Support for the most vulnerable parents in five regions can continue for the next three years thanks to a National Lottery grant. PEGS can now reveal The National Lottery Community Fund has awarded just over £350,000 to help us provide one-to-one Child to Parent Abuse (CPA) support for high-risk parents and carers in Telford & Wrekin, Shropshire, South Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Worcestershire over the next three years.

It’s the second grant we have received from the Lottery (the first covered 2022 to 2025) and it will also help us to continue our online practitioner-led sessions which run every weekday plus two evenings a week, and are open to any parent in the UK

who has an active referral with us. In addition, we’ll be looking to hire a new Volunteer and Training Co-ordinator to work in local communities, delivering CPA training and helping to grow our volunteer network. We’ll release more details about this role in due course!

PEGS’ founder Michelle John said: “We are delighted to have been successful in our second National Lottery grant application, with The National Lottery Community Fund recognising the positive impact our programmes have for parents who are experiencing CPA.

“Referrals from professionals and from parents, carers and guardians have been steadily rising month on month since we launched five years ago. While it’s heartening to see more people becoming aware of the support on offer from PEGS, it’s naturally upsetting to see that the demand is so high because of the number of families affected by CPA – thought to be anywhere upwards of one in ten across the UK.

“Continued support means we are able to provide one-to-ones for the most vulnerable people in these five regions, alongside our virtual practitioner-led sessions, which are both vital resources for parents experiencing CPA. We’re also looking forward to hiring our new Co-ordinator to extend our volunteer network and undertake targeted work in local communities – this will make a big difference to PEGS going forward and we thank the Lottery for making this possible!”

In the last three years, The National Lottery Community Fund has funded projects in every local authority and last year, awarded over half a billion pounds of game changing grants to nearly 14,000 projects.