Response at 60: A Diamond Anniversary Reflecting Sector-Wide Resilience and Risk

As the mental health charity Response marks its 60th anniversary, it celebrates a journey from a spirited volunteer initiative in post-war Oxford to becoming the region’s largest independent mental health and housing charity. Yet, this milestone is not just a moment for reflection. It serves as a powerful case study for the entire UK charity sector, illustrating a story of pioneering success and sustained impact set against a backdrop of acute funding pressures and what its Chief Executive, Nicola Leavesley, calls “record, urgent, demand”. The story of Response is the story of a sector grappling with how to preserve a legacy of care while navigating an unprecedented modern crisis.

The origins of Response are deeply rooted in the post-war deinstitutionalisation movement, a period that fundamentally reshaped social care in Britain. As the nation sought community-based alternatives to the vast, overcrowded mental hospitals of the era, local innovators began to forge a new path. Response’s story began at Littlemore Hospital, Oxford, where staff, including the influential community psychiatric nurse Helmut Leopoldt, identified that many long-stay residents could thrive with the proper support in the community. This vision was brought to life not just by clinical innovation, but by structural necessity. NHS financial regulations forbade the hospital from renting properties itself, creating a barrier to its community-care experiment. The solution was a pioneering public-third sector partnership: the hospital’s newly formed League of Friends, a volunteer-led charity, stepped in to provide the essential administrative and financial vehicle for what became the Oxford Group Homes Organisation (OGHO).

In 1963, the organisation established its first group home, a groundbreaking model designed to provide stable housing for people who had spent years in institutional care. This local solution proved remarkably effective. By 1966, the OGHO operated 17 properties—16 rented and one purchased—providing homes for 103 people and offering them a chance to rebuild their lives with dignity. The charity’s evolution reflects the changing landscape of mental health provision. It rebranded as Response in 2003 to better represent its adaptive, person-centred approach, and in 2014, it became a key member of the newly formed Oxfordshire Mental Health Partnership (OMHP). This move signalled a strategic shift towards a multi-agency, collaborative model, integrating its services with five other specialist organisations to create a more cohesive system of care. From a clever workaround born of necessity, the charity has evolved into a cornerstone of a complex modern healthcare system.

Today, Response has evolved far beyond its initial focus on housing, delivering a multi-layered, holistic system of support for individuals of all ages. This demonstrates a modern approach to mental health and wellbeing that addresses needs from early intervention to intensive, complex care. The core of its work remains with adults facing serious mental illness, providing a wide spectrum of supported housing from CQC-registered care homes with 24/7 services to community houses with visiting support workers. Its portfolio of 362 rooms for adults is a testament to its scale and commitment to providing safe accommodation as a foundation for recovery. The impact of this provision is powerfully articulated by those who use the services. For Lucy, who has bipolar disorder and PTSD, finding herself homeless after losing her job was devastating. “Response really got me a life,” she states, reflecting on the profound transformation. “The whole thing, the flat, the support and the grant have changed my life. I am so grateful.” These personal stories underscore the profound impact of Response’s work on individuals, making the audience feel the significance of the charity’s services.

In recent years, Response has strategically expanded its services to support children, young people, and families, recognising the critical importance of early intervention. It now works with individuals from the age of 11, delivering a range of community-based programmes. From 1st January to 31st October 2024, it supported 2,063 young people through initiatives like the Young People’s Supported Accommodation (YPSA) programme, its partnership with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), and the recent launch of a new Wellbeing Hub in Thatcham. For many, like Charlotte, who has lived with depression and anxiety for years, the consistent support has been vital. She summarises her experience simply: “Response is a caring environment.” These personal accounts ground the charity’s work in human experience, linking the delivery of these vital services to the very real challenges the sector now faces in sustaining them.

This 60th year is therefore not only a celebration but also a case study in the financial precarity confronting the wider UK charity sector. The growing chasm between spiralling operational costs and static public funding has become a critical threat to providers of essential community services, and Response is at the forefront of this battle. Despite these challenges, the charity has shown remarkable resilience. According to its leadership and annual report, increases in funding from key commissioners have failed to keep pace with inflation and the rising National Living Wage. This financial pressure is not an abstract concept; it has direct and damaging consequences. In 2023, funding challenges led to the closure of the charity’s Mental Wealth Academy, a partnership programme for 18- to 25-year-olds, highlighting how vital services can be lost when the financial model becomes unsustainable.

This funding shortfall has necessitated a strategic pivot towards public fundraising. “The need to fundraise to help us support more people has never been greater,” states CEO Nicola Leavesley. In response, the charity has launched innovative new initiatives, including the “Dog Jog Virtual Challenge” and a corporate partnership with Oxford City FC, facilitated by local business TotalQ. These efforts showcase the sector’s characteristic resilience but also highlight a growing dependency on voluntary income to bridge gaps in statutory funding. The fundamental tension is captured perfectly by Leavesley: “We reduce pressure on public services, but we now face record, urgent, demand for our services…” This reflects a sector-wide dilemma in which charities are increasingly asked to do more with less, a situation that threatens the long-term viability of services designed to support the most vulnerable.

The 60-year journey of Response, from a pioneering volunteer project to a cornerstone of regional mental health care, is a testament to its profound impact and remarkable adaptability. Its story is one of innovation born from necessity, evolving from providing basic shelter to delivering complex, integrated care pathways. However, this milestone is not merely a celebration of the past. It is a stark illustration of the present-day challenges facing the third sector, as record demand collides with a real-terms decline in statutory funding. The crucial lesson from Response’s story for the entire UK charity sector is its demonstration of the profound vulnerability of essential services that have historically relied on public contracts. The next chapter for Response, and for countless organisations like it, will be defined not just by resilience, but by the urgent, strategic imperative to build hybrid funding models that can withstand the erosion of statutory support. Without this, even the most impactful and long-standing charities risk their future.