Child Protection

This page is known as: www.birmingham.gov.uk/protect-children

East Birmingham: 0121 303 6541

North Birmingham: 0121 464 8022

South Birmingham: 0121 303 1888

West Birmingham: 0121 303 4362

If it is out of office hours, please contact:

Emergency Duty Team: 0121 675 4806

West Midlands Police: 0845 113 5000

NSPCC Helpline: 0808 800 5000

What Is Abuse?

• Abuse is inflicting harm, or failing to act to prevent harm. It is an offence to fail to act.
  
  
• Children may be abused in a family or an institutional or community setting, by those known to them or more rarely by a stranger.

The signs of child abuse

Physical: for example hitting, shaking or throwing. Signs such as hand slap marks, bruising, bite marks, burns or scalds. This also includes deliberately causing or falsely reporting ill health of a child.

Emotional: where a child is persistently made to feel inadequate, unloved, unwanted, frightened, exploited or corrupted.

Sexual: involves forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities. It doesn’t matter whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. The abuse may involve the child being exposed to, seeing or participating in inappropriate sexual activity, physically or via the media or internet.

Neglect: the persistent failure to meet a child’s basic rights to adequate food, shelter, clothing and medical care. Neglecting to respond to a child’s basic emotional needs. Prolonged or regular exposure to domestic abuse has a serious impact on a child’s development. When a child is not directly abused they will almost certainly suffer short or long-term psychological trauma from having witnessed abuse.

The Policy and Procedures for safeguarding children in Birmingham are available for everyone to download from the Birmingham Safeguarding Children Board web site:

go to the BSCB page for Safeguarding Children: Policy & Procedures.

Please note: Birmingham City Council is not responsible for the content of other organisations' web sites.