Croydon’s NSPCC centre opens doors after lockdown

The NSPCC’s Croydon service centre has become one of the charity’s first sites in the country to physically re-open its doors for children’s face-to-face support work.

Practitioners at the base have been adapting the vital services they provide to ensure they can still support children during lockdown.

This included services over the phone and online – but with updated government guidance they can now provide vital services face-to-face at the Croydon centre itself.

The gradual opening sees the centre open for three days a week, offering services such as the Letting the Future In – designed to be delivered in person, face to face, in specialised therapeutic rooms.

This therapeutic service is for young people aged 4-17 who have been sexually abused, sometimes within their own homes and require treatment for emotional trauma.

Barry O’Sullivan, NSPCC team manager at Croydon, said: “We’ve been working to adapt and provide our vital services for children virtually, but new guidelines give us the opportunity to try our therapeutic sessions in person – in a building – again as well. And specifically for those for whom virtual therapy was not an option.

More than 22,000 adults contacted the NSPCC helpline in April, May and June, with parental behaviour, neglect and physical and emotional abuse the biggest worries.