Review of Lottery grant impact reveals thousands of parents supported
The impact of a Lottery grant – which has seen thousands of people affected by Child to Parent Abuse supported – has been revealed by a social enterprise.
PEGS was awarded a substantial sum from the National Lottery Community Fund for a three-year project running between 2022 and 2025, to include the provision of one-to-one bespoke support and advocacy; delivery of workshops, programmes and practitioner-led sessions; and facilitation of a closed peer support group on Facebook.
In the new report, which evaluates the success of the project, the team revealed they provided more than 2,100 one-to-one support packages to those at high risk due to Child to Parent Abuse (CPA) over those three years. In addition, staff led more than 1,800 virtual sessions – with almost 4,500 parents or carers attending at least one; spoke to almost 2,500 professionals on an individual basis; and acted as advocates in more than 2,600 meetings.
The analysis – released just weeks after the National Lottery Community Fund awarded a second grant to PEGS, to cover provision of some of their services until 2028 - also found that, where parents were receiving one-to-one support, 94% reported an improvement in wellbeing, 96% an increase in confidence, and 74% said they were calling the police about incidents of CPA less frequently.
An overwhelming 99% said they would recommend PEGS’ support to other parents, and 100% said the practitioner-led sessions improved their wellbeing. Where parents had attended workshops, 99% said they were useful, 99% said they would continue to use the techniques learned, and 100% would recommend them to others.
PEGS Founder Michelle John said: “While we are naturally pleased to report such a resounding success in terms of the feedback from parents and carers, and the number of individuals we’ve been able to support as a result of the Lottery grant, for us what matters most is the stories behind each one of these statistics.
“The team may run PEGS, but truly the organisation belongs to a community of incredible people who are facing some of the most unsafe and traumatic times of their lives. It has been a true privilege to be able to listen to, support and empower so many parental figures who have, for a long time, gone unseen and unheard.
“We have learned so much from them too, they inspire us every single day and we are so proud of them all.”
PEGS was launched in 2020 in response to a lack of support available for those experiencing Child to Parent Abuse, estimated to affect around one in ten households in the UK. The social enterprise supports parents, carers and guardians, as well as running training programmes for professionals, influencing local and national policy, and raising awareness of this often-hidden form of domestic abuse.
