Swindon and Gloucestershire Mind

Swindon and Gloucestershire Mind (S&G Mind) is an independent local Mind charity supporting people across Swindon and Gloucestershire in the United Kingdom. Part of the wider Mind federation, it operates with its own board, staff, and volunteers to deliver a range of mental health and wellbeing services. Its work spans counselling, crisis-alternative support, youth and school programmes, community wellbeing, and employer mental health initiatives. The organisation runs multiple sites, including out-of-hours safe spaces, and collaborates closely with NHS and local authority partners. With a large multidisciplinary team of paid staff and trained volunteers, S&G Mind supports thousands of people each year and holds the Mind Quality Mark for service excellence.

The Challenge

As S&G Mind expanded its services and partnerships, its digital systems became increasingly fragmented. Different teams had developed their own ways of recording information, leading to duplication, inconsistent data, and time-consuming reporting. Staff often relied on spreadsheets and manual workarounds to fill gaps between systems, while leaders lacked clear visibility across the organisation’s ten-plus services. Policy changes and new contracts added to the pressure to modernise. The leadership team needed a fit-for-purpose platform that could unify data, simplify workflows, and support coordinated care without overwhelming already stretched teams. Ieuan Edwards, Director at S&G Mind, described the situation as follows: 

“The increasing demand for robust data has moved from being a ‘nice to have’ to an operational necessity. As S&G Mind has grown in both depth and reach, it became clear that our existing systems were no longer fit for purpose. We needed a platform that could support the complexity of our services, improve consistency, and give us confidence in the data we rely on to run the organisation well.”

The Change

After evaluating options, S&G Mind selected Tacklit as its new digital platform. The decision reflected Tacklit’s close alignment with mental health service delivery, its lived-experience-informed design, and its ability to integrate engagement, outcomes, and reporting in one secure environment. Implementation followed a phased approach that included design, process alignment, and clinical integration. Service pathways were standardised, safety planning embedded, outcome measures incorporated directly into workflows. Tacklit became the central system for capturing client journeys, referrals, and outcomes across all programmes. In Ieuan’s words: 

“From the outset, Tacklit took the time to understand our organisational needs, our strategic direction, and the practical realities of delivering mental health services across multiple stakeholders. The implementation felt genuinely collaborative, with a strong focus on shaping the system around how we work, while also helping us improve our processes and strengthen our approach to data.”

The Impact

Since going live, S&G Mind has begun to see clear benefits. Referral and assessment processes are more consistent, duplication has reduced, and reporting is faster and more reliable. Staff reports greater confidence in how data is captured and used, as well as improved visibility of client progress across services. Management now has near real-time insights into activity and outcomes, supporting better decision-making and funder accountability. Early gains include reduced administrative effort, clearer service measurement, and strengthened safety planning. These results are establishing a solid foundation for further innovation, including AI-supported triage and predictive analytics in the future. Ieuan concludes:

“It is still early days, but the quick wins are clear. We are seeing savings in administrative time, stronger digital capabilities for staff, and more accessible digital offers for the people who use our services. More importantly, we now have a stronger foundation to build on, which puts us in a much better position to innovate and respond to future demand. We’re also looking forward to seeing how AI can safely support our goals, including working collaboratively with our external partners as well as with the wider Mind network.”

What This Means for the Mind Network

S&G Mind’s experience shows how local Minds and other similar organisations can modernise their digital operations, without losing their independence or person-centred approach. Tacklit provides a flexible, partnership-based model that can adapt to different local contexts. For organisations facing similar pressures—fragmented data, manual workflows, and limited internal resources—S&G Mind’s story offers a practical roadmap. It demonstrates that technology aligned with mental health values can strengthen human connection, streamline operations, and create the foundation for continuous improvement.