GamCare believes the over £4m it has provisionally been awarded from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) VCSE Gambling Harms Prevention and Resilience Fund will help the charity ‘reduce the gap between harm and help for thousands’.
The charity will implement two dedicated programmes with the 2026-2028 funding: a community outreach service and specialist support for people who have been affected by someone else’s gambling. Both programmes are expected to be delivered from April 2026, subject to confirmation.
Supported by the prevention strand of the statutory levy on gambling operators, OHID has recently allocated £25.4m to 33 voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations that provide gambling harm support across England.
Victoria Corbishley, Chief Executive Officer of GamCare, commented: “This provisional award, once confirmed, would help us to reduce the gap between harm and help for thousands of people across England.
“Whether someone is struggling themselves, or trying to support a loved one, they deserve timely, compassionate, specialist support.”
How GamCare will use OHID funding
The community outreach service will provide dedicated practitioners across Yorkshire and the Humber, the East Midlands, London and the South East, focusing on reaching diverse and underserved communities through partnerships with specialist and grassroots services.
GamCare noted that outreach practitioners ‘deliver awareness activities, structured early-intervention conversations and referral support, designed to reach people at the earliest possible stage’.
People with lived experience of their communities will also be recruited and supported to build a lasting local capacity.
The national affected others programme aims to support the estimated four million people in England affected by someone else’s gambling, who may seek help for the consequences without identifying the main cause.
Support will be provided via online resources, peer support sessions and professional training. The goal of the programme is to reduce the gap from harm to help with tailored, specialist support, focusing on communities that are seldom reached.
GamCare added that it is looking forward to working with other organisations that have received funding through this process to create a joined-up response to gambling harm across England.
This includes local councils, as a pot of £12m was recently distributed to county councils, unitary authorities, metropolitan boroughs and London boroughs.
“Around one in seven calls we receive to GamCare’s National Gambling Helpline come from people affected by someone else’s gambling, and we know there is vital work to be done to reach and support more in that situation,” noted Corbishley
“This funding would help us to do that, and to build the evidence and insight that will strengthen the sector’s response for years to come.”
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