Reporting Your Concerns or Disclosures
Read here about how to respond to your concerns, or to disclosures, including information on who to contact in these situations.
Responding to concerns, complaints, allegations and disclosures
If you need to make an allegation or disclosure of abuse, or have serious concerns about the safety of a child, young person or vulnerable adult, you should immediately contact the police or the relevant children’s services department.
If you have a concern that is not serious and does not require immediate action you should speak to the activity organiser, relevant child protection officer or one of the national contacts listed for advice and support. You could also get advice from the relevant children's services department.
If your concern is related to poor practice, please speak to the relevant activity organiser.
PLEASE NOTE that if your concern is regarding something that takes place/took place within a facility e.g. a leisure centre, you should inform the facility in the first instance so that they can follow their own child protection policies and procedures. Many of the facilities in Tyne & Wear follow The Derwent Initiative's Leisure Watch procedures.
Further Information
For further information, please visit the 'Useful Contacts' section, which contains the relevant contact details you can use if you need help or guidance, e.g. Children's Services, national contacts.
The 'NSPCC' website in particular provides alot of support and advice. You may wish to look at the NSPCC's 'Worried about a child? How you can protect children from abuse' leaflet, which gives some useful tips on what to do if you're concerned about the safety of a child. Please click here to download it.
