Bright Futures UK

Bright Futures UK is a fast-growing charity transforming the educational outcomes of young people with long-term illness. In 2025, we supported over 2,000 young people, more than tripling our reach from 600 in 2024, through personalised tutoring, mentoring, befriending and in-hospital programmes.

We address a critical gap in provision for the 279,000 children and young people who miss over 20% of their education due to physical or mental health conditions, many of whom receive little or no statutory support.

In 2025, we scaled both delivery and influence. We expanded to five NHS hospital partnerships, launched bedside education packs, and commissioned a national report to quantify the long-term impact of illness-related educational disruption.

Our work is delivering measurable outcomes. Participants reported a 48% increase in confidence, 45% improvement in academic progress, 40% increase in optimism about the future, and 38% improvement in mental health and wellbeing. 100% would recommend our support.

Alongside service delivery, we strengthened our policy influence through advocacy work with GK Strategy, including parliamentary engagement and submissions.

Our impact has been recognised nationally, including being named Charity of the Year at the Charity Times Awards and receiving an invitation to Buckingham Palace.

Bright Futures UK is combining frontline delivery with system-level change to ensure no young person is left behind due to illness.