The agency I have chosen is the NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children). I have chosen this agency because I had seen many adverts on the television and it made me very interested in it.
The agency was started in 1881 by a man named Thomas Agnew, who called it LSPCC (London Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children). By 1889 the London Society had 32 branches throughout England, Wales and Scotland. Each branch raised funds to support an inspector, who investigated reports of child abuse and neglect. It was later renamed in 1889 as the NSPCC. The NSPCC is the only UK charity which has been granted statutory powers under the Children Act 1989, allowing it to apply for care and supervision orders for children at risk. Since the agency started, they have helped over 10 million children. In February 2006, NSPCC joined together with the charity Childline.
A summary of the objectives that the agency have are to:
focus on areas in which they can make the biggest difference
prioritise the children who are most at risk
learn what works best for them
create leverage for change.”
The range of services and activities offered that serve to equip children to protect themselves from child abuse are by telephone – 08001111, in 2008/2009 almost 30,000 adults phoned the NSPCC worried about children, and this resulted in 11,000 cases being reported to the police or child services to take action to protect children. NSPCC are a growing agency and they are keeping up with technology to be convenient for children to understand how to contact them e.g. text, phone and e-mail. In 2008/2009, statistics show that counsellors answered 700,000 calls from children who needed support from bullying to abuse.