Information for Parents and Carers
We get it...
We totally understand that it might be difficult to find out that your child has been in contact with us here at Teenage Helpline. Our top priority is to ensure that your child, and anyone contacting us, is in the best possible care.
We have put together more information on this page to help you to understand what we do, how we look after those that contact us and the commitment that we make.
What do we do?
Teenage Helpline is a charitable organisation that provides peer-to-peer mentoring for young people aged 10 to 25 across the UK. We have a vast team of people from all different backgrounds, however our mentors are all young people just like those reaching out for support.
This is not a professional service, and we do not offer any formal means of counselling and support. The service that we offer is simply providing a friendly person to be there and listen. This kind of service is especially important in giving young people a voice to speak out about their concerns where they feel unable to seek professional support at the moment or do not feel that they need that kind of support. We are designed to be that first stepping stone to get young people talking when they need it.
On this page, we have put together information on what we do and how we work with young people to help you feel at ease.
Our Commitment
The young people that reach out to us from all over the UK are our number one priority. Our commitment to these young people is to provide a safe space to reach out to someone to talk things through. This looks different to every young person, and we provide comprehensive mentoring training to all of our mentors to help them to tailor their approach to each person that they speak to.
Our commitment to you as parents and carers is to do everything that we can to keep your child safe and well. We take everything that a young person tells us seriously, and we make sure that they know this.
We would like you to feel assured that, in any instance, your child is in the best possible care when talking with us.
If you do have any more questions, you are welcome to contact us to find out more.
Safeguarding at Teenage Helpline
Here at Teenage Helpline, we take the safeguarding of children and young people very seriously. All of our employees and volunteers, regardless of what roles they are carrying out, are required to undertake comprehensive and bespoke safeguarding training.
We have robust safeguarding policies and procedures that are followed at all times, and any concerns are followed up on appropriately no matter how big or small they may seem. There may be times where we have to make difficult decisions, but our safeguarding team are on hand and prepared for that.
All volunteers that are over the age of 16 are required to undertake and pass a DBS check before being able to work with any young people. We also monitor all of our activities to ensure that our employees and volunteers are appropriately adhering to all of our policies and procedures.
Confidentiality at Teenage Helpline
In order to provide our service to young people across the UK, there is a requirement for us to collect and process information from those that contact us. Anyone contacting Teenage Helpline has complete freedom over the information that they share with us, and there is no requirement to share information.
To maintain our strong commitment to safeguarding and protecting the welfare of all young people that contact our service, we maintain a case log that allows us to track progress and keep records of any concerns that may grow.
We do not share any of the information that we hold with any third parties unless we really have to. There are times where sharing information will be required, such as times where there are serious concerns for the health or welfare of a young person.
All data that is stored is done so in accordance with our strict data protection policies and in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
If you have concerns about the confidentiality of our service, you are welcome to contact us.