Mr. John Church:

The contact number is sourced, in the main, online. We are in schools as well. We are on social media too. We advertise our number on social media. Every call is a self-referral. We often get what is known as a "silent call", which is when an individual who has taken some time to get up the courage to call Childline does so but remains silent. We engage with that person for up to two minutes maximum. We seek to reassure the child that he or she can be heard and that we are there to help and we are not judgmental. It is about building up that confidence with the child. Very often, the child calls back and starts to talk.

In regard to the question regarding the 11-year-old, one of my first calls when I joined the ISPCC was from a ten-year-old. It is a typical ten-year-old testing the water. We ask the child for a name that is not their real name, the child gives a false name and the volunteer introduces himself or herself and tries to build up a relationship with the child. The average call is just over 60 seconds, but the range could be from ten seconds to 35 to 40 minutes. The latter would tend to be the older teenagers who are probably more confident to call. It is quite distressing. We get six and seven-year-olds calling Childline. They may have come across the number or, maybe, their friend has talked about it. You have to try to get into the mindset of a seven-year-old, using very basic language, to tease out what the issue is.