If you are being hurt, treated in a way that makes you feel scared, uncomfortable or unsafe, or you feel very alone or unhappy, please tell someone about it so they can try to help you.

Talk to someone you can trust, like a teacher or a nurse at your school. They will listen to you and support you, and talk through what can be done to help sort things out. Very often difficulties can be helped by trusted adults you already know.

Asking for help early on can help stop things getting worse. All adults working with children know that they have a responsibility to protect children from harm.

Remember that you can ring

• Childline anytime on 0800 1111
• If you live in Derby you can talk to a trained social worker at Derby Social Care by ringing 01332 641172 during the day, or 01332 956606 after 5pm and at weekends 
• If you live in Derbyshire you can talk to a trained social worker at Derbyshire County Council by phoning 01629 533190 anytime.

What happens if someone is worried about a child or young person?

If a baby, child or young person has been harmed or there are worries that they might be harmed in the future, the law says that the local authority (Derby City Council or Derbyshire County Council) has to find out what has happened so that children can be kept safe.

A social worker, sometimes together with a police officer, will talk to the child or young person to find out how they feel and what worries them. They will normally talk to the parents and carers as well (unless the young person has explained that this may make things worse).

If there are a lot of concerns a meeting called a Child Protection Conference will be arranged. Parents, carers and the children or young people will be invited to attend along with people who know the family such as a teacher, doctor or a health visitor, will be invited to attend.

Helping children and young people at a Child Protection Conference

A person called an advocate can help children and young people speak up for themselves at Child Protection Conferences.

You can ask for an advocate by ringing their freephone number 0800 0286977 or you can text 07717 740557.

Advocates can help in a number of different ways:

• Going to the meeting with you, to support you to say what you want to say
• Going to the meeting with you and speaking on your behalf if that is what you want
• Going to the meeting if you don’t want to, and explaining to the people at the meeting what you want them to hear.

They can help you to prepare for the meeting and to write something down if that is what you want.

The conference will talk about what has happened and what can be done to help. If necessary a plan will be agreed of all the things people should do to help the child and the family – this is called a Child Protection Plan.

Useful information leaflets

• Young Persons Guide to Working Together to Safeguard Children
• Young Persons Guide to Keeping Children Safe

How young people have helped make Derby and Derbyshire safer

• Young people told us that they were worried about the problems of violence in relationships and they helped us to produce posters that were sent to all schools in Derby.
• Young people told us about their concerns about safety online and they helped us with their knowledge and skills to develop e safety courses that they have taken into Primary Schools in Derby and provided sessions directly to the older children.
• Young people have helped us develop training films on Forced Marriage, Self Harm and Child Sexual Exploitation. They have appeared in the training films and these are used to train staff from all agencies and are used by schools to help pupils.

If you want to see these films you can contact us on 01332 642351.

Information and links that you might find useful

Please let us know if you have requests or suggestions for adding extra information. You can ring us on 01332 642351 or email ddscp@derby.gov.uk.

Safe Speak

Safe Speak provide help for children and young people aged 5 to 10 years old and 11 to 18 years old. You can phone Safe Speak on 0800 093 5264 (free from landlines) or 01332 349301.

Safe Speak help children and young people with problems with family, friends, bullying and anything that is causing a worry.

Visit the Safe Speak website

Bullying

Bullying can happen to anyone at any age. Being bullied at school, home or online might involve someone pushing you, hitting you, teasing you, talking about you or calling you names. Nobody has the right to hurt you or make you feel bad. You don’t have to deal with things alone.

You can get help through to Childline by:

• calling a counsellor free on 0800 1111
• talking to a counsellor through 1-2-1 chat online
• getting support from other young people on the message boards
• writing a letter to Sam or seeing what others have written.

You can also get support by talking to to an adult or your teacher.

The Childline website has lots of information and ways you can be supported to deal with bullying.

Online Safety

Get Safe Online

Get Safe Online Free expert advice to pick up some expert, up-to-the-minute advice about getting safe online.

KidSMART

Learn more about the Internet and being a smart surfer here with KidSMART.

Thinkuknow

Thinkuknow provides resources, training and support to help children and young people keep themselves safe from sexual abuse and exploitation by developing skills in identifying and avoiding risk, learning how best to protect themselves and their friends, and knowing how to get support and report abuse if they do encounter difficulties.

UK Safer Internet Centre

Where you can find e-safety tips, advice and resources to help children and young people stay safe on the internet from the UK Safer Internet Centre.

If you feel uncomfortable or sense that something is wrong tell an adult you trust, or report abuse at the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre. You may like to talk to someone at Childline – their freephone number is 0800 1111.

Sexting

If you share an image of yourself online by photo, text or video, via your phone, tablet or computer always think first, “would I be ok with anyone and everyone seeing this?”.

If you send a picture of yourself over the Internet you cannot control who sees it. It can be sent to anyone or put on any website for ever.

Did you know?

Being involved in sending sexually explicit pictures, where the person in the picture is under the age of 18, can be a criminal offence. This could lead to you getting into trouble with the police, affect your chances of getting a job and even limit the countries that you can travel to.

If someone is forcing you to send an inappropriate image of yourself, you should report them to the Police by calling 101 or speak to an adult.

Zipit

Childline’s first ever app, available for Android, Apple and Blackberry smartphones.

If someone’s trying to get you to send them naked images of yourself, use the images on Zipit to keep the situation in control.

Zipit helps you get flirty chat back on the right track. It’s packed with killer comebacks and top tips to help you stay in control of your chat game.

Download ChildLine’s free Zipit app for loads of great comebacks if someone’s trying to get you to send them a sexual image.

Support for Disabled Children and Young People

Paving the Way

The Challenging Behaviour Foundation (CBF) and the Council for Disabled Children (CDC) launched of a website called ‘Paving the Way.’ The website aims to provide families, professionals, staff, and commissioners with information about how to reduce challenging behaviour and to improve the wellbeing of children with learning disabilities.

Be Safe Be Smart Online

Be Safe Be Smart Online has been created in partnership with The National Deaf Children’s Society. They are designed to help and support deaf young people and their parents, carers and teachers to help and remind them how to stay safe online.

Telling about bullying

Telling about bullying is a leaflet designed to be shared with deaf adults who find pictures easier to read than words. It outlines in pictures how a mum and dad are concerned that their daughter is being bullied for having deaf parents. Shows how they contacted the NSPCC and got the advice and help they needed to support their child.

Child Exploitation – Information for young people

If there are worries that you may be at risk of exploitation a social worker will discuss this with you. They might want to invite you and your parents or carers to a meeting to discuss their concerns and agree with you what support might be best for you.

You can find out more information about Child Exploitation Meetings in Derby on the link to the leaflet below.

Sexual Exploitation – Children – explains what happens, how they can be involved and who will be there.

Safe and Sound (Derby)

Safe and Sound provide support directly to children, young people and families in Derby and Derbyshire affected by the abuse and work to ensure that individuals receive the support they need to move forwards in their lives.

Find more information about CRE for parents.