Child protection
All children have a right to be well looked after and protected from harm. The children and young people's service investigate all cases when people are worried that a child may be at risk of being harmed or is not being looked after properly.
Worried about a child?If you are worried about a child or a young person under the age of 19, you should contact the children and young people's service through the customer services centre. If your concern is outside of normal office hours, you should contact the emergency duty team. In an emergency, always ring 999All calls about concerns you may have for a child are taken seriously. Calls can be taken in confidence. Contact details for the customer services centre and emergency duty team can be found below. For more details about the service provided by the emergency duty team, see the social care - out of hours support page. What happens next?Once you have contacted us, the customer services centre will take more details from you about the child and about your concerns. Experienced staff will then make a judgement on whether action needs to be taken and how quickly that action needs to be. It may not always be possible to let you know what happened because of confidentiality. Combining your information and anything already known, a decision may be taken to conduct an investigation to establish whether the child is at risk of harm or not. If you decide that you wish to remain anonymous this will be respected. However it is helpful for the investigating social worker to be able to share your concerns openly and so we do ask callers to consider this option. Following an investigation, staff from the children and young people's service will either: You can find out more by downloading the leaflets below.
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Social care
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Child protection - frequently asked questions
Child protection conference - frequently asked questions
Information sharing consent form [38kb] [pdf]
This form explains why we need to share your information with other professionals. By signing it you give your permission to share your information. This consent is valid for one year.
About social care records [221kb] [pdf]
This leaflet is about information and records that we may keep in children's social care and about your rights, under the Data Protection Act 1998, to access information about yourself.
- Please note: All external websites open in a new browser window and NYCC is not responsible for the content of external websites.
- ChildLine
Children and young people can contact the helpline on 0800 1111 about a problem, at any time day or night.
- Kidscape
Kidscape is a national charity helping to prevent bullying and child abuse. Their website contains information for children, young people, parents and professionals on tackling bullying.
- National Society for the Protection of Children
A free 24-hour child protection helpline on 0808 800 5000 provides information, advice and counselling to anyone concerned about a child's safety.
- North Yorkshire Safeguarding Children Board
Advice and information for children, families and professionals about local child protection arrangements.
- Samaritans
A 24-hour confidential phone service for anyone experiencing feelings of distress or despair. You can also get in touch by e-mail, letter or face-to-face.
- Working Together to Safeguard Children
A guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children written by the Department of Health, Home Office and Department for Children, Schools and Families.
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Customer services centre (social care enquiries)
Full contact details for the customer services centre, including how to call in personally, can be found below.
social.care@northyorks.gov.uk
Tel: 0845 034 9410
Fax: 01609 532009
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Emergency duty team
edt@northyorks.gov.uk
Tel: 0845 034 9417
Fax: 01347 824648 (out of hours only). For all other faxes, please ring in advance to obtain the fax number to ensure people's confidentiality is maintained.
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