Happy New Year to all our families!

3 mins read

Sunday 1 January 2023

Tags: happy new year

2022 was yet another challenging year which saw the cost of living crisis impact on so many of the families we support. We know that this winter, thousands of families with seriously ill and disabled children won’t be able to afford to run the life-saving electrical equipment their child relies on.

If you can, please consider helping make sure we’re there for even more families when they need this winter and throughout 2023 by donating to Contact’s Winter Appeal.

And tune in to BBC Radio 4 on 8 January at 7:54am or 9:25pm to hear our appeal presented by broadcaster and Contact supporter, Jane Garvey.

What we achieved together in 2022

It’s been quite a year. During 2022 we:

  • Assisted 182,000 parents with advice, support and information across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
  • Helped eligible families be better off by an average of £5,050 a year following a call back from our Family Finance team.
  • Benefitted around 1 million family carers and disabled children through our campaigns. Our campaign work inspired 17,558 family carers to take action including writing to their MPs, taking part in research, meeting government ministers and speaking out in the media. More than 10,000 parent carers joined our Out of Energy campaign calling on the government for more targeted support for disabled households to help with soaring energy bills.  This action helped persuade the Chancellor to announce cost-of-living packages including for the first time a £150 disability payment.
  • Our Listening Ear team supported 707 individual parents throughout the year, with 947 confidential telephone appointments giving parent carers vital advice and emotional and practical support.
  • Held 535 online workshops attended by 4,757 parents
  • Welcomed 738 children and 969 parent carers to 105 family events to have fun and share experiences

We also:

  • Introduced you to Charlie the Chatbot – our new online tool which together with our FAQ tool aim to help you find the information and advice you need on our website 24/7
  • Launched our new HemiHelp online hub for families living with hemiplegia
  • Continued to enable 99,811 members of parent carer forums to work together with local services to influence positive change for all families with disabled children
  • Carried on our leading role in the Disabled Children’s Partnership of 100 disability charities
  • Provided essential products and equipment to disabled children and their families to help make everyday tasks easier through our not for profit Fledglings shop

In addition, there are now almost 17,000 members on our private Facebook group for parents and we also congratulated the first £10,000 jackpot winner of Contact’s Lottery helping us raise vital funds so we can support more families.

Take care and remember, we’re here whenever you need us in 2023!