Welcome to the latest edition of IMPOWER’s annual impact report.

The last 12 months have been a time of rapid change in public services with Labour returning to power after almost 14 years. Local government reorganisation, structural changes to the NHS and revised national priorities have shifted the landscape in which we, and our clients, operate.

Despite these tectonic shifts, we have still achieved so much as an organisation over the last financial year and I am delighted to be able to share here some of the impact that we have had.

At IMPOWER our fundamental mission is to help our clients to deliver on their ambition. We do this by working with both “head” and “heart”, seeking new value for our clients and focussing relentlessly on results, but doing so with emotional intelligence, respectful challenge and front-line credibility. The results set out in this document are testament to that approach – lives improved while ensuring that costs are sustainable.

In the last 12 months we have positively impacted over 35,000 lives across a huge range of areas as set out in this report including:

• Helping practitioners and commissioners to better understand the needs of children in care to find them the best possible care and support.
• Ensuring that people in mental health settings are able to return home as soon as safely possible.
• Improving delivery of services so that more older people can receive the social care support that they need.
• Supporting working age adults receiving social care support to live their lives with greater independence.

The aggregate numbers can describe only so much of our impact and, as you will see in this report, it is the individual stories that make up the heart of what we do. Stories of children with special educational needs who are being better supported for Reception, or of older adults whose improved confidence means that they can now live the life that they want.

At the same time, we have made sure that our approach supports sustainability, identifying opportunities to save over £250m for our clients annually and delivering over £27m of savings.

Looking ahead into 2025-26, the pace of change at national level shows no signs of slowing. Structural reforms like local government and NHS reorganisation and the fair funding review will take up significant management bandwidth, while specific policy changes in areas as broad as children’s and adults’ social care, prevention, capital spending and the SEND system will create new opportunities and challenges for both system leaders and service users.

There are examples in this report of how we are already helping our clients to prepare for those changes sustainably, while making sure that people receiving public services remain the principal beneficiaries of any reform.

Change will continue to test the boundaries of what is possible in public service delivery. But as we look ahead, our own focus remains unchanged: supporting our clients to deliver on their ambitions, acting with both head and heart, and achieving outcomes that matter.

Sean Hanson

CEO, IMPOWER