Demand high, but Childline faces shortage of volunteers

The ISPCC has recorded a sharp rise in demand among children for its Childline online services — at a time when it is facing a shortage of volunteers.

The charity’s annual report also reveals that the helpline service, which costs €3.5m a year to run, is on course to answer its seven millionth telephone call in 2018.

In 2017, the number of calls, texts and online contacts answered by Childline was 381,911. More than 1,000 different conversations were held each day with children and young people all over Ireland, a slight decrease on last year’s figure.