ChildLine Helpline volunteering

ChildLine Helpline

ChildLine is the UK’s free, confidential 24 hour helpline for children and young people.  We’re available over the phone and online, 365 days a year to support children and young people, whatever their worry!

What does ChildLine Helpline do?

The ChildLine helpline’s aims are to answer every contact made to ChildLine and to offer comfort, advice and protection to children and young people.  This means that we aren’t here to solve their problems or tell them what to do; our volunteer counsellors offer a confidential space to talk through whatever is worrying the young person.  Watch this video to find out what happens when a child calls the ChildLine helpline.  

How does it work?

When a young person contacts ChildLine:

• Calls are first put through to a switchboarder – a calm and reassuring first point of contact for the caller who will put calls through to the national queue.

• Online contacts go through to the online waiting room – they are free to browse the ChildLine site while they are waiting for a counsellor to become available.

• The national queue is where the young person will then wait to speak to a counsellor – the waiting time varies depending on the time of day and the volume of calls we’re receiving.  This is why your local base will recruit volunteers for specific shifts or times of day when young people need them.

• Volunteer counsellors will listen to the young person and reassure them, help them to think about and explore options and give them space to talk through their concerns by working at the child’s pace.  They do this either through 1-2-1 chat on the ChildLine website, or over the phone.

• Supervisors are available in the counselling room at all times to provide support and guidance for volunteers. 

What do children and young people call us about?

At present, the highest percentages of calls we receive are about family relationships and bullying but ChildLine receives calls about a huge range of issues – from loneliness and school problems to physical and sexual abuse, from facts of life to mental health.  We offer an open invitation for all young people to contact us; sometimes we receive silent calls, where the young person isn’t ready yet to talk about their problem, or we receive calls from young people testing out the service.  No two calls are ever the same. 

I’d like to help! What volunteering roles are available?

ChildLine has over 2000 volunteers across the UK, if you think you would like to become one of them, you can find out more about what our volunteers do by following the links below:

• Switchboard volunteer   
• Volunteer Counsellor   
• Administration volunteer