Children 1st Parentline offers specific help and advice about how best to support children with practical and emotional issues. It has supported hundreds of families throughout lockdown as calls soared and traffic to the charity’s webpages quadrupled.

As well as supporting children and families emotionally, during lockdown Children 1st has been helping families to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. The charity’s Money Advice team has been providing help with bills and debt as well as emotional support to parents.

As the economy changes, the furlough scheme ends and lenders remove payment holidays, Children 1st will continue to be there to stop children and their families falling into poverty.

Morton Fraser, one of the largest independent law firms in Scotland, has stepped in with a £10,000 donation after its planned fundraising and staff activities were stymied by coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

Morton Fraser’s staff chose Children 1st as their charity of the year in January and would typically have conducted a series of fundraising exercises to raise as much money as possible in 12 months.

However, after lockdown restrictions prevented many of the usual fundraising activities from taking place, the firm decided to donate a lump sum to the charity immediately.

Lisa Glenday Murdoch, the head of philanthropy and partnerships at Children 1st, said: “This fantastic donation will help us to continue our work with families and local communities to protect children from harm and to support children to recover from trauma and abuse.

“We continue to be there for every family who needs us through Children 1st Parentline so please do get in contact over the phone, online or through webchat for help and support.”

Maggie Moodie, chair of Morton Fraser, added: “During lockdown we realised we would not be able to raise the funds for Children 1st that we would want to. We were also acutely aware that the work of Children 1st has become more, not less, urgent. Many of those most adversely affected by the current crisis are those who were already vulnerable.”