The NSPCC Helpline can help with safeguarding situations you face at work. Whether you need advice and support, or reassurance on a current safeguarding incident our child protection specialists can help.
Call 0808 800 5000
Email help@nspcc.org.uk
The NSPCC Helpline can help with safeguarding situations you face at work. Whether you need advice and support, or reassurance on a current safeguarding incident our child protection specialists can help.
Call 0808 800 5000
Email help@nspcc.org.uk
Whether you’re an individual tutor working in a family home, a volunteer at a club or the child protection lead for a large organisation, if you have a concern about a child we’re here to offer support.
Your call or message doesn’t have to be an emergency. Every day roughly half of all the contacts we receive are for guidance and support around a huge range of issues affecting children, young people and families.
We know that you’ll likely be following safeguarding procedures as part of your role, you can use the helpline in conjunction with your organisations safeguarding policies. Our trained professionals will talk through your concerns with you and give you expert advice on what to do next. We can suggest local services that can help, offer some simple guidance, or make referrals to children’s services and the police.
The NSPCC Helpline service, is currently available 10am–4pm Monday to Friday.
Call on 0808 800 5000
Email help@nspcc.org.uk
A call handler will answer the call and ask a few basic questions to help them understand the issue you are calling about. They will give you the options for speaking to a child protection specialist – this may be waiting for someone to be available or a call back.
A child protection specialist will listen to your concerns. They may ask you questions to make sure they understand the information you’re sharing, and to help them assess the situation. They will recommend the next steps to take.
When there’s a serious concern about a child or a family that needs support and you have shared their identity with us, the child protection specialist will work with you to agree if we need to make a report and share information with the relevant authorities. This is known as 'making a referral'.
No matter the outcome of your contact, we always encourage you to get in touch again if you need to.
You can choose to remain anonymous when contacting the NSPCC Helpline.
If you do share your identity or the identify any children, families or organisations you work with, we will talk to you about sharing this information with relevant authorities if we felt this was needed.
If you work or volunteer with children and young people we know that you’ll likely be following safeguarding procedures as part of your role. It’s important that you know that we’re here for you and can still support and advise you.
Depending on what you share, our experts can talk you through local services that can help you further, offer some advice, or make referrals to children’s services and the police.
Whistleblowing is when someone reports wrongdoing on the basis that it is in the public interest for the concern to be brought to light. This is usually something they’ve seen at work but not always. The situation or incident that needs reporting might have happened in the past, be happening now, or be something the whistleblower is concerned may happen in the near future (Gov.uk, n.d.).
Contact the Whistleblowing Advice Line if:
You can contact the Advice Line about an incident that happened in the past, is happening now, or you believe may happen in the future.
If you think an organisation is putting children at risk, even if you’re not certain, call the Whistleblowing Advice Line to talk through your concerns. You don’t have to share your details, and if you do you can ask for them not to be shared with other agencies.
The Whistleblowing Advice Line is available from 8am-8pm Monday to Friday and 9am-6pm at the weekend.
Call 0800 028 0285
Email help@nspcc.org.uk
> Find out more about the Whistleblowing Advice Line on the NSPCC website