Lifeways releases 2025/26 Annual Review

By Andrea Kinkade, Chief Executive of Lifeways.

I’m delighted to share that our Annual Review for 2025/26 has been published, our yearly look back at the achievements of our brilliant team and, most importantly of all, the amazing people we support. 

This is the third Annual Review in my time here as Chief Executive and I am so proud to share the remarkable progress Lifeways has made in that time; continuing our mission to support people with mental ill-health, learning disabilities, autism and complex needs to their very best lives.

I never tire of telling our story as it unfolds. I called 2023/24 our year of transformation, investing time and resources in future proofing our organisation, and I recall describing 2024/25 as a year of reward for all the hard work we have invested. 

Well, 2025/26 has unquestionably been a year of celebration as we have taken time to reflect not only upon our journey but also thirty years of Lifeways support – a brilliant milestone.

Some of my favourite stories within the Annual Review feature people with really complex support needs; people for whom institutionalised living has been their past (usually in placements that have failed) and would be their future were it not for the work that our teams to do support them to live with increasing independence in their community. Our aim to get everyone out of institutions and into their own home continues.

The Annual Review features our team members talking about great lives being led, improving quality, systems that work, greater efficiency, better homes and increased colleague engagement that have led to our commissioners entrusting new support to us.

You will also read about Lifeways as a listening and learning organisation: positive risk-taking, trying new things, pushing boundaries to improve lives. Lives worth celebrating!

So, as always, I finish this introduction where I started: celebration. Let us celebrate our teams, the people we support, their passionate families and, of course, hard work, investment, creativity and resilience. 

Thank you to everyone who has helped make our year of celebration so rewarding.