Reporting someone to NSPCC

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Posting for traffic but desperately need advice!

im about to report someone very close to me to the NSPCC as I believe their children might be at risk of emotional abuse.

Does anyone have experience with this? How anonymous are the reports? If we give specific examples they will immediately know it was us, which we obviously don’t want them to… so how do the NSPCC deal with this?

any tips or experiences welcome

No experience, but my instinct is , if you have any concerns, report and bugger the consequences - if any

How many children have suffered because of people being scared to put their head over the parapet

You can anonymously report to your local social services, and speak to social workers about the children.

You can report to NSPCC or directly to children’s services. NSPCC will send the information to children/‘s services for them to explore further. You can be completely anonymous and be clear on that however it is possible that if this is explored further by social care they may need to share some examples provided when discussing the concerns raised with the parents of the children. It is helpful for children’s services to get a clear picture and understanding of your concerns to be able to assess the risk properly and consider ways they can support the children and their parents/carers to make things safer at home, this would be more challenging without specific examples however if you share enough information to raise a safeguarding referral and a decision is made for a social care assessment to take place, they will speak with the children and relevant parents/carers/professionals to gather additional information too.

ETA don’t let the worry about being ‘found out’ stop you from sharing safeguarding concerns.

Ring the NSCC Helpline and ask them to explain what happens after you report someone. They will talk you through the process and hopefully you’ll feel confident enough to tell them the issue.

I was going to say the same thing

are these kids - when you say “close” like family or close as in live near you?

there is a chance they could already be under their radar if the kids school have seen something of concern.

I did (nervously) report to the NSPCC. It turned out there was a case being built between social worker and school, but they all needed just one more example. I was later massively thanked because, basically, other people were too afraid to "get involved". Well done to you for caring.

There are safeguarding links in every LA. You can use that line. NSPCC is a charity but I’d go to safeguarding help line.

I’ve reported to the nspcc it went on to be referred to social services. The person was told every tiny detail of the report, so knew it was me. I did it anonymously and did slightly change what I’d said but they knew. The fall out was awful for my family as I said it wasn’t me.

what I wished I’d done was own it. I don’t regret reporting, I do regret now owning it. The fall out would have been the same but it would have at least felt honest.

I mean close as in close “friend”. My family has known them for ages.

I don’t live nearby so don’t see them that regularly but when I do I get alarms bells constantly.

the problem is that I don’t have a lot of evidence, purely my gut, and like I said it’s emotional abuse (the kids are well presented clean with a lot of toys etc). So it wouldn’t be an extreme case where the abuse is noticeable.

Emotional abuse is so hard for a child to understand , much harder then for an adult to see

Ring Childline for advice

NSPCC send referrals straight to social services so it's much easier if you report directly to them. Anonymous reports are very difficult to act on anyway, and if there is no corroborating evidence it's unlikely that an anonymous report of emotional harm will result in any significant intervention. HOWEVER that doesn't mean don't report. You don't know what other concerns might have been reported now or in the future and your referral will definitely go towards building a picture. But don't expect miracles to happen.

Someone reported us anonymously and maliciously to the SS.

The social workers were that incompetent that they let us know all the details that instantly identified who had done the reporting on the one and only visit they made.

The people getting reported are free to make a subject access request the LA, which they cannot refuse to provide.

If the people you intend to report find out it's you, are they the type to just laugh it off, or could there be some blowback?

I don't know a single person that would laugh off a report made against them to the social services.

Neither do I.

Which is why I advise caution.

I reported a child screaming and crying very late at night outside in their back garden. Then nspcc refused to do anything with it because I didnt know their names or what school they went too. Utterly useless.

I grew up in an emotionally abusive household and i'm sure a lot of people saw problems from the outside. I don't think a report to social services would have made a blind bit of difference. If they had come out to visit, my mother would have put on a bloody good show and they would of left the house none the wiser.

Your 'gut feeling' is not enough. Be careful you don't do more harm than good.

NSPCC is currently a disaster area. I have tried to report a concern twice. Each time a day/time was given to me for the callback and each time I received a text to confirm. Because it was my child’s best friend I had to get my partner to take them out of the house at the expected time of the call. The first time the callback happened two and a half hours later than they said it would. I couldn’t talk then because my child had come back and I didn’t have my phone by my side anyway. The second time they claimed they had called back but there was no record in my phone that they had. And to chase up what had happened the second time I had to wait on the phone for nearly an hour.

I get that the number of people calling them has increased exponentially. And I want to do what I believe is the right thing. But for them to call back hours after I had given up was the same as a call out of the blue. But I had had to wait around in a quiet house for their call for hours, To call back hours later to talk about a major concern when I have a life as well doesn’t work. They are currently not fit for purpose. They have also been in trouble for not passing on details to Children’s Services quickly enough. Google it.

I think if in doubt call the case up - then at least it can be looked into x

The NSPCC are a charity. They have no authority to 'do' anything other than pass on what you have said to social services or police. In this case the only people who realistically have powers to do anything are the police as they are the only ones with the right to do door to door enquiries which was what was needed.

Anything mean anything. They refused to pass details along and said they couldnt help.

They shouldn't provide the names of the referrer in a SAR, that is third-party data

What did you expect anyone to do without a name??

Anything statutory goes straight to children's services. Nspcc is a charity and will not get involved.

Yes that's what I said

Yes sorry, saw that afterwards :)