2025/26 in review: from Brook’s CEO and Chair

Brook’s Chief Executive Helen Marshall and Chair Dame Sally Dicketts reflects on the challenges and achievements at Brook across the last year.

Over the past three years, Brook has faced some of the most significant challenges in our history. Soaring STI rates and years of underfunding have left sexual health services struggling to meet increased demand. Women and girls are facing increased harassment and sexual violence, as a culture of misogyny spreads both on and offline. Meanwhile, there have been numerous attempts to restrict reproductive rights and limit what young people can learn in schools. Brook has met these challenges head on, with the same courageous spirit that inspired our founder Helen Brook to open her first clinic over 60 years ago.

Throughout 2025/26, we have seen significant victories in our fight for people’s right to excellent sexual health and wellbeing. The new Crime and Policing Act marks an important milestone in our decades-long struggle to end the criminalisation of those who terminate their own pregnancy. We have also successfully campaigned against harmful restrictions to the RSHE curriculum and secured a commitment from the government to extend mandatory RSE to further education settings.

Despite these successes, there is still much work to be done. The new RSHE guidance does little to improve provision for SEND young people, leaving many schools ill-equipped to make this subject truly accessible. To address this, we have launched a new suite of SEND-inclusive lessons, co-designed with neurodivergent young people, covering vital subjects such as consent and healthy relationships.

With two in five teenagers now experiencing abuse in their romantic relationships, it is crucial we develop innovative approaches to tackle misogyny and harassment. Almost 250,000 university students now have access to our digital consent and bystander intervention courses, while our recent Big RSE Lesson on healthy online relationships was broadcast live to over 70,000 pupils. Thanks to support from the Youth Endowment Fund, we hope to reach over 12,000 young people across London in the next two years, transforming attitudes and behaviours to sexual violence.

Young people’s mental health remains in crisis, with over 78,500 now waiting more than a year for NHS treatment. In this climate, our early intervention mental health support programmes provide a lifeline for young people, providing support before they reach crisis point.  In the last year, we made over 4,000 crucial interventions, both in outreach and from our flagship Wellbeing Hubs in Blackburn and Cornwall.

Alongside these innovations, Brook continues to expand the reach of our core offer, ensuring more people than ever benefit from our life course approach to sexual health and wellbeing. Brook is now delivering vital health promotion programmes for diverse communities across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire as part of the Yuno sexual health partnership. In Sefton, we secured our sixth all-age integrated sexual health service contract, which sees us providing compassionate, confidential care from our clinics and online.

These achievements are only possible thanks to our supporters. As we commence delivery of our ambitious new strategic plan, we invite those who share Brook’s values to join us in our fight against stigma and inequality. By working collaboratively, we can continue to provide inclusive, non-judgmental support for those communities most in need. 

Helen Marshall, Chief Executive
Dame Sally Dicketts, Chair