Action for Children expands criminal exploitation intervention service, thanks to National Lottery players

The funding will be used to support children, young people and families at high risk of criminal exploitation across England, Scotland and Wales. Peer mentors with lived experience of exploitation will be central to this work, providing intensive support to young people and shaping the project’s work to drive forward change.

In the next year, Action for Children will open five new exploitation intervention services. The funding will also support new activity in Edinburgh whilst guaranteeing the continuation of two other existing services in Newcastle and Flintshire.

Areas of focus include supporting criminally exploited girls, looked after children and those on the edge of care. The funding will also examine the role of county lines drug dealing and other forms of extra-familial harm(1) in exploitation, such as sexual abuse.

This money 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.

Action for Children’s Criminal Exploitation Support Service works to protect and divert exploited young people and those at risk of exploitation aged 11-18, and their families. Launched in Glasgow in 2012, it now operates across Scotland, Wales and England and has helped more than 650 children and families since 2020.

This is done through intensive one-to-one support, peer mentoring, help to engage in education, employment or training, and support for the family. Many of the peer mentors have lived experience and are accessible role models for teenagers who have previously resisted other types of mainstream support.

Lesley Gordon, Director for Criminally Exploited Children at Action for Children, said: “We see the harsh reality of criminal exploitation in our intervention services every day. The harm done to children and young people at the hands of exploiters is harrowing and has devastating consequences for them, their families and communities.

“This funding is a beacon of hope and means we will be able to reach many more children and young people at risk of exploitation in different parts of the country, building on the fantastic work already happening in our existing services. We’re incredibly grateful to The National Lottery Community Fund and National Lottery players for this opportunity which will have a huge impact on the lives of young people.”

ENDS

MEDIA CONTACT: 020 3124 0661 / [email protected]

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. Extra-familial harm - While there is no legal definition for the term extra-familial harm, the Department for Education’s statutory guidance to local safeguarding partners describes it as forms of harm that occur outside the home. Children can be vulnerable to multiple forms of extra-familial harm from both adults and/or other children. Examples of extra-familial harm may include (but are not limited to):

• criminal exploitation (such as county lines and financial exploitation)
• serious violence
• modern slavery and trafficking
• online harm
• sexual exploitation
• child-on-child (nonfamilial) sexual abuse and other forms of harmful sexual behaviour displayed by children towards their peers
• abuse and/or coercive control children may experience in their own intimate relationships (sometimes called teenage relationship abuse)
• influences of extremism which could lead to radicalisation

This definition is from ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’, Department for Education, 2023. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6849a7b67cba25f610c7db3f/Working_together_to_safeguard_children_2023_-_statutory_guidance.pdf

About Action for Children

Action for Children protects and supports vulnerable children and young people by providing practical and emotional care and support, ensuring their voices are heard and campaigning to bring lasting improvements to their lives. With 342 services in local communities across the UK, in schools and online, in 2024/2025 we helped 551,400 children, young people, and families. actionforchildren.org.uk

About The National Lottery Community Fund

We are the largest non-statutory community funder in the UK – community is at the heart of our purpose, vision and name.

We support activities that create resilient communities that are more inclusive and environmentally sustainable and that will strengthen society and improve lives across the UK.

We’re proud to award money raised by National Lottery players to communities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and to work closely with Government to distribute vital grants and funding from key Government programmes and initiatives.

As well as responding to what communities tell us is important to them, our funding is focused on four key missions, supporting communities to:

1. Come together
2. Be environmentally sustainable
3. Help children and young people thrive
4. Enable people to live healthier lives.

Thanks to the support of National Lottery players, we distribute around £500 million a year through 10,000+ grants and plan to invest over £4bn of funding into communities by 2030. We’re privileged to be able to work with the smallest of local groups right up to UK-wide charities, enabling people and communities to bring their ambitions to life.

National Lottery players raise over £32 million each week for good causes throughout the UK. Since The National Lottery began in 1994, £52 billion has been raised and more than 670,000 individual grants have been made across the UK - the equivalent of around 240 National Lottery grants in every UK postcode district.

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