Impact Report 2021-2022

Welcome to Samaritans’ Impact Report 2021/22. We’re proud to say it’s been a year of enormous progress for the charity in many ways. Progress that means – even in these uncertain times – we will reduce lives lost to suicide.

The surge of interest in Samaritans we reported last year has translated into the biggest boost in volunteer numbers in five years. We warmly welcome everyone who joined Samaritans this year; it’s our people – around 22,000 volunteers and 300 staff – who make Samaritans who we are.

Samaritans’ incredible volunteers spent over one million hours answering calls for help by phone, email, online chat and letter. Every 10 seconds, our volunteers answered a call for help from someone struggling to cope. When pandemic restrictions lifted, volunteers were also back out in communities, reaching thousands of people at events and festivals.

We supported thousands more through our Self-help and Veterans apps. And it was amazing to reach the milestone of having trained 25,000 rail workers to make life-saving interventions on the railways. Underpinning all our services was our total commitment to quality standards – we made good progress in updating our training and development programme this year.

Samaritans doesn’t just support people in crisis today, we also strive for a society in which fewer people reach crisis point. This year we worked to influence parliaments and assemblies across our five jurisdictions as new online safety legislation was being drawn up. We secured some important changes to the proposed law to create a kinder, safer internet. But we must keep pushing until the law in the UK and Ireland protects everyone from self-harm and suicide content everywhere.

Another major area of progress this year has been the development of our new charity strategy, Tackling suicide together: providing a safe space in uncertain times, informed by people with lived experience, our volunteers, staff and supporters. The strategy will steer our work for the coming five years, ensuring we continue to be there for those who need us most, reach out to more people to let them know we’re here, make our voice heard to make suicide prevention a priority, and are sustainable for the future.

One of the key principles of this new strategy is our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion. We have a lot of work to do in this area and this is our public commitment to take action. It will inform everything we do at Samaritans, guiding the way we work and behave. We’re also making sure our work is informed by the insights of people who have experienced suicidal feelings, suicide attempts, self-harm, or bereavement by suicide.

We have lots of work to do over the next few years, and in these difficult times, our work is more vital than ever. We thank every individual, group and organisation who has chosen to support us this year to give hope to those who need it. Together, we can make change that saves lives.

Julie Bentley

Chief Executive

Keith Leslie

Chair of Trustees