A year together
2024 - 2025
We are the Together Trust
2024-25 was a big year for us and we’re proud to mark it by sharing just some of the many incredible stories and achievements of people from across the Together Trust.
For over 150 years, we’ve been championing and caring for people with disabilities, autism and complex health needs and providing life-changing care and support to looked-after children and care-experienced people.
To champion the rights, needs and ambitions of the people we support – they are at the heart of everything we do. We stand by them and we work together for change.
Our mission
Our vision
A society where people thrive because they are valued within their communities.
What we do
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Residential homes
Whether that’s a place to call your own, somewhere to rest and recharge or get stability and support. We’re proud to offer warm and nurturing homes for children and young people. We help them grow their independence and shape their own story - all while regaining a sense of belonging.
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Specialist learning environments
We support children and young people from age 5 all the way to 25 with individual learning plans.
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Foster care
We’ve been growing our foster family for over 25 years. If you’ve got a passion for helping young people succeed, you could be a Together Trust foster carer.
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Family support
We’ve helped a lot of families over the years, and we know that every family is different. Our support includes Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) mediation services and autism sleep clinics.
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Community support
We put our services at the heart of local communities, whether that’s helping adults to live independently or creating spaces for young people to learn, work and play.
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Therapy and specialist support
Our experienced multi-disciplinary team offers a wide range of therapy and training programmes to professionals, bespoke input for children and young people in a variety of settings, and universal advice for the wider community in which they live and learn. We can provide assessments, 1:1 and group therapy, programmes of support, and written reports.
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Campaigning
We work alongside the people we support to create change and make sure their voice is heard.
What we’ve achieved
children, adults and families supported
3,100+
young people fostered by our carers
36
stars rating given by parents and people we support for the overall quality of the services we provide
4.5/5
mediations service enquiries
1,062
9-year-old Lola* had been in the hospital for a substantial amount of time before finding her new home at Norvent, a Together Trust residential home which specialises in supporting children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Lola had selective mutism, but the team found creative ways to bond with Lola and always celebrated ‘wins’, no matter how small.
Not only did Lola flourish within her new home, she also began to access education again with the support of Together Trust staff.
Lyndene, a Home from Home environment based in Wythenshawe, was established this year through a collaborative effort involving Manchester City Council’s social care team and NHS England. The new service works with young people with learning difficulties and autism and their families to develop systems and strategies aimed at keeping families together.
Whilst many services support young people with autism and learning difficulties once a family breakdown has happened, Lyndene differs in that it aims to support families before this point to strengthen bonds, keep families together in their home and give everyone a chance to thrive.
At the parliamentary launch of our nationwide survey ‘What comes after education’, we spoke to Rebecca, whose autistic son Joshua graduated from Inscape House School last year. She has been a passionate advocate for people with SEND for years:
“I can prove categorically how much he needs his education in order to support himself in the future. I am terrified what will happen next for my son when he leaves education. What is out there today isn’t good and extremely hard to navigate. Yet, with the right support, my son has such potential.”
“We began with trips to the park and feeding the ducks and, slowly but surely, he’s now regularly going for swims at three different pools. He’s asking for more and more swimming trips! He’s been twice this week and he’s super happy.”
We’re so proud of the progress the adults we support have made in the past year at Salford Hub, one of our community services, exploring new activites and strengthening their skills.
Fostering spotlight
“Being a foster carer has really changed my life. To see these young people who haven’t had the experiences as others their age, to be able to provide those experiences for them and let them thrive in life… it just means everything to me.”
Across the UK, 7,000 new fostering homes are needed to care for children who are unable to live with their own family.
Two people who have answered this call for care are Jill and Mark, who have been providing a loving home for foster children for over 21 years!
Our incredible volunteers have been involved in all of our service areas and most support areas over the past year. In addition to the time contributed by our trustees and governors, they donated 3,3010 hours to our services and 551 hours to our events. Our volunteer team helped with:
Our volunteers
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Researching evidence gaps to help us champion the rights of the people we support.
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Taking photographs of clothing for us to sell and raise money online.
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Supporting our Bridge College students with their studies, including sport, music, horticulture, art, and catering as well as welcoming visitors to the site.
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Creating sleep service materials to help children and families have a restful night.
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Helping us share information through writing articles,
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This special group transported vulnerable children and young people across our education and residential services on important journeys, including to school, work experience, sports tournaments, educational trips, as well as collecting donations.
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Creating sensory gardens.
Hear from one of our amazing volunteers
“My volunteering experience has reignited a belief in myself. I have a new found confidence, particularly in my ability to collaborate and produce work that I can be proud of.”
Amber, Assistant Researcher with our Campaigns team
Our thanks go to all our amazing volunteers.
Our supporters
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We were very lucky last year to have the Vernon Building Society sponsor our annual Join Together Festival as part of their centenary celebrations.
“It was great to be the sponsor of the Together Trust Festival in the centenary year of the Vernon Building Society. As a community focused building society there was no better event for us to sponsor. We had a great day supporting the event and could see how much the young people in the community value your help. The sponsorship shows in your words “Together we thrive” and in our words “Together we are greater.”
- Judith Aspin, Finance Director, The Vernon Building Society
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Romiley Golf Club raised an incredible £4,000 for us this year for much needed equipment for one of our residential services Woodlands’ sensory room. This is part of a partnership where Romiley Golf Club kindly selected the Together Trust as their charity to support for the year. The club has worked tirelessly raising funds through a golf event, Lady Captain’s Day, and Clarins event, amongst other fundraisers throughout the year.
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This year three Together Trust staff members took fundraising to new heights by taking part in a sky dive! They took on this challenge to raise funds to take the young people at one of our residential services Pocket Nook to Disney Land. They collectively contributed over £1500 to the fundraising total which is a truly incredible team effort. Pocket Nook provides a home for up to five children with autism, learning disabilities, and complex needs. This holiday will be a once in a lifetime trip for the young people that they would not be able to access without support from their dedicated team. A huge well done for our amazing dare devil sky divers!
Ways to support
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Each week you could be in with a chance of winning the top prize of £25,000. Sign up now
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The Together Trust sell a wide variety of new and second hand items online via our Depop and Vinted shops. Shop with us
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We recycle different items in exchange for cash donations to our charity, raising vital funds and keeping items out of landfill. Read more
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For a full list of our upcoming events, visit our website.
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Our SEND school’s Animal-assisted Intervention (AAI) sessions help improve students’ mental, physical, social and emotional functioning. Become a sponsor.
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Whether you work for a company that nominates a charity of the year or are a member of a group that does fundraising events, we’d love to hear from you!
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Keen runner/cycler/walker/swimmer or even bungee jumper? You can take part in challenge events throughout the country while raising money for our charity! Visit runforcharity.com/charity/together-trust
Our campaigning impact
35
blogs published spotlighting key issues, policy developments and lived experiences
BBC Radio 4 feature
on unregistered settings research by Andy Smith (ADSC President)
400+
survey responses from disabled children, young people and families through our "What Comes After Education?" research project.
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government consultations responded to
‘What Comes After Education’
co-hosted parliamentary launch at Westminster
Future plans
Our workforce and the people we support are shaping our plans. As we approach the end of our current Stronger Together Plan, we will now focus on developing new longer-term plans to take the Trust forward in the next 5 years and beyond. Over the coming year our commitment to growing and delivering high-quality, person-centred support to meet changing needs remains. We will continue to care for and listen to our incredible, diverse workforce and to working in partnership to strengthen our work and impact.
We will start to strengthen the foundations for ambitious growth, plans which involve:
Improving our buildings
Leading with compassion to support the wellbeing and development of our workforce
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Gathering the right information to help shape our services
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Gathering the right information to help shape our services
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Growing partnerships
Ensuring we meet the highest standards
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We look forward to an exciting year ahead and to shaping our longer term plans with and for the people we support, their parent/carers, our workforce and other stakeholders.
Giles Gaddum
Chair of the Board of Trustees
Mel Dunn
Chief Executive
