Who we are, and how we're set up

The people who keep the UK's systems running work in a culture of on-call rotas, incident pressure, contractor isolation and quiet burnout — and in an industry where asking for help is still often read as weakness. We're building support that speaks this sector's language, delivered by people who have lived it.

Excellent general mental-health charities already exist, and we signpost to them everywhere we can — we are here to complement them, not compete. What's missing is a charity built around the specific stressors of IT work: the 3am pager, the blame-heavy post-incident review, the self-employed engineer with no HR department to turn to. That gap between general provision and sector reality is the reason Don't Bluescreen needs to exist as its own organisation — and it's the question we expect every serious partner, funder and regulator to ask us.

Don't Bluescreen was founded by Martin Byrne, who has spent his career in the UK IT sector. He's joined by a treasurer-designate with finance experience and a steering committee of two who have adopted our founding constitution and are steering us through registration.

We are currently recruiting two further trustees to complete the founding board — we'd especially welcome clinical or mental-health experience.

We publish roles rather than every name for now. Full trustee names appear on the Charity Commission's public register once we are registered — that's the proper, verifiable place for them, and we'd rather point you at an official record than ask you to take a webpage's word for it.

We are registering as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) — a structure created specifically for charities, regulated solely by the Charity Commission. Once registered, the CIO has its own legal personality: it holds its own contracts and liabilities, and its trustees are not personally liable for its obligations provided they act properly. Until registration completes, we deliberately keep commitments minimal: we are not entering contracts, holding funds, or accepting donations.

Because our founding team includes people who know each other well, we operate a conflicts of interest policy from day one: any trustee with a personal or family interest in a decision declares it and does not vote on it. The policy is available on request and will be published here alongside our other governing documents.

Once the Charity Commission registers us, our entry on the public register of charities will be linked from this page — registration number, trustees, and accounts as they're filed.

Our founding constitution has been drafted and adopted by the steering committee. It is available on request — email [email protected] and we'll send you a copy. A downloadable version will be published here once the board is complete and the Commission has reviewed it.

Scrutiny makes us better. If you're a potential trustee, partner, journalist or just someone who cares about this space, we'll answer honestly.

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or write to [email protected]