About us

Family Lives was formed over forty years ago by volunteers, with the aim of ensuring that all parents had somewhere to turn before they reached crisis point. We know that the right support at the right time makes all the difference. This continues to be our mission today and we are extremely proud that we are still providing vital support to families. We couldn’t do this without the unwavering generosity and compassion of our volunteers who know that the right support at the right time makes all the difference.

We believe in the power of active support and understanding. That’s why we offer a comprehensive suite of resources, including our national helpline, online chat, email support, and a resource-rich website. For families in need of more intensive support, we provide a range of direct services across various locations in England and Wales. The issues we support families with include family breakdown, challenging relationships and behaviour, debt, and emotional and mental wellbeing.

The expertise, generosity and compassion of our staff and volunteers is at the heart of everything we do, and we work together with them to support families through our range of services. We are, and have always been, a volunteer-led organisation – we simply could not do it without them alongside our staff. Many of our volunteers began their relationship with us as service users but have stayed to support others on their journey – a testament to the support they themselves received. You can read more about us, our volunteers, our vision, mission and values.

Our team

View our Senior Leadership Team and find out more about the work they do and their background. We are very fortunate to have our President, Deirdre Sanders MBE and a team of trustees who provide their guidance, expertise and knowledge to help steer our vital work with families. View our President and Trustees profiles for more information.

How we write and edit our online advice and information

Our experienced editors are trained family support workers and provide parenting advice through our advice articles. Every article you read goes through a thorough check with a review board that consists of the senior leadership team and is fact checked to ensure that the article is balanced and non-biased. We ensure that our articles are non-judgemental and provide advice to help parents, carers and other family members who need support in their family life in accordance with their recommendations. Find out more about how we produce our online parenting information. 

History of Family Lives

Family Lives was formally registered as a charity in 1999 and operated under the name of Parentline Plus. The charity's original formation as Parentline was founded in response to the tragic child abuse case of Maria Colwell in 1973, who was killed by her stepfather. The parents that founded Parentline believed that there needed to be a dedicated organisation supporting parents, before they reached crisis point which could result in abuse. A merger in 1999 between the National Stepfamilies Association, Parentline and Parent Network built on the collective experience of these three charities, to provide a range of national and local services to support parents and families across the country.

Parentline Plus reverted back to its registered name of Family Lives in 2011. We still have senior members of staff from all three organisations working at Family Lives. Family Lives has also merged with two small organisations, Bullying UK and TeenBoundaries in 2010 and 2011 respectively, to further the expertise and reach of the organisation. In addition a merger with the respected Parenting UK occurred in November 2012, enhancing our work with professionals and practitioners in the parenting field. In 2014, Action for Prisoners' Families became part of Family Lives, working to support all those who work with families of offenders and prisoners. Currently Family Lives employs 186 staff and 236 volunteers across our central and local offices.