NSPCC

The NSPCC help children who have been abused to rebuild their lives, protect those at risk, and find the best ways of preventing abuse from ever happening.

They are the only UK children's charity with statutory powers meaning they can take action to safeguard children at risk of abuse. 

There is no clear legal definition of ‘child abuse’ but there are laws to protect children from harm. Full details of Child Abuse can be found at this link.

For more information on who the NSPCC are and what they do follow this link.

Services

The services provided by the NSPCC are detailed at this link.

Full details of the work they do to prevent abuse are available at this link.

Help and Advice on protecting children

Help and advice on protecting chrildren is available at the following NSPCC links:

• Protecting children from neglect
• Protecting children from sexual abuse
• Protecting children from sexual exploitation
• Protecting children from domestic abuse
• Protecting children from emotional abuse
• Protecting children from physical abuse
• Protecting children from online abuse
• Protecting children from bullying and cyberbullying
• Protecting children from county lines
• Protecting children from trafficking and modern slavery
• Safeguarding children who come from Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic communities

Further guides include:

• Dropping off and picking up before and after school
• Child mental health
• Looked after children
• Online safety resources for schools and organisations
• Social media and online safety
• Definitions and signs of child abuse
• Harmful sexual behaviour
• Healthy and unhealthy relationships

Information of how to play your part tohelp the NSPCC protect children is available here.

The Online Safety Act

The Online Safety Act is a new set of laws to protect children and adults online. It will make social media companies more responsible for their users’ safety on their platforms.

Introduced in October 2023 following 5 years campaigning by the NSPCC, the bill has a zero-tolerance approach to protecting children and puts particular emphasis on protecting children online, with additional requirements to prevent them from accessing “harmful and age-inappropriate” content.

Social media platforms will be legally responsible for the content they host and keeping children and young people safe online. They could be fined up to £18 million or 10 percent of global annual revenue (whichever is larger) by Britain’s Office of Communications (Ofcom) if found to be non-compliant.

A comprehensive guide to the Online Safety Act is avialble at the following links:

• NSPCC
• GOV.UK
• Ofcom
• SWGfl

Childline

Childline is the UK's free 24 hour confidential counselling service for children and young people up to their 19th birthday provided by the NSPCC. Full details of Childline and the services they provide are available at MAG- Childline.

NSPCC SpeakoutStaysafe Service

The NSPCC SpeakoutStaysafe Service uses trained volunteers to talk to primary school children about abuse and how to protect themselves from it.

NSPCC Building Connections

Building Connections is an online service for young people up to the age of 19, empowering them to find a way through loneliness.

Contact NSPCC

Details of their helpline are available here.

Full contact details are available here.