This year’s annual surveys revealed that an incredible 96% of our volunteers feel like they’re making a difference to somebody – and our older people confirmed that they feel the same way, reporting higher wellbeing scores and less frequent feelings of loneliness now than when they joined one of our services. 88% of older people described their experience of Re-engage as good or excellent, and 83% said that joining a service has had a positive impact on their lives.

On top of rising numbers of UK pensioners living in deprivation, loneliness and social isolation are increasingly recognised worldwide as posing a risk to physical as well as mental health and wellbeing. We’re happy to find that as well as bringing down the number of older people who often feel lonely, almost three-quarters of our survey respondents feel happier because of joining Re-engage (73%) and more than half say their general wellbeing has improved (56%).

Our annual surveys offer a chance to hear from everyone about the difference that our services make and to take a snapshot of the past year. This not only gives us insight into the benefits of being part of our range of services, but the feedback also helps us to review things and, where needed, make changes to improve people’s experiences. As a charity, we’re committed to an evidence-based approach to developing and delivering its services.

We’re incredibly grateful to everybody who takes part in our referrer, volunteer, and older people’s surveys: 10 minutes of your time gives us an incredible amount of insight into the impact that we are having across different services, locations and even time periods. Because we hear from so many people each year, we can be confident that we’re not missing anything important.

Alongside our annual surveys, the impact team – including our fantastic impact volunteers – conducts surveys and interviews with older people and volunteers all year round and consults with a small advisory group of older people each quarter. This year, our annual surveys invited expressions of interest from older people and volunteers keen to be more involved in our work. We’re delighted that not only has our older people’s advisory group welcomed new members but we’re also planning the first online meeting of our new older people’s research group as well as organising our first volunteer advisory groups.