Annual Report and Accounts 2011
Message from Samaritans’ Chief Executive
“Ordinary people doing extraordinary things”
Much has been written about the Big Society
concept over the last 12 months. With 18,750 volunteers
across the UK and the Republic of Ireland, Samaritans has a great
deal of experience in encouraging volunteering and promoting the
concept of serving the local community.
Samaritans is a volunteer-led organisation where
ordinary people of all ages help to save the lives of other
ordinary people. In 2010 our volunteers gave an estimated 4.5
million hours of time which in service provision terms equates to a
monetary value of more than £56m.
What’s more our volunteers showed true
dedication to keep their branches open when snow closed roads,
blocked in cars and crippled public transport in
December.
The last 12 months have seen major political
change across the UK and Republic of Ireland. It has also
been a period of continuing economic uncertainty with public
spending cuts and increasing unemployment.
Samaritans annual survey of the UK’s worries
showed that nearly 60% of people are concerned about financial
issues and more than a third were worried about losing their
jobs.
Throughout the year Samaritans has continued to
offer 24-hour confidential emotional support for people in
distress. Our 18,750 well trained and committed volunteers continue
to provide our service from 201 branches as they have done for the
last 58 years responding to five million contacts in 2010.
Whilst our service remains constant we are
seeing changes in the way that people access our support. In
2010 there was an increase in both the number of contacts by both
texts and emails, whilst the number of telephone contacts fell
slightly.
Samaritans is also piloting a free-to-caller
telephone service which has dealt with 200,000 contacts in the 12
months from April 2010. The results of the evaluation of our
service indicated that for some of our callers the cost of calls is
a barrier to gaining our support and as an organisation we are
working hard to secure a sustainable source of income to support
the free to caller number and ultimately our callers.
Samaritans is also facing the challenge of
upgrading our ageing telephone call distribution system.
A new system is needed to help us reduce the
engaged rate, and to increase our capacity to respond to more
contacts whether by telephone, email or text. Vital funds for this
project are being raised by the Chad Varah Appeal (launched in May
2010) as well as from corporate and trust donors and this
initiative is a major priority for the coming year.
Samaritans media work has been very high profile
this year with concerns about the link between suicide and the
online environment heightened by a number of suicide pacts
involving people who have met on the internet.
Samaritans relationship with both Google and
Facebook has enabled us to develop practical online initiatives to
support people at risk of suicide.
Our Media Guidelines
have continued to see us working with the industry on how to report
on high profile and sensitive stories in order to avoid copycat
deaths. I am pleased to say that we have seen a marked
difference in the responsible reporting of such deaths in the media
during 2010/11. Samaritans will continue to keep a close watch on
this issue and has publically called on the research community to
help study the issue of suicide and the online
environment.
The fundraising environment, as ever, remained
challenging in 2010/11. Samaritans has seen an increase in
incoming resources, thanks to the continued support of the general
public.
Samaritans central charity only receives
approximately 2.5% of its income from statutory sources, so has
been largely unaffected by the public spending cuts, although we do
expect increasing levels of competition for funding from all
sources in the coming 12 months.
There is much uncertainty in the year ahead, but I am confident
that with staff and volunteers working together, Samaritans will
continue to make positive progress against the implementation of
our strategy and ensure that anyone in distress and despair will
find support at any time of the day or night.
Read the
letter from the Chair of Samaritans