What to do if you see child abuse in public

[Givemethesun]

All - what should you do if you see child abuse in public? Ie they are a stranger you don’t know their name, and child isn’t in immediate danger (it says online call 999 obly if child is in immediate danger), but if you called social services you’d have no name or address for that family to give. I witnessed something where the mother was being physically abusive to her baby and although it could have been worse it made me uneasy and I should have perhaps said something (but didn’t as I was with my own baby on my own) but it made me wonder what I should have done. Please no hate as I was with my own baby and nervous mothers anger would turn on us. Also the mother’s baby was a baby not a toddler etc, an actual 5/6 month baby

What was she doing? If a child is being physically abused then I absolutely would consider that to be "immediate danger".

www.suzylamplugh.org/Pages/Events/Category/events

I went to some active bystander trading recently and it was great - lots of tips

Call 999 in a situation like this.

I would actually call 999 in this instance because they may be able to identify the person using CCTV. And my personal take after doing a child protection course some years ago is that if someone is boldly doing this in public, imagine what is going on behind closed doors

If you're worried about someone potentially turning on you for calling 999, you can actually text 999 if your phone is registered. Just text register to 999 and follow the instructions. You never know when you might need it so it's worth setting it up.

Yes this is what concerned me. Thanks for the comment this is the first time I have seen something before so concuous now that I didn’t know what to do and want to make sure I know next time.

Someone being physically abusive to a baby I would call 999.

I'd like to think I would have the presence of mind not to challenge the person, as that can lead to the victim being abused even more once out of sight, but to film it surruptitiously if I can, and / or follow them until I can get some sort of identifying information, like a car reg number so that they can be traced.

Have you reported this incident now OP? it’s important that you do.

Thank you. It was from a few weeks ago but I still can. I assume I can call child protection? It has played on my mind. Sorry I really should have at the time but i have not been in this situation before.

She'll probably already be on social services radar

You can call the non-emergency Police number 101, or failing that, lots of forces now have online reporting forms/live chats. There is also the NSPCC or local Children’s Services (quick Google will tell you where you need to look).

101 or 999, can't believe you didn't do anything at all

999 at the time if there is an immediate threat, and if you’re able to, take photos of the person so they can be identified if you are contacted about it afterwards - obviously only do this if you can do it without putting yourself or the victim at risk by doing so.

Thanks everyone I am going to report it and
hope that somehow that may help, and also now I know what to do next time so I can act quicker. Thanks everyone for commenting.