Annual Report: 1[st] January 2025 – 31[st] December 2025.
I am happy to report on an excellent year, for the Wokingham and West Berkshire Mental Health Association.
Drop-In Centre.
The Drop-In Centre was very well used throughout the year – with attendance numbers, and those supported, reaching a total of one thousand, six hundred, and seventy seven. In the latter part of the year, we have provided ‘warm places’ for service users who, due to limited income, cannot afford high heating bills. Our beautiful, warm rooms, have proved ideal for this purpose, and we are particularly grateful to the Berkshire Community Foundation for making us a donation of one thousand, five hundred pounds – to help with the winter fuel bills.
Crisis Intervention, Information, and Advocacy.
This service continued successfully, throughout the year. A lot of our work involves filling in forms for service users – to ensure that they continue to receive disability benefits. Frequently, people are unaware of their entitlements, so we are able to provide them with the necessary information and advocacy. We are very conscious of the fact that filling in pages and pages of forms, can be very daunting, for a mentally ill person – striving to cope with it all, alone, so we are very happy to provide this service for them. Throughout the year, we have conducted a number of Personal Independence Payment Appeals – either requesting, successfully, Mandatory Reconsideration, or, in one current case, taking it to the Appeal Court. We have also provided advocacy for people with Housing issues.
Befriending.
This service continued, successfully, throughout the year, and we have also been successful in expanding this service – attracting two, new, excellent befrienders.
Station House.
Throughout 2025, in the absence of grants, we have carried out, ourselves, necessary repairs and improvements to Station House – with our volunteers giving their time and skills, for free. Built in 1849, Station House is so old, that its upkeep and repairs have to go on all the time – not that we are complaining. Old and decrepit, to outsiders, it is the perfect retro sanctuary for Wokingham’s mentally ill people – and also occupies the perfect location for a mental health Centre – within minutes of all public transport – right in the middle of everything, and yet nowhere near anybody. Just what the doctor ordered!
Finances.
We have done well, with very generous donations, throughout the year. During the year, we have received a generous donation of £50.00 from the Wokingham Society of Friends, the Quakers. Very valuable to us, because they ensure predictable income, are the regular donations which members place, monthly, into our Bank Account. Throughout 2025, these reached a total of £1,572.00. Not to be forgotten, are gifts in kind – such as coffee, tea, and biscuits, cakes, lemonade, and coca cola, and even more pictures to add to the eight hundred that decorate the walls of the crisis house. One thing that you CAN’T do here, is to sit looking at a bare wall! In addition, are the generous amounts of money that service users put into the Centre’s Collection Box. We average a collection of around £20.00, per week, in the box – so this provides us with additional income of £1,040.00. The total of these monies covers about a third of our annual running costs, so we need to be successful with grant applications throughout 2026.
Supporting Individuals.
Good finances enable us to support individuals in private treatment and psychoanalysis – where we think that this can benefit them. We have agreed to pay for this for one of our members who is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of her son’s recent suicide. She continued with this treatment in 2025. We also support individuals in a practical way. As well as continuing to pay for one of our disabled service users to get to us by taxi, we are now paying for him to have, regular podiatry, at home. His walking has improved greatly as a result of the regular treatment and care.
Obituaries.
It is sad to record that in January 2025, our recently recruited volunteer, Paul Glover, died suddenly, from a heart attack. This was particularly sad, since we had helped him to set himself up in retirement – which we predicted as being long and happy. Our members attended his funeral and wake – both being attended by large numbers of people who appreciated all that he had contributed to the local community.
Christmas.
Our 2025 Christmas Party was a great success, and, strictly speaking, we didn’t close for Christmas, at all. The party was held on 23[rd] December. I advised our, isolated, mentally ill members, to spend 24[th] , Christmas Eve, going around the shops to pick up some last minute bargains. In 2025, Christmas Eve fell on a Wednesday, and Christmas Day on a Thursday – which are not opening days for our drop-in centre. We re-opened on 26[th] , Boxing Day, and thus kept the isolation of the mentally ill, at this nightmare time, to a minimum.
Vote of Thanks.
I wish to record thanks to all those who have supported us – either, financially, or as volunteers, in carrying out our invaluable work for mental health, throughout Wokingham and West Berkshire – during the year 2025.
Pam Jenkinson, Association President. 31[st] December 2025.
Wokingham & West Berkshire Mental Health Associat
Income and Expenditure Account for the period 1st April 2024 to 31 March 2025
Income
Brought Forward Donations Loan Total Income
Expenditure
Professional Cleaning Daily & Household Expenses Public Liability Insurance Television Electricity Fire Safety Telephone/Internet Water Rates Business Rates & Rent Repairs Psychotherapy Welfare Total Expenditure
Income over expenditure
Bank Accounts as at 31st March 2025
tion
£19,762.20 £12,333.74 £3,285.00 £35,380.94
£1,404.00 £4,028.97 £1,821.06 £165.00 £1,281.68 £973.56 £579.87 £328.36 £1,896.35 £1,700.00 £390.00 £720.00 £15,288.85
£20,092.09
£20,092.09
1, Arlington Close, Bracknell, Berks. RG42 1YF 6 April, 2025
To Whom It May Concern:
I have examined the Accounts of The Wokingham & West Berkshire Mental Health Association for the period 1[st] April, 2024 to 31[st] March, 2025.
I confirm that this is an accurate statement of the Association’s income and expenditure for this period.
Dennis M. Jenkinson