Fund Childline and help a child every 45 seconds

Thank you to everyone who has donated so far to help fund Childline. With your generous help, we have raised £6,783 which has helped to answer 1695 calls from worried children all across the UK.

Here for children when they have nowhere else to turn

Childline is the NSPCC’s unique 24/7 helpline service offering confidential support to children and young people within the UK. Last year, we delivered over 200,000 counselling sessions with children and young adult struggling with mental health problems, family relationships, suicidal thoughts and many other issues. With the current state of the world, especially in the UK, we have seen an increase in calls regarding poverty and the cost of living crisis. Unfortunately, the link between poverty and child abuse/neglect is well-known so donations to Childline are needed more than ever so that the NSPCC can continue to be there for every child.

The Full Story campaign

This month, we launched our ‘The Full Story’ campaign which highlights stories of child sexual exploitation.

The Full Story aims to help children and young people gain an understanding of what sexual exploitation is and what a healthy relationship looks like. Childline is focussed on getting more young people to connect with them so they can offer immediate help and confidential support.

Although more children are reaching out for support on this issue, Childline’s counsellors know from what they hear from children and young people there are many barriers and reasons which prevent some children from speaking out and getting help.

For some children, they may be being exploited by a family member or someone in a position of authority, other cases it may be a girlfriend or boyfriend. The grooming methods used can be subtle, so often they don’t recognise anything is wrong or that they’re in danger. Whilst others might blame themselves for what they are experiencing, some are being blackmailed or threatened by their abuser causing them to remain silent due to fear.

The campaign name, The Full Story, alludes to the mixed and often conflicting feelings a child who is being sexually exploited may experience.

Please support the campaign by watching the videos here.

A defining moment for child protection

With events in Westminster dominating the news, you may not have seen that the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IISCA) has published its final report.

A decade ago victims and survivors bravely broke the silence – exposing endemic and horrific child sexual abuse, and a catastrophic failure to protect and support those affected. After multiple investigations, including those into the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal, IICSA was set up in 2015. Its role has been to determine what went wrong and why, and to use its findings to make recommendations that prevent children from being failed in the future. In total it has carried out 15 investigation reports. We were involved in providing information for nine of these, including our chief executive and other colleagues giving evidence at public hearings. 
   
In the final report, IICSA’s findings demonstrate that there needs to be a wholesale shift in how child sexual abuse is tackled. Following the report’s release, we’re calling for changes that would focus on strengthening five things: prevention of child sexual abuse, through strong safeguarding policies and procedures in all organisations; ensuring everyone can recognise the signs of child sexual abuse; equipping everyone with the knowledge of how to report it; the availability of recovery support services; and the response from child protection agencies. 

Sir Peter Wanless, our chief executive, says, “This inquiry must be a defining moment for child protection. NSPCC analysis shows there were more than 85,000 child sexual abuse reports to police last year.  

“IICSA rightly calls for child protection to be made a national priority and puts forward bold proposals that would radically reshape the system. It is for Government now to translate these recommendations into an effective, fully funded system that keeps all children safe from harm.    

“It is also vital for every organisation – large or small, regulated or not – that comes into contact with children to have strong policies, training and leadership to create a culture that recognises and responds to child welfare concerns. They must be supported to improve, but also held to account for failures.”  

We’re only able to contribute to hugely important inquiries, such as this one, because of your support. Your donations, your voice and your partnership enable us to speak out more loudly about child sexual abuse, as well as to run prevention and recovery services.  

At this time we're encouraging the public to make use of our NSPCC Helpline, which is available to any adult who has a concern about a child and needs guidance. Our Letting The Future In service is already helping children around the UK and Channel Islands to recover from the types of abuse suffered by victims and survivors featured in the IICSA report. 

Please do get in touch if you’d like to find out more about our work to prevent child sexual abuse and how we help children who’ve experienced it. 

Thank you

Over 90% of our income comes through donations, and we are extremely grateful for the support we have received from those who have donated.

We thank you again for your support, and we hope that you will continue to share and support and our fight for children.