We are proud to share our Annual Report for 2024/25. The year was hugely significant for St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity. With the numbers of people currently without a home soaring, we awarded a record number of emergency grants. We also continued to champion frontline workers, not only through our networks but significantly increasing our advocacy and influencing with and for them. Our Frontline Worker Survey, always sobering in its assessment of the role and value but also challenges and concerns facing frontline workers, was a key tool to help influence the expansion of the Blue Light Card initiative to include homelessness sector workers.
This is all possible thanks to the wide range of partners we are privileged to work with and the support of those who fund and donate to us, particularly through our cherished partnership with BBC Radio 4.
Together we are able to ensure that thousands of people across the UK have a safe place to call home.
Before we get started
Before we get started
Helping individuals
Helping individuals
The cost of accessing new accommodation can be a huge barrier for people, that could otherwise leave or make them homeless. Saving for a deposit for people who may have be unable to find work, or simply in a low-paid role can be next to impossible, with living costs soaring at the same time. And with high demand for housing, when a suitable property is found, deposits and rent in advance are needed quickly to secure it.
That’s why we provide emergency grants across the UK through our VRF programme, to enable people to access homes.
In 2024-25, we spent £2,006,412 on 4,983 emergency grants, benefitting a total of 7,660 people.
Supporting frontline workers
Supporting frontline workers
We know that key to helping someone out of homelessness or to prevent it in the first place, is having a skilled frontline worker. They reach out, engage, build a supportive relationship and work with other agencies to ensure they provide the support their clients need. This is only possible when frontline workers are valued and supported to do their jobs, but too often this is not the case – that is why we champion frontline workers across the UK, directly and by working with our Frontline Network partners.
In 2024/25, we had:
- 1,006 attendees at Frontline Network events across the UK
- 849 Training fund and outsourced training attendees
- 370 Conference attendees, compared to 350 in the previous year
- 1,100 Frontline Worker Survey respondents, with our report being published September 2024
Support St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity and help transform lives.
Investing in solutions
Investing in solutions
We test, develop and share solutions to key issues and build support for them with the public and policy makers. Through investment in a range of projects and sharing our learnings as trusted leaders in our field, we build support for those solutions with the public and policymakers.
In 2024/25, we:
- invested in 12 projects across the UK, supporting, developing and testing solutions to homelessness
- supported 471 people through our Frontline Fund across 6 projects, and helped our partners develop and embed new services and approaches
- helped 99 people into new homes and 67 people to keep their homes, through investing in The Connection at St Martin’s work to support rough sleepers in the centre of London
- identified 138 practices, 2 innovation forums and 7 deep dives platforming and exploring emerging and promising practice, through our Homeless Practice incubator
Advocating for change
Advocating for change
We use our reach and the insight we gain from our programmes and partnerships to advocate for change, capturing learning and sharing it to improve practice and policy across the sector, and to raise concerns with local and national governments in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
Our Impact Team gathers and analyses data, learning and insight from our Frontline Network partners and our other programmes and the team also runs our Annual Frontline Worker Survey, the largest collection of frontline worker data, insight, and experience in the UK.
Over 1,100 frontline workers responded to our survey in 2024 from across the UK with key findings including:
- 84% of homelessness workers reported an increased demand for their services over the previous 13 months
- 92% reported finding it difficult or very difficult to obtain ‘suitable’ housing for the people they are supporting
- 47% said their ability to prevent homelessness had decreased (up from 33%)
- 64% reported their role has a negative impact on their wellbeing (58% in 2022)
- Over half of homelessness workers were struggling to pay their bills and nearly a quarter (23%) worried about becoming homeless themselves
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