About Guide Dogs

The ability to get around is vital in order to live a full life. At Guide Dogs we empower blind and partially sighted people to do that through our mobility services for children, young people and adults.

We celebrated 80 years of Guide Dogs last year and as part of our celebrations we have been looking to the future; how we can protect and enhance our services for the next 80 years and beyond. Obviously the world has changed enormously over those 80 years and the aspirations and expectations of blind and partially sighted people reflect this changing world. We have identified we need to offer a much greater range of services so we can be sure we remain relevant to the people we serve.

We recognise that people follow a mobility journey from the point at which they are diagnosed with sight loss through to the stage at which they are accessing the services and the support they need to help them get around with confidence.

We aim to build support around people’s needs and aspirations; listening carefully; collaborating closely with others wherever this will enhance the interests of blind and partially sighted people; establishing long-term sustainability of services and testing new approaches carefully before committing significant resources to delivery.

Our plans include increasing our target to train new or replacement guide dog partnerships, and extending our reach with a wider range of services to attract larger numbers of younger people, people with multiple disabilities and people from minority ethnic communities.

We are not alone in our determination to bring about change. We are working closely with a wide range of other organisations to deliver the UK Vision Strategy. Our strategy addresses key priorities in the UK Vision Strategy and has been developed in the context of this wider work.