If you have ANY concerns about possible abuse it MUST be reported.

To report possible abuse or for general advice, either contact the Children and Young People Information Service (during office hours) on 01454 868008 or if you think it is an emergency and it is out of office hours contact the Emergency Duty Team on 01454 615165 or the Public Protection Unit of the police on 01179 455969.

The Children and Young People’s Information Service is the first point of contact and provides information and access to social work services to members of the public and related professionals.

If you have a good reason to suspect that a child is being abused, you should contact someone who knows what to do. Do this as soon as you can and before the situation gets any worse. You may feel uneasy about reporting what you know or have seen, but you may feel much worse if you don’t.

Social workers from your locality social work team will need to talk with you if possible and find out how serious the situation is. They try hard to help families become more able to cope with caring for their child and whenever possible keep the family together.