Childline provides confidential support to children and young people every day. And the NSPCC Helpline is there for anyone concerned about a child - whether that's parents or carers looking for advice or professionals in need of support or just a bit of reassurance.
On average, a child contacts Childline every 45 seconds.1
Children and young people can contact Childline by telephone, email and online chat.
Children are also able to access a wealth of information and advice on our Childline website, as well as peer support and self-help tools, anytime they need it.
When children contact us to talk about their worries, our counsellors are there to listen and support. In 2023/24, our Childline counsellors provided 187,999 counselling sessions to children and young people.
Childline is there for anyone aged under 19 in the UK to talk about any issue they're going through.
In 2023/24, the top five main concerns that children and young people talked to our counsellors about were:
We produce briefings on the key issues that children and young people talk to us about, such as harmful online content and domestic abuse. These use insights from contacts received from Childline and the NSPCC Helpline.
> View the Childline and NSPCC Helpline insight briefings
References
This figure is based on an average calculated from the total number of times people tried to contact Childline by phone, by email or by online chat in 2023/24.In 2023/24, our Helpline responded to 75,609 contacts from people who were concerned about a child's welfare.
Adults can contact the NSPCC Helpline by telephone, email or via an online form.
Like Childline, adults can contact the NSPCC Helpline whatever their worry about a child. Concerns about neglect, physical abuse, emotional abuse and sexual abuse and exploitation are the most common reasons for contacting the NSPCC Helpline.
Professionals working with children or young people can also contact the NSPCC Helpline for information and support.
> Find out more about how the NSPCC Helpline can support you
References
Childline is the UK’s free, 24-hour service for children and young people. Run by the NSPCC, Childline gives children and young people up to the age of 19 confidential support with whatever is worrying them.
The NSPCC Helpline can help with safeguarding situations you could face at work. Maybe you need advice and support, or some simple reassurance on a current safeguarding incident.
Briefings highlighting what children and young people tell us about the issues affecting them.
Find out what data is available and what it can tell us about how many children and young people experience abuse and neglect in the UK.
The NSPCC Library and Information Service helps professionals access the latest child protection research, policy and practice resources and can answers your safeguarding questions and enquiries.
Subscribe to our safeguarding awareness newsletter and receive free weekly email alerts to keep you up-to-date with all the latest safeguarding and child protection news.
