Welsh recruitment agency Centric is hoping to raise more than £20,000 to help children affected by disabilities or developmental difficulties after making the Gwent-based children’s charity Sparkle its charity of the year for 2016.

The news is a massive boost for Sparkle which helps fund and support the Serennu Children’s Centre in Newport.

The centre is used by more than 300 children every week and as its official charity, Sparkle has to raise more than £400,000 every year to fund the vital services, staff and equipment it supports there.

This year Centric has raised more than £15,000 to help support good causes and community initiatives in South Wales including the Newport-based charity Casey’s Cause.

The company, which has offices throughout the region and is Wales’ fastest-growing recruitment agency, said helping local charities was hugely important to both its directors and staff.

Dave Matthews, operations director, said: “We’re so happy to be supporting Sparkle in 2016. When we visited the charity at the Serennu Children’s Centre to learn more about the work it does we were completely blown away. The impact that Sparkle has upon the lives of the children and families it helps is huge.

“These are often children who are going through very difficult times because of a disability, illness or other medical problem yet Sparkle is giving them real hope. For us however, the key deciding factor was that these are local kids and families so we know the money we raise will be making a real difference on our doorstep.

“Our teams at our branches throughout South Wales are already busy planning fundraising events. We’ve set ourselves a big target, but we know it will be worth every effort in reaching it.”

Lisa Pearson, business development manager at Sparkle, said: “We’re very grateful to Centric for choosing Sparkle as its charity of the year for 2016. Their generosity and support will make such a difference to the lives of the children and families we help. The support of businesses like Centric is very important to us being able to help more children and families at the Serennu Children’s Centre. Without help and generosity like this we wouldn’t be able to do the work we do.”