Q&A about child protection with NSPCC - ANSWERS BACK

[RachelMumsnet]

We're joined this week for a Q&A with the NSPCC, the UK's leading child protection charity. Last week the NSPCC's All babies count campaign was our Campaign of the Week.

Your questions will be answered by Chris Cuthbert, from the All babies count campaign, Kam Thandi, NSPCC helpline team manager, and Jane Petrie NSPCC Parenting Officer. They will be answering your questions about the work of the NSPCC, the NSPCC helpline, the All babies count campaign, and how Mumsnetters can protect children. Send in your questions to the NSPCC before 5pm on Monday 6th February and we'll be linking to their answers from this thread on 16th February.

Chris says: 'It's great that mumsnet is supporting All babies count campaign. Almost a half of the most serious cases of child abuse and neglect relate to babies under the age of one. Evidence shows that with the right services in place it is possible to prevent many of these tragic cases. We hope Mumsnetters will support us by signing our online petition. I look forward to answering your questions about the campaign.'

Kam adds: Unfortunately we can't allow you to use the Q&A session to share concerns about a specific child. If you are worried about a child right now - even if it's just a doubt, please contact the NSPCC's free 24 hour helpline immediately for advice from our trained helpline counsellors.'

Call:0808 8005000
Email [email protected]
Text 88858
(If you are texting from the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, 88858 will not be available to you. However, you can text the NSPCC Helpline on 0778 620 0001. This service is not free, and you will be charged at your standard network rate.)

This Q&A has been sponsored by the NSPCC

Girraffe, yes tanks for that. I was being negative last night.

Whether or not it is significant or not the. Nspcc didn't set childline up. Childline was merged with the nspcc in 2006', in order to secure its future. For this service the nspcc receives central government funding. The annual report does not detail what this covers vs additional public donations.

I have no doubt that childline does fab work(and it was a very innovative idea), and it is good to hear from Giraffe, but it still sits uneasy with me about the blurring of the line between running these 'filtering / referral helplines' (including the general NSPCC one) and the perception of providing other front line services.

Apologies. The nspcc does statemhow michmitmcoats,to run childline. The financial report they linked to in the interim answers was a high level overview. Their final answers linked to the annual repot,which contained more,details.

Fundraising direct costs are 33.4M.

However, where there might be a 'fudging' is that ,influencing and information services' Is also 30. 6M.

Though I have no idea how this compares with other charities, or if indeed this distinction between advertising and influencing is entirely unremarkable for a large charity.

Anyway this is how the monies work out. (sorry for the length)

How we helped children
Total resources expended were .
£150.6 million (2010 £157.4 million), 4.3 per cent lower than last year. However, despite this overall reduction, we were pleased to be able to maintain our charitable expenditure at a similar level to last year at £111.6 million (2010 £112.9 million) which represents 74 per cent of our total expenditure (2010 72 per cent).
As we continue to implement our strategy we have changed the way that we describe our charitable activities in line with the focus of our work. WeM have restated our results for last year bas ed on these new categories.
Expenditure on Services for children and families reduced by 2.7 per cent to £46.6 million (2010 £47.9 million) as we have moved through a phase of transition this year, establishing new projects in line with the phased opening of our new service centres. Expenditure is planned to rise next year as we continue to roll out new services.
We have continued to develop our ChildLine services this year, and have maintained expenditure levels in line with last year at £26.3 million (2010 £26.1 million).
Expenditure on Adult advice, influencing and information services reduced by 5.4 per cent to £30.6 million (2010 £32.4 million). Although we have increased
our information and expert advice services in this area, we reduced expenditure on less tangible influencing activities.
We made a commitment to grow our Child protection consultancy activities this year, and this area of our work saw an increase in expenditure of 22.9 per cent to £8.0 million (2010 £6.5 million).
In the current climate, the cost of generating funds increased to £31.4 million (2010 £30.2 million)*, an increase of 3.8 per cent. It represented 24.0 per cent of generated income (23.8 per cent in 2010). Costs of generating funds are monitored and compared
to other charities.we reduced expenditure on less tangible influencing activities.

Governance costs include the cost of internal audit, legal advice, costs associated with meeting constitutional and statutory requirements as well as strategic planning costs. Governance costs remained consistent year on year at £1.0 million (2010 £1.0 million).

I think Childline is a very valuable resource and Esther Ranzen was certainly enlightened when she set it up but it comes under the NSPCc's umbrella only after it had been up and running for many years.
the answers from NSPCC don't surprise me at all, nothing of substance and a load of hot air is their trade mark.
As for having qualified social workers manning their helpline, I haven't come across many at all and as a SW in a local referral and assessment team I spoke to the NSPCC helpline hundreds of times.

@SplatSplatSplat

And can mnhq answer the mitmoo thing?

Hello. Sorry, we saw the thread about this in Site stuff but have only just clocked the question about it here.

The honest answer is, it was a typo. The world's most unfortunate typo. With bells on.

The Q was actually asked by minximoo - and we've now corrected the Q&A so that it says that.

This is a really disappointing response, it's just more flannel. I don't think I can be bothered to ask more questions by email, just to be fobbed off again. I might write more of a response here later if I get time. If the NSPCC really cared about accountability and their image they'd come back and have this discussion here in public.

Oh well, I feel like I've learnt a bit more about NSPCC - not much of it good

yep - we've definitely learnt a lot.

Thanks Helen. Sorry I didn't see the other thread.

HQ, why is the exact, word for word, question I asked listed under somebody elses name???

giraffe - thank you for posting. I really liked reading about your valuable work. In my view, it doesn't necessarily invalidate criticisms of the NSPCC - I've worked in a number of charities that were badly run, but where dedicated workers still provided fantastic care - but the thread has been on a negative roll and it's important to be reminded of the good stuff

Clearly the MNetters' questions have been retyped and edited?

Hi Giraffe. Thanks for your posts.

Can you tell me, because I've always wondered, what happens when you get a call from a child who says that they are being badly neglected or abused at home? Do you always contact social services?

(I mean a call from a child to ChildLine)

Wow. I didn't actually think it was possible to loathe the NSPCC more. But yeah.. Then I read their spin........I mean....'replies'.

They didn't answer my question. I asked quite clearly whether there was any evidence that under 16s were a risk in babysitting. But they gave no answer to that.

The question was about evidence, not their views. No answer

Precisely.

What is their data for their statements, views and comments in the news? They just keep repeating their own views.