By phone or email
To speak to an adviser, please call our free and confidential advice line 0808 801 0366 (Monday to Friday 9.30am to 3pm, excluding Bank Holidays). Or you can ask us a question via email using our advice enquiry form.
Are you a parent, kinship carer relative or friend of a child who is involved with, or who needs the help of, children’s services in England? We can help you understand processes and options when social workers or courts are making decisions about your child’s welfare.
Our advice service is free, independent and confidential.
To speak to an adviser, please call our free and confidential advice line 0808 801 0366 (Monday to Friday 9.30am to 3pm, excluding Bank Holidays). Or you can ask us a question via email using our advice enquiry form.
Our online advice forums are an anonymous space where parents and kinship carers (also known as family and friends carers) can get legal and practical advice, build a support network and learn from other people’s experiences.
Our get help and advice section has template letters, advice sheets and resources about legal and social care processes. On Monday and Wednesday afternoons, you can use our webchat service to chat online to an adviser.
The Children Act 1989 defines harm as the ‘ill-treatment’ of a child or the ‘impairment’ of the child’s health or development. This includes harm caused by seeing or hearing someone else being ill-treated (e.g. a child witnessing domestic abuse).
Development means a child’s ‘physical, intellectual, emotional, social or behavioural development’. And ‘health’ means a child’s ‘physical or mental health’.
The definition of harm is set out in Section 31(9) of the Children Act 1989.
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