£5 million of National Lottery funding to tackle gendered poverty across England
September 30, 2026Smallwood Trust receives more than £5 million from The National Lottery Community Fund to expand their Equal Places, Equal Futures place-based approach to tackling gendered poverty.
Thanks to National Lottery players, Smallwood Trust has received more than £5 million from The National Lottery Community Fund. The funding will be used to deliver a long-term, place-based partnership programme tackling gendered poverty across England by strengthening women-led organisations, improving local systems and influencing policy and practice to help create fairer futures for women and children.
Smallwood Trust is committed to partnership working as the most effective and equitable way to ensure lasting change happens. The Equal Places, Equal Futures partnership between Smallwood Trust, The National Lottery Community Fund and more than forty civil society organisations will accelerate work to combat gendered poverty and reducing the gendered causes of child poverty where it is most entrenched.
Research commissioned by Smallwood Trust[1] has found gender inequality is deeply rooted in multiple areas of society, making it harder for women to stay out of poverty. Women tend to take on more caring responsibilities, often preventing them from participating in the labour market. Even when employed, they are more likely than men to be in low-paid jobs, work part-time, and be in insecure employment. As a result, women, on average, have lower earnings and savings. This reduces their financial resilience and makes them more vulnerable to economic shocks such as the cost-of-living crisis, and personal life changes like ill health or relationship breakdowns.
Cyclical inequality is also inextricably linked to child poverty. Women’s Budget Group research found that by helping mothers earn more and gain financial independence, [society] can dramatically reduce child poverty.[2] The Equal Places, Equal Futures partnership will create lasting change to reduce poverty and discrimination by directly targeting the systems and structures that trap women and children in cycles of disadvantage.
The Equal Places, Equal Futures partnership is a place-based programme that will support women and communities to design and lead solutions that transform the systems that disadvantage them. Partnerships of women’s organisations will be supported across England, building on projects already underway in Birmingham, Coventry, Liverpool and Middlesbrough, and within London, in Newham and Hackney.
Through building the evidence base, and actively sharing learning, influencing and advocacy work, the Equal Places, Equal Futures partnership will bring wider positive change for thousands of women and their families.
Paul Carbury, Smallwood Trust CEO says, ‘We’re delighted to receive this support from The National Lottery Community Fund. This funding will enable us to bring together and strengthen more partnerships of women-led organisations working in places to tackle gendered poverty. These organisations know their communities, understand where systems are failing women and have the ideas, relationships and experience to change things for the better. By supporting them to work together, we can help turn that knowledge and experience into lasting changes in the services, policies and decisions that shape women’s lives.’
Emma Corrigan, England Director at The National Lottery Community Fund, said: “We are proud to be investing in the Equal Places, Equal Futures partnership, bringing together organisations best placed to tackle gendered poverty. Our priority is to get life changing funding to where it’s needed most, supporting communities with the greatest need – those that are facing poverty, disadvantage and discrimination. We look forward to seeing the impact this important work will have on the lives of thousands of women and their families across England.”
Notes
[1] Women’s Budget Group and Central England Law Centre (2025) Where Inequality Lives: The State of Gendered Poverty and Financial Resilience. Commissioned by the Smallwood Trust. Available at: https://www.wbg.org.uk/publication/where-inequality-lives-the-state-of-gendered-poverty-and-financial-resilience/ (Accessed: 24 August 2026).
[2] Reis, S. (2025) Women’s and Children’s Poverty: Making the Links – Breaking the Cycle of Child Poverty: A Call to Action. London: Women’s Budget Group. Available at: https://www.wbg.org.uk/publication/womens-and-childrens-poverty-making-the-links-2/ (Accessed: 24 August 2026).
Notes to editors
About The National Lottery Community Fund
At The National Lottery Community Fund, we work within and alongside communities across the UK to strengthen society and build a better future. Thanks to the generosity of National Lottery players, we support activities that strengthen society and improve lives.
With funding teams embedded across the UK, we prioritise our efforts where the need is greatest. We fund projects that deliver our four community-led missions to support communities to come together, help children and young people thrive, enable people to live healthier lives and to be environmentally sustainable.
By 2030, we will have shared over £4 billion to help create stronger, fairer communities across the UK. But we offer much more than funding. We provide practical support, information and insight to all. So new ideas can become reality, and projects that are already making a difference can grow. All to help communities do something truly life-changing.
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