Take a look at our amazing impact in 2020/21
3 mins read
Tuesday 25 May 2021
As a new financial year gets into full swing, and in a year that was like no other, we wanted to share a snapshot of some of our work and its impact with you in 2020/21.
During the pandemic:
- We held 391 online workshops, webinars and drop-in sessions attended by 4,170 parent carers and 739 professionals between April 2020 and March 2021.
- This includes 1,108 parent carers with younger children with additional needs who joined the 102 Brighter Beginnings workshops we ran during the year.
- 437 children and young people and 762 parent carers joined one of the 104 family events, most of which were held online during the year.
In addition:
- Our nations, regional, and London teams and our By Your Side staff dealt with 3,726 of enquiries, including 521 confidential Listening Ear telephone appointments for parent carers looking for someone to talk to, reassurance and practical and emotional support.
- Our helpline team responded to a staggering 9,737 enquiries overall. This includes our Family Finances team, who responded to 720 questions about benefits and delivered 392 in-depth call-back appointments.
- Our Parent Carer Participation team delivered 13 webinars and a week-long virtual joint Contact and National Network of Parent Carer Forums conference, which included 20 further webinars and online learning sessions.
- We offered 1,305 vouchers and other items like tablets and laptops to parent carers to help with emergency costs during the pandemic. This included vouchers to spend in our online Fledglings shop.
- We had 1,245,655 website users in 2020/21. This included 733,698 visitors to our advice and support webpages with around half of looking at our Covid-19 pages.
What you told us about our support during 2020/21
When we run workshops, events or enquiry sessions, we always ask parents how they feel as a result of accessing our services. Across all our activities in 2020/21, after using our services:
- 92% told us they felt better informed about how to get the support they need;
- 86% felt more confident;
- 66% felt better able to deal with stress;
- 72% felt less isolated;
- 77% felt better informed about their rights to benefits and grants;
- 92% had a better understanding of the ideas and resources that can help support them and their family;
- 97% would recommend Contact services to others.
Can you help us support even more families this year?
Although all our services are free, as a charity we depend on donations to be able to fund them. There are lots of different ways for you to support our work, including by playing the Contact Weekly Lottery.
