THE NSPCC has teamed up with Tavistock restaurant Gorton's to encourage people to kick off the New Year by dining out and donating to help raise vital funds to support its ChildLine Schools Service.

Throughout January, the restaurant will be participating in a 'dine and donate' scheme. As part of this, the restaurant is offering reduced price lunch and dinner menus, as well as placing envelopes on tables asking diners to make a donation of their choice that will go directly to support the children's charity. 

Alison Armer, NSPCC community fundraising manager for Devon and Cornwall, said: 'We are extremely grateful to Gorton's for supporting the ChildLine Schools Service through Dine and Donate, and we hope many diners will get involved.

'Each extra donation through the Dine and Donate scheme will help the NSPCC deliver its ChildLine Schools Service in primary schools in the local area and across the UK. Our trained staff and volunteers are currently working in the Plymouth area and we would really appreciate more restaurants joining in to raise funds and help us the give children the knowledge to stop abuse.'

Restaurant owner Peter Gorton said: 'We are delighted to be supporting the dine and donate scheme and are making it our mission to help spread the word about the ChildLine Schools Service to help raise more funds so the charity can be there whenever children need support.'

The money raised from dine and donate will support the Now I Know campaign, which aims to raise £20 million over the next three years, to put ChildLine in every primary school across the UK to talk to children about abuse, how to protect themselves and where to get help if they need it. In the South West, the ChildLine Schools Service has already visited more than 3,300 schools and reached more than 23,100 children.