Home Office to fund employee whistleblowing helpline over child protection failures

The Home Office is to fund a new national helpline to advise employees who feel unable to speak out about child protection failures or who feel they have exhausted all avenues with their employer directly.

The Government will provide £500,000 for the NSPCC to deliver the service in this financial year.

The Home Office said employees would be offered advice about the whistleblowing process and would be legally protected from any future workplace discrimination arising as a result of their concerns. Any concerns raised would be passed on to relevant investigatory bodies to pursue, it added.

The NSPCC will also work with authorities to gather information about reports relating to child abuse in order to identify and address trends sooner.

Karen Bradley, Minister for Preventing Abuse, Exploitation and Crime, said: “The new NSPCC whistleblowing helpline will be a vital service in our fight to end child abuse, including sexual exploitation.

“Every child deserves to be safe from abuse, and organisations that are trusted to protect our children must work as effectively as possible to achieve this.”

Bradley added: “Some employers are making great strides in strengthening whistleblowing processes. But more can be done to encourage employees to report malpractice without fear of victimisation - particularly in relation to children where the cost of failure is so high.

“No one should be afraid to report concerns about failures in child protection.”

NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless said: “If an employee thinks a child is in danger or has been failed by their organisation then nothing should stand in the way of them speaking out.

“Too often people with concerns have kept silent because they have been fearful of the consequences for their jobs, and this can have devastating consequences for the children involved. A feature of the child abuse scandals of recent years has been people who said they thought something wasn’t right but were unsure whether they could discuss their concerns confidentially outside their organisation.”