LANCASHIRE has been given another £250,000 to tackle domestic abuse with much of it going to a Blackburn help hub.

The latest grant from the Home Office will be used to work with perpetrators and young people.

The money obtained by police and crime commissioner Clive Grunshaw has been topped up to £450,000 by Blackburn with Darwen Council, Lancashire County Council, Blackpool Council and Lancashire’s Violence Reduction Network.

Of this, £230,000 will go to the Blackburn-based Wish Centre to expand their work with perpetrators of domestic abuse and to establish a new youth programme.

The new cash comes on top of £500,000 awarded in June by the Department of Justice for services across Lancashire to support victims and survivors of domestic and sexual abuse.

The Wish Centre grant will pay for a new Young People’s Programme to help children and teenagers form healthy relationships to prevent them becoming adult perpetrators of domestic abuse. The project will start early next year.

The rest of the centre’s cash will go towards rolling out the ‘Make the Change’ programme across the whole county.

Between January 2019 and August 2020, the police responded to 669 domestic abuse incidents in Lancashire involving offenders aged 10 to 16 with family coronavirus isolation blamed for rising numbers.

Shigufta Khan, The Wish Centre’s chief executive, said: “We are really pleased to be able to introduce the Young People’s Programme to Lancashire. The sooner we can work with young people to help them manage emotions and develop a better understanding of healthy relationships the more likely we are to stop them from offending in the future. Our work with adult offenders will now cover the whole of Lancashire which is really good news. Given the right tools and support people can change.”

Mr Grunshaw said: “We need to tackle domestic abuse from all angles. I am pleased the new funding can focus on working with perpetrators.”

Cllr Mustafa Desai, Blackburn with Darwen Council’s adult services boss, said: “This funding will go towards the Wish Centre’s young people’s programme which will support young people to prevent them from becoming offenders in the future. This will work towards lowering the chances of domestic abuse in future generations.”