem
Young People's Information Shop
Reaching Families
Andy’s Angels
West Sussex Sexual Health Services
We delivered face-to-face support from our three premises – The Corner House in Southwick, The Gateway in Worthing and Maltravers Drive in Littlehampton – as well as in a wide range of other community premises.
2. Raising awareness and reaching out into our communities
In 2025–26, our training team delivered high‑impact mental health training and support to people living and working across West Sussex, strengthening knowledge, confidence, and capacity to respond to mental health needs. This work was recognised nationally through the National Mind Enhanced Quality Award for Workplace Training, reflecting the consistently high quality of our training and the robust quality assurance that underpins everything we deliver.
Our training continues to make a tangible difference by reducing stigma around mental health and help‑seeking, and by empowering people to recognise warning signs of crisis and take meaningful, supportive action. Participants gain practical skills to support colleagues, friends, family members, and young people, while professionals working directly with those experiencing mental health problems are supported to build their confidence, resilience, and effectiveness in their roles.
Over the year, 4508 benefited from training events and learning opportunities delivered by the team. This impact was achieved through a diverse and responsive programme, including:
Volunteering in Mind continued to grow and strengthen peer support within our services. A further 22 peer volunteers completed training, so we now have 35 active peer volunteers with 13 in recruitment each contributing lived‑experience insight and support to others.
Delivery of the Pan‑Sussex Self Harm Learning Network, commissioned by West Sussex County Council and delivered across West Sussex, East Sussex, and Brighton & Hove continued. Through webinars and peer support sessions, the programme supported professionals, parents, and carers, reaching 419 people during this iteration to date. The programme runs until June 2026, with plans underway to extend this work into a further phase.
Year‑round access to free suicide awareness and prevention training, provided through free licences for the LivingWorks START course, removing financial barriers and increasing access to life‑saving learning.
We were busy with ongoing delivery of Adult and Youth Mental Health First Aid training to organisations and businesses across the county, including a large‑scale programme commissioned by the NHS to support Primary Care staff.
A two‑year partnership with Northbrook College, delivering workshops for staff and students focused on supporting young people’s mental health and wellbeing, alongside a parallel programme for organisations working with young people on the Manhood Peninsula.
We delivered a wide range of bespoke training for local businesses and organisations, including Mental Health First Aid and tailored workplace wellbeing programmes designed to support staff experiencing poor mental health.
We offered four free workshops for local businesses, supporting leaders to create healthier workplace cultures and strengthen psychological safety.
In 2025-26 we continued and extended our work to reach out to communities who were not accessing our services. During 2025-26 we:
Extended our work with refugees and asylum seekers, through our partnership with Sanctuary in Chichester and delivering he first year of a two-year contract from West Sussex County Council to provide mental health support for resettled refugees.
Continued our work to reach the Polish community and completed our work with Macmillan to extend our support to the Polish community focusing on both mental health and cancer support. Both the refugee and Polish projects supported people to connect to and navigate local mental health services and have conversations to reduce stigma around getting support in these communities.
Worked with Friends Family and Travellers on a research project to understand the barriers faced by the Gypsy and Traveller community in accessing mental health service. The report from this work highlighted some key recommendations that we are keen to start implementing in the next year.
Attended Worthing, Chichester and Witterings Pride events and continued our LGBTQIA+ peer group offer with support now offered across our locations as well as online.
Completed a project with funding from national Mind to reach racialised communities to understand barriers to accessing support. This work has helped us to shape our first anti racism action plan which will be launched in April 2026 alongside our commitment to becoming an anti-racist organisation.
Focused on reaching men to reduce the disparity in numbers of men being supported (roughly one-third to two-thirds female service users) with teams focusing on building partnerships with other organisations who support men in their local neighbourhoods and attending events to support this, work which is ongoing.
We were thrilled to win a National Mind Excellence award this year in recognition of our Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Equity work.
3. Involving people with lived experience of mental health problems in our services
During the year, many of our service user forums have continued and we use this to shape our service offer. During the retender process we delivered a series of information sessions across each of our geographical locations and 2 online sessions. These focused on explaining what would remain the same and what would be different under the contract and how this would impact the support they were receiving. As part of the transition we produced a Frequently Asked Questions document that could be used to support service users.
Children and young people were involved in the production of three animations this year focused on self-harm. The first animation entitled ‘What to do if you feel like self-harming: a guide for young people’ had input from young people at both the script and animation stage ensuring their voice was key. Feedback on the new course for parents and carers was also vital in adapting the course to better meet the needs of service users.
Involvement through volunteering also continued to be strong. We are grateful to East Head Impact for their ongoing support of our peer volunteer training programme and increased the number of peer volunteers, with 31 now actively supporting our service users. Our peer volunteers have shared their lived experience and have introduced key documents such as our annual Impact Report and through speaking at events including the launch of our Mental Health Support Service contract and our AGM. Through this funding we were also able to offer some Peer Sessional Roles that offered our peer volunteers a route to step into or back into employment, these roles have proved a huge success and has further increased the number of peer workers in our organisation. East Head Impact have agreed another 3 years’ funding for this programme and we are extending our work with them to create a new service called Mind Works, which will be providing employment advice and support to our service uses as well as working with local employers to create opportunities.
Our Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Equity activity has been supported by two experts by experience who led a piece of work to help us understand how we take the next steps to becoming a truly anti-racist organisation.
Our communication co-production panel continued to use their lived experience to inform our communications work. They delivered some specific pieces of work in 2025-26 including:
The co-production of a new web page outlining the work of the panel and inviting new members
A review of our printed Impact Report 2025 with suggestions for improvements around accessibility, design and content
A review of a selection of video/reel content (awareness, support and fundraising) with suggestions for future useful content
The co-production of new lived experience content around the barriers people face internally and externally when getting mental health support
We continued to have strong lived experience representation on our Board of Trustees, which they talk about openly in the website profiles.
4. Staff, volunteers and organisation
The system and contract changes highlighted above inevitably led to considerable changes in our staff team. The award of the MHSS contract not only changed the shape of teams but involved TUPE of staff in and out of the organisation and resulted in an operational restructure.
Our focus this year was to develop managers to give them the tools to support their teams during the changes that would be occurring in the year. This involved group training on formal subjects and shadowing other staff in practice.
Furthermore, to ensure an informative welcome to the staff who TUPE’d into West sussex Mind and support their transition, a full induction was planned and provided. This included a two-day welcome event.
Following the organisation decision to start the journey to become a truly anti-racist organisation, training was provided in July 2025 to a group of staff by Diverse Matters. This was to help those who attended to understand what an anti-racist organisation looked like in practice and how to remove barriers that could occur.
We also took the opportunity to streamline our Human resources and learning platforms combing them in one, under BreatheHR. This enables our volunteers and staff to learn in the same location and empowers our managers to track the learning of their staff with ease.
As usual we reviewed our salaries keeping our lowest paid workers in line with the real living wage and salary increases being reviewed and increased in April 2025.
Over the year we developed 4 new types of roles, 72 people left the organisation with a further 5 who TUPE’d out to other organisations, 30 people were new to the organisation with a further 24 who TUPE’d into the organisation. Several people made internal moves, either moving into different teams or being promoted to higher grade roles. With the restructure we did need to put certain roles at risk but had frozen recruitment in mid-2025 to protect staff where we could. We offered voluntary redundancy and 7 staff took this offer which meant that no further staff were made redundant. At the end of the year, we had 152 employees and sessional workers.
The well-being of our staff is always high on our agenda and previous in person events have been a great success. Not wishing to draw away focus from the important changes occurring in 2025-2026 the social event was delayed until later in 2026. This is in the hope that all staff will have had a chance to embed in their new team structures and teams and enjoy the event fully. We are looking forward to the away day at the Lodge Hill Centre in Pulborough in July 2026.
Volunteers make a significant contribution to the work of West Sussex Mind, and we have grown the number of roles in our organisation significantly in the last few years. We currently have 94 volunteers (not including trustees), engaged in all areas of our organisation including fundraising, running activities, providing peer support and much more! We have 35 peer volunteers who use their lived experience as part of their volunteering role.
5. Communications
Our communications work continued to promote our mental health support and service developments, as well as raise our profile through press activity.
In 2025-26, we have continued to promote our services through a variety of communications channels, including social media, our website and video. Our social media posts covered regular wellbeing tips, lived experience stories, key charity news and developments and our support offer.
There was an increase of 25% in visitors to our website on the previous year with 71,000 users accessing our website, 65,000 of whom were new visitors. In 2024-25, a total of 57,000 people used our website, 55,000 of whom were new visitors.
Self-help resources, including videos, tips and information about mental health conditions, continue to be available on our website, as well as our online Impact Reports, which people can access all year round to find out about and support our work.
We used our website, social media, video email newsletters and printed materials to share news updates, advice and information and lived experience stories. Some of the developments we publicised included the launch of our new strategy 2025-2030 through a community event and press coverage, our young people team’s work on site at Northbrook College supporting students, our new Pathfinder West Sussex contract win with BHT Sussex and our National Mind Excellence Awards.
The mental health lived experience communications panel that was set up in 2023 to co-produce and inform our communications work, continues to meet regularly and feed into our communications outputs.
Other communications highlights for 2025 to 2026 included:
Content around our strategy launch, including a printed strategy document, video and press coverage
A ‘rooted in the community’ campaign for Mental Health Awareness Week, which included a wide-ranging interview with Dr Tim Fooks, the High Sheriff of West Sussex, substantial press coverage and social media content
New videos about our Staying Well crisis support service, social activities and our community allotment
Press coverage for our Impact Report on Heart Sussex Radio for the first time
The creation of a new website for Pathfinder West Sussex for the launch of the new mental health service, as well as ongoing communications work for the Pathfinder partnership
Coverage of Mental Elf 2025 from ITV News Meridian
1. Financial performance for the year
In 2025-26, West Sussex Mind spent £3,775,026 (2024/25 £3,714,091) which was a 1.6% increase in 2025/2026. During the year our principal funders have been as follows:
NHS Sussex Integrated Care Board
West Sussex County Council & other Local District and Parish Councils
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
NHS England
GP practices and Primary care networks
National Lottery Community Fund
BHT Sussex
Age UK West Sussex & Brighton & Hove
East Head Impact
F Glenister Woodgar Trust CIO
University of Sussex
Mind
These sources of funding are generally linked to a contract or funding agreement to provide a specific service – for example, NHS contracts are for our main adult mental health services and our young people’s mental health services. During 2025, NHS Sussex ICB retendered our main contract for Adult services and we were successful to maintain the provision for these services, and into some new areas, through a subcontract with B H T Sussex who became the main provider for the region.
The NHS retender, following 15% contract efficiencies levied from June 2025, led to significant change and uncertainty in income, increasing the amount of financial planning and contingency work during 2025-2026. With the delayed mobilisation of the new contract from December 2025, we had to meet internally (through reserves) a significant amount of cost underwriting existing budget to ensure continuity due to the extended period of contract efficiencies prior to mobilisation. This was a major factor in our plan and managed large in year deficit.
Alongside this other contracts also haven’t kept pace with inflation, and has put further pressure on our finances, which have managed by reviewing costs to balance delivering quality services and supporting our valued staff who deliver them. Continued inflation impacts our staff and volunteers too in terms of rising fuel, food and housing costs and we have tried to balance recognising the impact of this on their financial needs with that of the business. We continue to track the real living wage for our lowest grade and will continue to monitor this situation going forward.
2025 – 2026 has had a significant impact on our reserves and our trustees have taken some hard decisions to balance these costs, against income available, in 2026 - 2027 and coming years.
During 2025-2026 we also completed a two year programme to upgrade or replace the majority of our IT equipment so it would be compatible with the Microsoft Windows 11 upgrade. We have managed this with less capital expenditure than initially thought, but further growth in the business will mean this is likely in 2026 -2027.
2. Fundraising and donations
The 2025-2026 year was a particularly challenging one for fundraising, with grant funding becoming increasingly competitive as well as the cost-of-living crisis effecting our supporters and fundraisers.
Some of the community fundraising highlights of the year included:
Our fourth Mental Elf 5k Fun Run and Walk raised just under £9,000. More runners than ever before tried the activity and we introduced a new 2k distance.
Connexus and Jacobs Steel Estate Agents held a 3 club challenge golf day for us raising £4,886
Fire Walk (joint event with Care for Veterans) raised £3,410
Father Christmas at Goddenwick Farm raised £7,700
Other new events including Comedy Night, Online Art Auction and Pumpkin Fundraiser
We received grant/trust funding from many organisations this year including:
Donations from Patricia Routledge Foundation and Humber Avenue Community Allotments towards social activities
West Sussex County Council funding to provide Suicide Prevention training and Staying Well awareness.
Funding from Sussex Inclusion Health Grants for EDI work with Gypsy, Roma and Travellers.
Support for our Communities in Mind service from Rowan Bentall Charitable Trust, Charlotte Marshall Charitable Trust, Bonhomie United Charity Society, Broyst Foundation and Simpson Charitable Trust.
Worthing CIL funding towards young people's training at Northbrook College.
Funding towards the power of peer support for young people from the Gledswood Charitable Trust with additional funding towards the young people's service from Lodsworth Parish Council.
Donation from the Boltini Charitable Trust towards the Midhurst young people's service.
First year of three-year funding from the F Glenister Woodger Trust towards the salary of a peer support worker and some training courses.
Continued support from East Head Impact for our Volunteering in Mind project and from the National Lottery Community Fund in supporting our Families in Mind service with additional funding towards the Families in Mind service from Westfield Health.
We also benefitted from some pro bono work from Southern Housing & HG Construction for the refurbishment and redecoration of The Corner House.
The Trustees are grateful to all the organisations who have so generously supported us financially in 2025-2026, as set out in notes 3 and 4 of the accounts.
3. Reserves policy
West Sussex Mind held free reserves of £1,128,795 at 31 March 2026. The table below details how this figure is calculated.
Restricted funds represent amounts which have been received for specific purposes and which have not yet been spent.
Designated funds represent amounts which the trustees have set aside to ensure:
That any projects with unconfirmed contracts/grants at risk continue to run, providing continuity of care for our service users, whilst options are explored
That we have contingency to cover major repairs of our buildings
That we can be responsive to emerging needs and respond by growing or developing new services to meet our charitable objectives or to top up funding gaps in services.
Within designated funds is a tangible fixed assets fund which shows the value of our buildings and equipment which we use to run our services. There is also a revaluation reserve which reflects the change in valuation of our buildings since they were originally acquired. These are not cash reserves because the amounts reflect the value of our buildings and equipment. For clarity, these are both shown separately in the table above.
The ongoing cost increases have had a critical impact on the financial resilience of West Sussex Mind, particularly in light of recent NHS efficiencies levied from June 2025 and the recommissioning of a number of our services from December 2025. Being successful as part of this recommissioning process has secured some contracts for a further 5 – 7 years, but margins are tight and delivery requirements increased. The broader financial landscape remains challenging and with significant impact on our reserves during 2025-2026, our proposed 2026-2027 budget received much scrutiny before agreeing and some services have had to be scaled back or ceased completely which is upsetting at a time when the need for mental health services is growing. A significant contributing factor has been a failure of many of our contracts to keep pace with inflation and rising costs, forcing us to make difficult decisions to ensure the ongoing sustainability of the charity.
With this in mind, the trustees consider it prudent to maintain free reserves of between 3 to 6 months’ operating costs to ensure we can remain financially resilient and manage the associated risks appropriately. We start the year financial year with agreed budgeted expenditure of £3,761,564 and a small forecast surplus of £3,472. However, since agreeing we are already aware of some increased costs and will be monitoring the position closely throughout the year to try to minimise deficits.
4. Managing Risks to our business
During 2025-2026 we adhered to our risk management policy which follows the risk management model recommended by the Charity Commission in its publication Charities and Risk Management (CC26 - 2010).
The CEO, Deputy CEO, Finance and Resources Manager, People and Governance Manager, and Head of Performance and Impact maintain and update the risk register and are responsible for ensuring that trustees are aware of risks, and that any agreed actions to mitigate risks are undertaken. The risk register is also shared with the wider leadership team for comment and input. Each Finance and Resources Sub-committee reviews the full risk register in detail and a summary of the major risks with mitigating actions being taken is presented at each full Board meeting. Other sub-committees keep oversight of any risks relevant to their areas of responsibility and contribute to the assessment and mitigation of any risks.
For the year 2025-26 some of the highest risks to organisation were financial – as a result of a combination of reduced income (due to short term NHS efficiency savings), increased and exceptional costs due to contract changes and transition, and fundraising income being lower than previously anticipated. Alongside this the volume of change within the NHS and the wider healthcare system put pressure on the capacity of the organisation as we navigated large programmes of work (Community Mental Health Transformation, implementation of SystmOne) an alongside the transition to new contracts. Our mitigation actions have been related to the prudent use of our reserves to avoid a premature reaction to reducing services, impacting our service users and those who need mental health support in West Sussex. In the later half of the year we undertook a significant operational restructure to ensure our services were affordable, and looked to the sometimes-difficult decisions we need to make to balance our budget for 2026-27 to ensure the long-term sustainability of the charity.
Planning for the future 2026 - 27
Last year we took the first steps towards delivering on 2025-30 strategy, “Building resilient communities together”. You can read more about this here: www.westsussexmind.org/about-us/our-strategy-and-plans but our key strategic aims are:
Our mental health services: Mental health services for adults and children and young people are transforming. We will provide a key leadership role in enabling this, co-producing services that deliver transformative support in our communities.
Addressing health inequalities: Ensure that everyone has access to the mental health support they need and deserve by working to reduce health inequalities
Tackling mental health stigma: We will empower people to share their experience and will amplify their voices to help tackle prejudice and stigma.
Our People: We will build an inclusive organisational culture and supportive workplace where people are proud to be part of West Sussex Mind. We will invest in opportunities for progression.
Our organisation, finance and buildings: Our organisation will be innovative, efficient and financially secure, minimising any negative impact on the environment.
In order to achieve our strategy, over 2026-27 we aim to focus on the following key priorities:
Continuing to campaign and influence around Children and Young Peoples Social Prescribing (CYPSP) model
Continue to embed Trauma Informed Practice (TIP) across WS Mind
Embedding Mental Health Support Service (MHSS) model across West Sussex/WS Mind
Implementing core outcomes measures across all of our services
Review of Pathfinder service after 12 months of delivery (including focus on how it continues to support transition of CYP).
Taking first steps to deliver our plan to become an anti-racist organisation
Focus on reducing stigma faced by men
Taking steps to improve experiences for the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community
Building and consolidating team based on our new structure
Continue to build on the success of our volunteer programme
Develop and implement fundraising strategy
Take initial steps to begin our premises review
Social Return on Investment
To review our use of IT and technology, to ensure they are fit for purpose and secure
Develop and implement an effective plan to minimise negative impact on the environment
Work collaboratively with Mind in Brighton and Hove (MIBH) and Mind, to sustain and strengthen the federation across Sussex and Surrey.
The charity is a company limited by guarantee, where all guarantors agree to contribute £1 in the event of a winding up.
The trustees, who are also the directors for the purpose of company law, and who served during the year were:
Where there are vacancies on the Board, Trustees are recruited through an external recruitment process. Once recruited, trustees will be co-opted onto the Board and then will stand for election at the next Annual General Meeting. In addition, as outlined in the Memorandum and Articles of Association, a proportion of trustees are required to retire and then stand for re-election (if they wish to) at each Annual General Meeting. There are no appointed trustees to the Board.
In 2025-26 the Trustees recruited 1 Trustee – we were delighted to welcome back to our Board, Dominic Goodeve, who re-joined the Board. Trustees are actively planning further recruitment to support succession planning and ensure we have the skills we need going forward.
During 2025-2026 the Board met formally on six occasions, the AGM was held in November 2025. During 25-26 we have had a mixture of in person, on-line and hybrid (in person but with opportunity to also join online) Board meetings.
The Board’s scheme of delegation outlines clearly Board responsibilities and how three Board sub-committees (Finance and Resources, Governance and Operations) aim to provide more in-depth review and scrutiny and then report to Board on their work. These three sub-committees have met throughout the year in advance of and then reported into each Board. Each sub-committee has an annual workplan and a clear framework for their delegated responsibilities. In addition, the Trustees had established a time limited Organisational Change Group in early 2025 to support the organisational through a period of transition. This group continued to meet through 2025 while the period of transition continued. This group has been included in the scheme of delegation and reports directly to the Board of Trustees.
All trustees have access to WS Mind’s internet-based filing system (Sharepoint). This means that trustees can much more easily access a whole range of relevant information and documents enabling easier scrutiny of West Sussex Mind’s work by trustees. A number of trustees have undertaken training and development by attending external trustee workshops. As part of their induction all Trustees have been given a copy of the Charity Commission's The Essential Trustee: What You Need to Know and Good Governance: A Code for the Voluntary and Community Sector. Trustees visit projects and actively support events and activities of the charity. On appointment, Trustees are briefed on the activities of the charity, its management and administration by the Chair and the Chief Executive Officer. They are also updated by regular briefings by staff at Board meetings and at Trustee away days.
The trustees, who are also the directors of West Sussex Mind for the purpose of company law, are responsible for preparing the Trustees' Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
Company Law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that year.
In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:
- select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
- observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;
- make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent; and
- prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.
The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
In accordance with the company's articles, a resolution proposing the appointment of an auditor of the company will be put at a General Meeting.
The trustees' report was approved by the Board of Trustees.
Opinion
We have audited the financial statements of West Sussex Mind (the ‘charity’) for the year ended 31 March 2026 which comprise the statement of financial activities, the balance sheet, the statement of cash flows and the notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
In our opinion, the financial statements:
Basis for opinion
We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the accounts section of our report. We are independent of the charity in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the accounts in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.
Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.
Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.
Other information
The other information comprises the information included in the annual report other than the financial statements and our auditor's report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.
We have nothing to report in this regard.
Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006
In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of our audit:
the information given in the trustees' report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared, which includes the directors' report prepared for the purposes of company law, is consistent with the financial statements; and
the directors' report included within the trustees' report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.
In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charity and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the directors' report included within the trustees' report.
We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:
adequate accounting records have not been kept, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or
the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or
we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or
the trustees were not entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small companies regime and take advantage of the small companies' exemptions in preparing the trustees' report and from the requirement to prepare a strategic report.
Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud, is detailed below.
In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, our procedures included the following:
Obtaining an understanding of the legal and regulatory framework that the charity operates in, focusing on those laws and regulations that had a direct effect on the financial statements and operations;
Obtaining an understanding of the charity’s policies and procedures on fraud risks, including knowledge of any actual, suspected or alleged fraud; and
Discussing among the engagement team how and where fraud might occur in the financial statements and any potential indicators of fraud through our knowledge and understanding of the charity and our sector-specific experience.
As a result of these procedures, we considered the opportunities and incentives that may exist within the charity for fraud. We are also required to perform specific procedures to respond to the risk of management override. As a result of performing the above, we identified the following areas as those most likely to have an impact on the financial statements: health & safety, employment law, compliance with the UK Companies Act and Charities Act.
In addition to the above, our procedures to respond to risks identified included the following:
Making enquiries of management about any known or suspected instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations and fraud;
Reviewing minutes of meetings of the board and senior management;
Reading correspondence with regulators;
Challenging assumptions and judgements made by management in their significant accounting estimates; and
Auditing the risk of management override of controls, including through testing journal entries and other adjustments for appropriateness.
Due to the inherent limitations of an audit, there is an unavoidable risk that some material misstatements in the financial statements may not be detected, even though the audit is properly planned and performed in accordance with the ISAs (UK). For instance, the further removed non-compliance is from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, the less likely the auditor is to become aware of it or to recognise the non-compliance.
A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: https://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.
Use of our report
This report is made solely to the charitable company's members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
West Sussex Mind is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is The Gateway, 8-10 Durrington Lane, West Sussex, Worthing, BN13 2QG.
The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the charity's governing document, the Companies Act 2006 and “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)” (as amended for accounting periods commencing from 1 January 2019). The charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £1.
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention, modified to include the revaluation of freehold buildings at fair value. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.
At the time of approving the financial statements, the trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. The trustees have considered relevant information, including the charity’s principal risks and uncertainties, the annual budget, forecast future cash flows and the impact of subsequent events in making their assessment. Based on these assessments and having regard to the resources available to the entity, the trustees have concluded that there is no material uncertainty and that they can continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the annual report and financial statements.
Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of their charitable objectives.
Designated funds comprise funds which have been set aside at the discretion of the trustees for specific purposes. The purposes and uses of the designated funds are set out in the notes to the financial statements.
Restricted funds are subject to specific conditions by donors or grantors as to how they may be used. The purposes and uses of the restricted funds are set out in the notes to the financial statements.
Cash donations are recognised on receipt. Other donations are recognised once the charity has been notified of the donation, unless performance conditions require deferral of the amount. Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.
Grant income from charitable activities is accounted for when performance related conditions have been met and is deferred where it relates to a future period.
Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to transfer economic benefit to a third party, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefits will be required in settlement, and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably.
Expenditure is classified by activity. The costs of each activity are made up of the total of direct costs and shared costs, including support costs involved in undertaking each activity. Direct costs attributable to a single activity are allocated directly to that activity. Shared costs which contribute to more than one activity and support costs which are not attributable to a single activity are apportioned between those activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources. Central staff costs are allocated on the basis of time spent, and depreciation charges are allocated on the portion of the asset’s use.
All expenditure is dealt with on an accruals basis, and allocated to the appropriated heading in the financial statements.
Governance costs are those costs incurred with constitutional and statutory requirements.
Expenditure is either allocated or is apportioned to individual areas based on staff costs or headcount or by the relevant staff or activity. Funds are transferred from unrestricted funds to fund deficits on restricted areas where no further funding will be forthcoming.
Tangible fixed assets are initially measured at cost and subsequently measured at cost or valuation, net of depreciation and any impairment losses.
Depreciation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following bases:
The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset, and is recognised in the statement of financial activities.
Assets below £3,000 are not capitalised.
At each reporting end date, the charity reviews the carrying amounts of its tangible assets to determine whether there is any indication that those assets have suffered an impairment loss. If any such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is estimated in order to determine the extent of the impairment loss (if any).
Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks and other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less.
The charity has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.
Financial instruments are recognised in the charity's balance sheet when the charity becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.
Financial assets and liabilities are offset, with the net amounts presented in the financial statements, when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.
Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.
Basic financial liabilities, including creditors and bank loans are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.
Debt instruments are subsequently carried at amortised cost, using the effective interest rate method.
Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of operations from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.
Financial liabilities are derecognised when the charity’s contractual obligations expire or are discharged or cancelled.
The costs of short-term employee benefits are recognised as a liability and an expense.
The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee’s services are received.
Termination benefits are recognised immediately as an expense when the charity is demonstrably committed to terminate the employment of an employee or to provide termination benefits.
Payments to defined contribution retirement benefit schemes are charged as an expense as they fall due.
In the application of the charity’s accounting policies, the trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.
The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.
The useful lives of tangible fixed assets are determined by management at the time the asset is acquired and reviewed for appropriateness. The useful lives are based on historical experience with similar assets as well as anticipation of future events, which may impact their life.
Freehold land and buildings are recorded in the financial statements at fair value. Management assess the value of the assets on an annual basis and obtain formal professional valuations every 5 years.
Grants receivable for core activities
Donated building maintenance works
Project donations and training income
Contracts and Performance related grants
Project donations and training income
Contracts and Performance related grants
Non staff costs
Services which support achieving our objective around promoting the preservation of good mental health in particular around enabling and empowering everyone experiencing mental health problems to live with, manage and recover from their condition.
Services with support achieving our objective around relieving the needs of people with mental health problems by working to increase understanding of mental health and mental health problems, by gathering and disseminating information and working to raise awareness, promote understanding and challenge stigma and discrimination.
Basis of allocation: Support and Governance costs are allocated to Charitable Activities on the basis of the percentage of direct charitable costs.
One (2025: one) of the trustees received reimbursement of expenses during the year with a value of £428 (2025: £182).
The average monthly number of employees during the year was:
Redundancy payments totalling £44,212 (2025 - £626) were made in the reporting period with a further £5,904 included in accruals.
Contributions totalling £4,150 (2025 - £4,067) were made to defined contribution pension schemes on behalf of employees whose emoluments exceed £60,000.
The remuneration of key management personnel is as follows.
The charity is exempt from tax on income and gains falling within section 505 of the Taxes Act 1988 or section 252 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 to the extent that these are applied to its charitable objects.
A grant received towards the provision of parent/carer services was identified to be restricted, the income and related expenditure has therefore been reclassified to restricted funds.
Freehold land and buildings for The Gateway, Worthing, with a carrying amount of £413,222 were valued on 7 April 2026 by Bernhardt Associates at £700,000, independent valuers not connected with the charity on the basis of market value. The trustees have used this valuation as their valuation in these financial statements.
On 7 April 2026, The Cornerhouse was valued by Bernhardt Associates at £800,000, independent valuers not connected with the charity on the basis of market value. The trustees have used this valuation as their valuation in these financial statements.
Both valuations conform to International Valuation Standards and were based on recent market transactions on arm's length terms for similar properties.
At 31 March 2026, had the revalued assets been carried at historic cost less accumulated depreciation and accumulated impairment losses, the carrying amount would have been approximately £911,430 (2025 - £925,287).
Deferred income is included in the financial statements as follows:
The restricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants held on trust subject to specific conditions by donors as to how they may be used.
Worthing Borough Council (CIL)
A grant to refurbish and make inclusive the toilet facilities at The Gateway.
Horsham District Council
A contribution towards the costs of our Volunteer Support & EDI co-production work.
Mind
A collection of grants received to support our work in connection with Outreach projects, getting active, cost of living support, Lived experience development, Trauma Informed Vision, Supported Self Help programme and support for Refugees and Asylum Seekers.
Adur District Council
Funding towards the cost of a Young People’s Peer Support Worker to support the power of Peer Support project.
The National Lottery Community Fund (Reaching Communities)
An extension for a third year of funding the Families in Mind project which supports parents.
Worthing CIL& Adur & Worthing Councils
Towards supporting a Youth Peer Support Worker and some Youth Mental Health First Aid training at Northbrook College, West Durrington campus over an 18 month period.
Sports England
ESC Lottery Fund to part fund a ‘Get active’ with our Mental Health Peer Support worker project
Arun & Chichester Food Partnership
An initiative -Winter Food Fund, to assist those struggling with rising food costs in the Arun and Chichester areas.
Macmillan Cancer Support
A partnership between West Sussex Mind and Macmillan Cancer Support to support each other’s aims to reach communities that are not currently accessing services at an expected level, initially focusing on reaching the Polish community.
Sanctuary in Chichester
Match funding towards supporting an additional Mental Health worker position aimed at the support of Refugee and Asylum seekers in the West Sussex area.
Friends of Midhurst Community Hospital
Second year of a two year funding project to provide mental health training, support and targeted PR & marketing for Midhurst and the surrounding areas.
Worthing Pride 2023
A share of proceeds from the event to go towards West Sussex Mind providing an additional worker to support the LGBTQIA+ in the West Sussex area.
Screwfix
Towards the cost of refurbishment of the disabled toilet at our Southwick site
The Budding Foundation
Funding towards the cost of a Young People’s Peer Support Worker to support the Power of Peer Support project.
Morrisons Foundation
Funding towards furniture and equipment needed at our Littlehampton site.
Heads On
The balance of two contracts, one that spans two years and is for a strategic based lead to establish and co-ordinate the development of a West Sussex voluntary, community and social enterprise mental health network. and a second contract to support West Sussex Mind review needs and update our financial recording package.
East Head Impact (Peer Volunteering)
Continuation of funding to support the peer volunteering training programme over a period of 3 years.
West Sussex County Council
Self Harm Learning Network - To establish, maintain and support a range of activities that address the issue of self-harm through a West Sussex programme with online access for the pan-Sussex partnership.
Men’s Mental Health Campaign – to complete a short Men's Mental Health Campaign across West Sussex.
Refugee Support – To start a 23 month programme to support Resettled Refugees in the West Sussex area.
Screwfix Foundation
Donation towards improving the indoor and outdoor space at our Worthing site.
W G Edwards Charitable Foundation
Funding for our Communities In Mind project with the specific aspect of ‘The Creative Art Workshop’ project
Chichester Pride
A donation received in recognition of the invaluable mental Health support and outreach work that West Sussex Mind provides to the LGBTQ+ community. We are using this to continue this support in that area.
Littlehampton TC re Sports kit
For Equipment only, given to service users affected by the cost-of-living crisis in the Littlehampton area, to enable them to 'Get Active'.
Chichester District Council
Fund was awarded for us to support asylum seekers, including outreach work, plus some training for Sanctuary Volunteers.
F Glenister Woodger Trust CIO
A three year agreement supporting some salary costs of a Peer Support Worker in our Youth Team, plus providing a number of Mental Health awareness courses each year aimed at voluntary and community organisations and parents/carers supporting people in the Witterings area.
Boltini Trust
A contribution towards service costs of our Midhurst Young Peoples service, including Youth Mental Health worker and Peer Support worker.
Gledswood Trust
A contribution towards service costs of our Young Peoples service (16 - 25 yrs), including Youth Peer Support worker salary.
Parent/Carer grant
The Mind parenting support team offers a range of free training webinars to help parents and carers support their young person’s mental health. A parent/carer worker is available to provide additional support where required.
The unrestricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants which are not subject to specific conditions by donors and grantors as to how they may be used. These include designated funds which have been set aside out of unrestricted funds by the trustees for specific purposes.
Bridging Fund
To support the cost of some unfunded projects, either until funding is secured or because trustees feel the offer is part of our charity’s objectives, growth, sustainability, equality diversion and inclusion and service user wellbeing of the charity. This also now includes the Fund towards Upkeep of The Cornerhouse Building.
Upkeep of The Cornerhouse Building
To maintain the upkeep of The Cornerhouse building over the coming years as this is an older property. Now transferred to be included within our overall sites upkeep and included within Bridging Fund above.
West Sussex County Council
Continuation into this year for West Sussex Mind to deliver a series of training courses aimed at mental health support for Ukraine Refugees
Legacy – Flint Will Trust
A legacy received by West Sussex Mind from which Trustees have decided to use to support a variety of projects over a 3 year period including ongoing Cost Of Living support, Volunteering and a small element towards some equipment.
Fixed Asset Fund - The Gateway, The Cornerhouse, Maltravers & Office Equipment
The fixed asset fund is a total of the amount equivalent to the net book value of The Gateway building, The Cornerhouse building and the office equipment at the balance sheet date, excluding property revaluation of £544,855, which is included in a separate designated fund. The Fixed Asset Fund also now includes the lease Improvements figure, less amortised amounts, for Maltravers, a further building which is on a long term lease to which we have made improvements to in agreement with WSCC who own the building.
Revaluation reserve
The revaluation reserve reflects the change in valuations of our buildings since they were originally acquired. These are not cash reserves because the amounts only reflect the value of the buildings at that specific time. Only when sold would any increased or decreased value be recognised.
At the reporting end date the charity had outstanding commitments for future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases, which fall due as follows:
There were disclosable related party transactions during the year (2025 - none). See note 10 in respect of transactions with trustees.
The charity had no debt during the year.