About the NSPCC

NSPCC stands for:

National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children

		The NSPCC is a charity that was set up by Benjamin Waugh in 1884. There were no laws back then to protect children from cruelty. Ben thought this was a very bad state of affairs and set to work to make things better. By 1889, the NSPCC had persuaded Parliament to pass the “Children’s Charter”.
Benjamin Waugh - not happy

This was the first law in Britain to protect children from cruelty.

Hooray for Ben!

Have a look through the NSPCC history tree and find out about our history and how laws have been brought in to protect young people.

That was then, what about now?

Things are very different now and there are loads of laws protecting children and young people.

Some children still suffer from cruelty, harm and abuse. That's why the NSPCC has services ,teams and projects throughout the country.

If you want more on our history, have a look at A History of the NSPCC (PDF, 510KB). To view this you'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can download for free.