Plea for more Childline volunteers to keep up with demand for thousands of kids in need of help

Childline in Manchester say they still need more money - and volunteers - to keep up with demand for thousands of kids in need of help.

It costs one and a half thousand pounds to train a single volunteer, with 140 in the Salford base alone.

But right now, a quarter of all calls to the confidential advice service are going unanswered, because of a lack of volunteers.

Anna Krala runs the Childline base in Salford, she said:

"The people that you work with are very committed because it's a great place to be and everyone's very driven to see that it works, because you know what the end result is and who you are doing it for. Without those volunteers, we wouldn't be able to function.

"You've got premises, you've got staffing and when you look at keeping this service going just in one building, because without volunteers we wouldn't be able to function so you end up with a lot of very small add ons.

"If children and young people didn't have that, where else would they go? If you took that away, where else? We need to keep it up because we will be here, we don't close."

The NSPCC are urging anyone to sign up to volunteer.

The training process lasts for around six months, including safeguarding training, shadowing and monitored calls.

Tony Crank has volunteered in Salford for two years:

"It's something I've always wanted to do. I've always felt like children are very important and that it's something that's close to my heart, as it is with every other volunteer. In my mind, I'm doing something good and trying to give something back.

"Every shift you deal with is different, you don't know what you're going to get or what you'll have to deal with and you have to approach it with support of the fantastic support of the supervisors. If you can help just one person deal with something then it's all worth it as far as I'm concerned.

"A lot of us are parents and grandparents, so we've got kids of our own and we end up trying to think in the ways of a parent and solve their problems for them, but at the end of the day the young people want someone to talk to who they feel they can talk to about anything.

"It's not a matter of volunteers giving up their time, we want to do this and as long as young people know that we're there then that's all that matters."

To sign up to volunteer, visit: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-you-can-do/volunteering-nspcc-childline/volunteer-childline-helpline/