NSPCC website refresh sees rise in Helpline reports of child abuse

The NSPCC announced today (12 July) an eight-fold rise in online reporting to its Helpline about suspected child abuse, following a major website refresh.

In the month since the new look NSPCC website launched on 28 May, the NSPCC Helpline dealt with 209 online reports from people worried about a child - up from a previous monthly average of 25.(1)

The NSPCC Helpline is a free service for anyone concerned about the safety or welfare of a child and can be contacted 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by phone, email or via a  secure online form.

NSPCC digital communications manager Stephanie Hughes said: "A key objective of the NSPCC website refresh was to provide people with engaging content, and ensure they could find what they were looking for with fewer clicks.

"Making sure everyone could access the NSPCC Helpline, encourage them to seek help and advice and report suspected child abuse, was top of the list.

"To make the Helpline easily accessible to all audiences we've placed prominent 'Report a concern' links and Helpline promotional units in the right hand column throughout the site, plus an NSPCC Helpline hero banner on the homepage"

Of the NSPCC Helpline online contacts from members of the public the most commonly reported concern was neglect (86 reports), followed by physical abuse (65), and emotional abuse (32). All these online reports resulted in a referral by the Helpline to local authority children's services or the police.

Stephanie Hughes continued: "It's important that people feel confident about reporting abuse, and that they are doing the right thing by contacting the NSPCC Helpline. To provide this reassurance all the Helpline pages feature clear, concise copy about how the service works and what happens when you report a concern.

"Overall, we've completely reviewed the NSPCC website user journey, to meet our audience's needs as much as our business priorities, and the site is now fit to support donations, volunteering and campaigning too. Another key factor was to optimise the copy to make sure people would find us when concerned about a child."

Ends

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Notes to editors:
1. A total of 209 child welfare contacts were submitted to the NSPCC Helpline via the online form at www.nspcc.org.uk from the week commencing 24 May to week ending 27 June 2010.

2. These online contacts were in addition to 140 emails sent to help@nspcc.org.uk and 1,152 calls received by the NSPCC Helpline that also resulted in a referral to children's services, during this same period. There was a small increase in the number of emails and calls (from 103 emails and 1,074 calls) during the previous month, but this was not as marked as the contacts via the online forms.

3. The NSPCC is the UK's leading children's charity specialising in child protection and the prevention of cruelty to children. The NSPCC runs projects and services across the United Kingdom and Channel Islands, including ChildLine, the UK's free, confidential 24-hour helpline for children and young people.