Abuse charity seeing hundreds of monthly referrals

A Shropshire-based charity that supports parents abused by their children has said more people are asking for help, and it is receiving 500 referrals per month.

Parental Education Growth Support (PEGS) in Shrewsbury was founded in 2020 and offers services like one-to-one support, workshops, peer support groups, and training.

Although much of its work helps people in the West Mercia region - Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire - its director, Michelle Johns said referrals were coming in from across the UK.

"Last year we had a 115% increase in our service, and we're already at around 25% this year compared to last year, the growth is incredible," she said.

"What's really worrying is our capacity to meet that demand," she told the BBC.

On Monday, the charity celebrated its sixth birthday, and since it began has had more than 14,000 referrals.

Johns said these numbers were growing year-on-year.

Between 2022 and 2025, there were 1,290 referrals across West Mercia - 95% of those cases involved physical abuse, while 96% involved verbal abuse.

Other types of abuse recorded in that time include property damage, false allegations against parents, financial abuse and digital abuse.

"I think child-to-parent abuse is probably where domestic abuse was back in the 60s and 70s. We're just starting to accept that it happens, I think it's always been there to what extent who knows," Johns said.

"We definitely have to factor things like digital harm now, toxic masculinity, the Andrew Tates and the incel movement... that definitely plays a part.

"When PEGS was started we didn't know what it was going to be, we just hoped that change would happen - but never would I have expected to have supported over 14,000 parental figures so far."

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