Safety
If someone is in immediate danger
This companion cannot help in an emergency, and it never contacts a service for you.
- Life is at risk right now: call 999 or go to your nearest A&E.
- Urgent mental health help: call NHS 111 and choose the mental health option, day or night.
- If you need to talk: Samaritans, 116 123, free, any time.
- For your child or young person: Childline, 0800 1111, free and confidential for under-19s.
- Text support: text SHOUT to 85258, free, any time.
If your child talks about self-harm or not wanting to be here, take it seriously and use one of the routes above. Nothing you record here is seen by a service, and nothing is sent on your behalf.
How we talk about children
We do not describe a child as naughty, defiant, non-compliant or challenging. Distress is communication. Absence is not treated as parental failure, and attendance is never presented as a wellbeing score.
Your child's words
A child's own words are kept separate from adult observation and are never altered or reinterpreted. A child is never required to answer anything.