Heard abuse? Not sure what do

[Flowers94]

I am really unsure what to do about this due to obvious reason and im looling for some help as to where crossing a line would be.
At the weekend i went to a friend of a friends house to pick something up, whilst sat in my car i heard very aggressive shouting and wound my car window down to see what was going on.
All i could hear was the shouting coming from a house two doors down, i asked the friend of a friend what it was and his response was oh its always like that i think he hits his son.
Following this a child was screaming and crying which could be heard out of their house and into my car.
I havent stopped thinking about it all weekend whether i should have rang the police but i do know that doesnt always help.
Just looking for some advice on how to Report this or would i potentially be making the situation worse?

Report to the either the NSPCC or your local social care you can do this anonymously . You won’t make it worse you could save a child’s life .

Please, please report this. That poor boy. It is often advised on here to ring the NSPCC for advice, but I don't know how useful that is? Hopefully another poster can advise, but please don't let this go.

Thankyou, im going to ring nspcc at 9

Google the name of your council and "children's safeguarding" or similar and there should a number you can call to report. You can remain anonymous.

You can report through the NSPCC, but they can take a while to come through to councils, and the NSPCC genetic forms don't always gather the information individual councils need for their own forms.

Generic not genetic!

Police are the first port of call.

If everyone assumes someone else has called the woman or child could end up seriously injured or dead.
That's the worst case scenario that actually plays out quite frequently.

Always the police in the moment - but a few days after the fact I'd go to social care who will inform police if they need their attendance.
In situations like this reported after, police will only look to be involved if there is other evidence - eg child has marks and bruising - often they would just ask social care to investigate and feed back to them whether they are needed.

Please contact someone either NSPCC or police. The child is in danger and someone needs to help him.

Your friend of a friends response pissed me off.

Thankyou for your advice everyone i will contact social care this morning, i feel abit silly now for not contacting the police in the first place i just kept imagining it being 10 times worse after they had left 😔

@shellydolls

Please contact someone either NSPCC or police. The child is in danger and someone needs to help him.

Your friend of a friends response pissed me off.

It annoyed me too, i was so upset about it and tbh i doubted myself as to whether i should have got involved. I have definitely left it too long and ill never forgive myself if anything happens to that little boy.

You haven’t left it too long if it’s an ongoing thing OP. The main thing is you’re taking action now.

Don't feel bad OP. You call the police if someone is at immediate risk of significant harm. It wouldn't have been wrong to call them but you couldn't see what was going on. Social care is a good choice here and its admirable for you to call today. Sadly a lot of people would just forget about it.

Child protection at local social services.

Or nspcc

Report, report, report asap. Shame on the neighbours for not doing so already. Something is going on, and someone is suffering.