Social Impact Report 2024 - 2025
Leading the Way 2024-25
Change happens when people share what they know, build others’ skills and pull together to make things better for patients everywhere.
Changing lives: our impact in 2024 – 2025
We’ve always led the way when it comes to transforming wound and lymphoedema care. This year, we pushed it further and again demonstrated what our pioneering work in wound and lymphoedema care really means – better outcomes for patients, new ideas that shape the sector, and lives changed for the better.
We treated more patients than ever this year – 4,645 people in total – and achieved remarkable results, with 75% of leg ulcer patients healed within 12 weeks. Our approach means that behind every number is a person who feels seen, supported and empowered to take control of their health.
The moment I walked into the Accelerate clinic, I thought “This is it. These are the right people here”
Patient
Expanding reach and choice
2024/2025 saw us open our Preston Hub, strengthening our reach across the UK, and building the knowledge and confidence in wound and lymphoedema management that improves the patient experience. With a growing number of learners joining us from across the UK – and visitors travelling from Europe and beyond – our expertise continues to ripple outward, improving care far beyond our clinics.
Our reach
From clinic visits to academy training, this map shows the scale of Accelerate’s reach – where we work, where we teach, how far people travel to access our expertise and where we travel to overseas.
We also brought our expertise to local networks through the LoCUS evaluation, uniting 11 clinical teams across England to test new compression techniques and share learning that’s already shaping and supporting healing. And with new senior leaders joining our team – including national experts Kate Williams and Rebecca Elwell – we’re building even greater capacity to influence wound and lymphoedema care across the UK.
A year of transition and ambition
This year also marked a new chapter in leadership as Alison Hopkins passed the CEO to Alpana Malde. Alpana’s focus is clear: to build on Accelerate’s strengths while driving fresh innovation in data, service delivery and education.
Accelerate has a 30-year history of clinical leadership, and I’m proud to build on that legacy as its first non-clinical leader. I’m surrounded by a senior team with more than a century of combined expertise. My goal is simple: to grow this social business so that more people can access our specialist care, with every success reinvested in our community.
CEO
Looking ahead to 2025/2026: continuing to innovate and expand
As we look to the year ahead, our focus remains the same: to deliver life-changing care, share our expertise more widely and keep pushing boundaries in lower-limb health. The launch of our self-payer service in April 2025 is already helping more people to access our care, while creating a new income stream that is fully reinvested into our mission-led business.
We’re also seeing a steady rise in NHS referrals from outside our boroughs, a reflection of our reputation for quality and the trust we’ve built across the system.
The coming year will see us open the UK’s first biomechanics service for lower-limb care, strengthening the connection between movement, prevention and recovery. Our Preston hub will continue to grow, extending our reach and helping local teams build skills and confidence in wound and lymphoedema management.
Our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)is expanding too, with new self-directed modules and a greater focus on lymphoedema education in 2025/26. And the role of our National Clinical Director will continue to drive collaboration and raise standards nationwide.
Under Alpana’s new leadership, we’ll continue to blend continuity with fresh priorities – deepening our partnerships, strengthening our data insight and staying true to our purpose as a social enterprise that delivers what matters.