30 Years of ChildLine (360G-Wellcome-200420_Z_15_Z)

October 2016 will mark the 30th anniversary of the charity, ChildLine. We propose a witness seminar, supported by ChildLine/NSPCC, bringing together ChildLine’s founders and staff, counsellors, journalists and policymakers to reflect upon the charity’s foundation and ongoing contribution to children’s services. This is a timely event. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (July 2015-) is stressing the need to centre the experiences of victims and survivors in the investigations. Terse debate about the role of the voluntary sector in the provision of childcare and child protection has been highlighted by the recent closure of Kids Company. The ‘Wellcome Witness seminars’ have demonstrated the rewards of using oral history to extend existing records about developments in recent medical science and practice. Our event will build on this model to create resources about the history of present-day issues surrounding children’s health and wellbeing. Our key goals are to open conversations between charity and healthcare practitioners, policymakers, academics and journalists/broadcasters about these subjects, with outputs that can be applied to inform policy. We will disseminate findings through an archived audio recording and transcription of the event, academic articles and policy briefs. We will also develop networking platforms for future engagement between participants.