UK Operations
ChildLine has 12 counselling centres around the UK, staffed largely by volunteers. The bases are located in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Manchester, Liverpool, Prestatyn, Birmingham, Nottingham, London, Belfast and Foyle, supported by the online only centres at Leeds and Cardiff. A restructure in 2011 saw the closure of the ChildLine bases in Exeter and Edinburgh, with Swansea relocating to Cardiff. As many as 4,500 children phone ChildLine every day, though only 2,500 of these callers can be answered. Since the merger with the NSPCC the service has expanded, and depends on public generosity to pay for the children's phone calls.
Unlike most other freephone helplines, Childline offers confidentiality to children unless their lives are in immediate danger. This is seen as one of the greatest strengths of the service, as it allows children to discuss their problems "safely" in the knowledge that no intervention will take place without their consent. The tragedy of child abuse is that the majority of children suffer in silence because they have been told that if they seek help they will not be believed, or they are threatened into silence, or they fear that intervention will inevitably shatter such happiness as they have, for example, break up the family. Children who ring ChildLine to disclose abuse are often encouraged to seek help from "trusted adults", the aim being to protect the child from harm causing as little ancillary damage as possible. ChildLine's counsellors are trained to use role play and empathy to build children's confidence. ChildLine offers its own training programme for volunteers who come from widely varied backgrounds, but must be over 16. Many counsellors have worked for years for the charity.
Calls to ChildLine do not appear on phone bills. Despite most mobile phone operators charging for freephone 0800 calls, calls to ChildLine's number are not charged by any UK mobile network. Calls are free, can be made at any time, day or night and children can ring about any problem, whether asking for themselves or because they are worried about a friend.
ChildLine raise funds through several channels, including direct donations through the NSPCC, partnerships, events such as The X Factor ChildLine Ball and through third-party fundraising organisations such as Justgiving.
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“There is a patent office at the seat of government of the universe, whose managers are as much interested in the dispersion of seeds as anybody at Washington can be, and their operations are infinitely more extensive and regular.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)