Tough times: changes to Amaze’s work in 2025/26 and our strategic plans for the longer term
“It is an overused saying that times are tough, especially as we know that for many families with children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities this is the norm. But here at Amaze, we’d definitely describe our experience as a charity over the last few years as tough times, certainly since the pandemic or perhaps even earlier, since the SEND reforms of 2015. In recent months the environment we are working in feels harder than ever. This is because we are grappling with more people wanting to access our support and services, a growing list of things we wish we could offer and achieve, but with less funding and resources. This is both in real terms, but also due to the fact that our costs have been steadily rising and our grants/contracts haven’t increased in financial value for five or more years.
“Although we have successfully increased our unrestricted funds, for example from community events and corporate partnerships, Amaze’s income from grants and commissioned contracts is set to reduce by around 12% in 2025/26, and our costs increase by around 8%. We cannot continue to dip into our organisational reserves to cover this funding gap, as this risks our future sustainability.
“Where specific funding is ending, we are planning to scale back some of the groups we run in both East Sussex and Brighton & Hove. One of the groups that will end is our AmazeXtra weekly SEND club in Portslade. We are really sad that we can no longer continue to run this group, due to its grant funding coming to an end. We are glad we ran it for 17 months and are working with the 16 young people affected to try and get them into other Amazing Futures youth activities.
“Sadly, we will also no longer be able to provide one-to-one support for parents or young people applying for DLA and PIP in East Sussex. Importantly, families will still be able to access our workshops and online information.
“At the same time as dealing with the challenges we face right now, we have been asking parent carers, young people and our partner organisations to tell us what they want from Amaze in 2025-2030. A big thank you to everyone who completed a survey, attended our AGM or youth day, or shared their thoughts with us in meetings. We are very grateful for your time and commitment to Amaze.
“We’ve so far gathered the views of over 200 people -with a few more still to come – and trustees met in January to discuss the initial feedback, and also to think about changes in the external environment affecting Amaze, such as changing SEND policy and local government reform.
“We are now drafting our new strategy, with a refreshed vision, mission, values statement and set of goals for the next five years. The consultation affirmed that Amaze continues to provide support services which families need and want, and that offering a sense of community and belonging is as important to local families as being able to access quality information and advice. We also know that we need to develop Amaze as a robust, effective and efficient organisation, where we support our staff and volunteers, invest in our systems and make best use of digital technology.
“We will produce a ‘You Said, We Did’ report to summarise how we’ve taken on board all the helpful comments and suggestions we received during the strategy consultation, or where we’re not been able to go ahead with any of your ideas, we will explain why. If you’ve not yet shared your thoughts, please contact [email protected]“
