Supporting criminally exploited children with The National Lottery Community Fund
We're delighted to expand our criminal exploitation support services, made possible with funding from The National Lottery Community Fund.
Thanks to National Lottery players, Action for Children has received almost £5 million over three years from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest community funder in the UK.
This transformational grant will allow us to support more children, young people and families at risk of criminal exploitation across England, Scotland and Wales.
And what we're doing to keep them safe
Since 2012, we've been running intervention services across the UK to support and protect children and young people aged 11-18 at risk of criminal exploitation, and their families.
Our services provide intensive one-to-one support and mentoring, including help to engage in education, training or work, helping them move forward and see a different, more hopeful future for themselves.
Our peer mentors often have lived experience of exploitation, making them inspiring and relatable role models, like John*.
*This story is based on a real person. We've changed their name to protect their identity.
John became involved in organised crime when he was 17-years-old.
As a vulnerable young person, he developed an addiction to drugs, and his exploiters influenced him to commit crimes. As a result, he found himself in and out of prison on more than one occasion.
Having been in recovery for over five years, he now works as a peer mentor at Action for Children.
He's seen as a positive role model to those he supports and is dedicated to educating them about the consequences of being involved in organised crime.
The transformative grant that we'll receive across the next three years will allow us to open five new exploitation intervention services.
Alongside this, we'll be able to expand activity at three of our existing services in Edinburgh, Newcastle and Flintshire.
The funding comes from The UK Fund, one of The National Lottery Community Fund’s significant commitments as part of its 2023-2030 strategy, ‘It starts with community’, funding projects that help children and young people thrive - one of the funder’s four key missions.
So that we can continue to take action and be there for those who need us most.
Without the help from Action for Children, I would be in jail or dead... I wouldn't be here.
A young person we've supported through our services
In November 2023, we launched the Jay Review of Criminally Exploited Children.
We wanted to understand the measures in place to protect children from exploitation and identify the missing gaps.
Since the review and in line with our recommendations, the government has made child criminal exploitation a criminal offence, as part of the new Crime and Policing Bill.
We've also worked alongside the government to create new prevention orders that allows the police to place restrictions on anyone they believe is exploiting children.
Alongside this, The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill includes a new ID number for every child. This will allow services to easily share information and protect those at risk of exploitation.
There's still a long way to go. But thanks to funding from The National Lottery Community Fund and National Lottery Players, we can reach more children and young people at high risk of criminal exploitation across the UK.
