Lack of funding hampering Childline service

The Childline service says it is only able to answer half of all calls due to a lack of funding.

Almost 295,000 people contacted the helpline last year, an increase of 9% on the figure for 2006.

Thirteen per cent of calls related to abuse and violence, while almost 7,000 related to mental health issues.

The annual statistics have been released to coincide with Childline's 20th anniversary today.