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.
If you think a child or young person needs some support, you can always let them know that Childline is there.
Childline provides support to children and young people online, on the phone, anytime.
The Childline website provides information and advice on a wide range of topics that children and young people may be worried about.
It also has wellbeing resources like the calm zone, art box, mood journal, games and a mental health first aid kit that children can use to work through their feelings and experiences.
Ask Sam allows young people to write in with their question or problem and a few letters each week are answered on the website providing advice on specific issues.
The Childline message boards provide peer support for young people to share their experiences, ask a question and seek support from other young people in similar situations. All messages are anonymous and are checked by a moderator before being posted.
"I used to think Childline was a place for people with abusive parents, but what I have learnt is that it is a community of understanding strangers who can help you with anything. I can’t express how truly grateful I am for the effort they have put into helping me.”
Girl, 11
We also provide direct support to children and young people who contact us.
When young people get in touch with Childline, on the phone, via email or through online chat, they speak to a volunteer Childline counsellor who’s there to listen. Childline counsellors are trained to make young people feel heard, empower them to make positive changes, and safeguard them against abuse or neglect.
“I’m so grateful to Childline for listening to me. I feel like I can talk about all the things I’ve been going through and can say exactly how I feel knowing that I won’t be judged. Childline have helped me loads! Thank you for all your support!”
Girl, 14
Our confidentiality promise is an essential feature of Childline. It creates a safe space for children to speak to us about anything, without the worry that this information will be shared with others.
We work with children and young people to build trust and empower them to access the right support, based on their individual needs.
There are times when Childline’s confidentially promise does not apply and we need to share information with other agencies to keep children safe.
The confidentiality promise does not apply when:
Most contacts to Childline remain confidential, as we encourage young people to find confidence to talk to their trusted support network. Sometimes, however, to get the right support for the young person Childline needs to contact external agencies and advocate for the young person. Childline always aims to do this with the young person’s consent.
When a young person comes through to Childline, they do not always talk to the same counsellor. To make sure we are offering a consistent service, all our counsellors are trained in the Childline counselling model. We recognise there are some young people who turn to Childline on a regular basis or present with complex needs that require further assessment, support and oversight.
All our counsellors make notes on our system to allow any future contact to be tailored to the individual needs of the young person. When the threshold for regular contact is reached, our Connect Team review of the young person’s complete history and presentation. This may lead to guidance being given to counsellors who respond to the young person’s contacts in future. Sometimes it will lead to a Connect Plan being created.
When a young person has a Connect Plan, they are allocated a Childline Practitioner who has regular oversight of their contacts to Childline and continually reviews their needs and the best ways for the service to support them.
Practitioners may liaise and work with other professionals in the young person’s life including social workers, school staff, care home staff and mental health practitioners, to make sure agencies’ efforts to safeguard the young person are joined up.
The Connect Team always aims to involve the young person with their Connect plan, where possible, and work together to help them get the support they need. The team will also advocate for children and young people when needed, such as by attending multi-agency meetings.
Childline is always looking for opportunities to collaborate with external agencies to better support children and young people.
If you would like to discuss partnership working opportunities, please contact workingtogether@nspcc.org.uk
We share qualitative and quantitative insight into children and young people’s experiences on a range of topics based on contacts to Childline and to our Helpline for anyone concerned about a child.
We conduct research to help us improve our services and share our learning.
We discuss safeguarding and child protection topics with a range of experts in our NSPCC Learning podcast series.
Listen to the episodes where we talk to Childline colleagues about their work supporting children and young people.
Download and share digitally or print and display our series of Childline posters so wherever children and young people are, they know how to contact Childline if they want to talk.
We run campaigns to:
Our Behind the Screen campaign raises awareness of the sexually coerced extortion of boys and young men. Sexually coerced extortion is being blackmailed for nudes online, also called ‘sextortion’.
We want all young people to feel able to seek support for whatever they are going through and know that they can contact Childline for advice and support. With this campaign we specifically want boys and young men to know that it’s okay to reach out and that Childline is a place for them.
We have produced a supporting guide for anyone working or volunteering with young people. It covers what sexually coerced extortion is, how to spot it and how to support young people.
> Download the supporting guide (PDF)
Our Day in the Lonely campaign raised awareness of how loneliness can affect a young person’s mental health and showed the different ways young people can get support from Childline – including emailing a counsellor and using moderated peer-to-peer message boards. This campaign was funded by our partner, Lidl GB.
The Full Story campaign showed the impact of sexual exploitation and raised awareness of the confidential and non-judgemental support Childline offers, to help young people feel more in control.
> Download posters from this campaign on our poster page
Our We All Feel It campaign raised awareness of how some people, including boys, find it harder to talk about their mental health, and how Childline understands and can support them if they’re feeling alone.
Our Nobody is Normal campaign reminded young people who feel different that Childline is here for them if they feel left out or isolated.