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The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children ( NSPCC) is a British child protection charity founded as the Liverpool Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (LSPCC) by Thomas Agnew on 19 April 1883. The NSPCC lobbies the government on issues relating to child welfare, and creates child abuse public awareness campaigns.
Since the 1980s, the charity has had statutory powers allowing it to apply for help on behalf of children at risk. In the 1990s, the charity's publication, Satanic Indicators, fuelled panic in social workers who went and accused parents and removed children from homes when they should not have. It also operates a telephone help line. The Paddington Bear character has partnered with the charity to raise funds.
On 1 January 1887, the Child's Guardian, the official magazine of the Society was launched. The magazine was modelled on the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and was designed to educate the public on the nature of cruelty to children.
After five years of campaigning by the London SPCC, Parliament passed the first ever UK law to protect children from abuse and neglect in 1889. The London SPCC was renamed the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children on 14 May 1889, because by then it had branches across Great Britain and Ireland. In the same year the Chief Commissioners of the Metropolitan and City of London Police issued instructions that all cases of cruelty to children reported to them should be handed to NSPCC to be dealt with.NSPCC Annual Report for 1930-31. London: NSPCC Central Office, 1931, p. 48.
The NSPCC was granted its Royal Charter on 28 May 1895 by Queen Victoria who became its first Royal Patron. It did not change its title to "Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children" or similar, as the name NSPCC was already well established, and to avoid confusion with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), which had already existed for more than fifty years.
Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, 18 Inspectors joined the Royal Navy and a further 42 joined the Army. During the course of the war, the NSPCC inspector for Manchester was awarded the Victoria Cross. In January 1915, the NSPCC appointed its first Female Inspector. During the same War, fraudulent fundraisers were discovered to be collecting money in aid of families of those killed or injured in action. The NSPCC, therefore, avoided street collections until the War Charities Act of 1916, which introduced regulations to protect and guide collectors.
In 1919, the Edward VIII, later to be King Edward VIII, became a Patron of the Society. In 1926 the Prince spoke on behalf of the NSPCC in a radio appeal.
In 1930, the Society reported helping its four-millionth child.
Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War the Home Secretary, Sir John Anderson, wrote to the Chairman of the Society expressing his thanks that the Society had decided to continue its work during the war. During the course of the war, the Society supported over 600,000 children, while nearly 100 of the Society's Inspectors served in the Armed Forces.Birmingham and District Branch of the NSPCC, Annual Report for the year ending 31 December 1942, p. 2; Carlisle, Penrith and North Cumberland Branch of the NSPCC, Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 1945, p. 2.
The NSPCC's organisation in the Republic of Ireland was taken up by the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC), founded in 1956 as a replacement for the NSPCC. The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC), Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, Volume V, Chapter 1 Today, the NSPCC works in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and the Channel Islands.
The NSPCC also provided a publication known as Satanic Indicators to social services around the country that has been blamed for some social workers panicking and making false accusations of sexually abusing children. The most prominent of these cases was in Rochdale in 1990 when up to twenty children were taken from their homes and parents after social services believed them to be involved in satanic or occult ritual abuse. The allegations were later found to be false. The case was the subject of a BBC documentary which featured recordings of the interviews made by NSPCC social workers, revealing that flawed techniques and leading questions were used to gain evidence of abuse from the children. The documentary claimed that the social services were wrongly convinced, by organisations such as the NSPCC, that abuse was occurring and so rife that they made allegations before any evidence was considered.
In 1999, an advert released by the NSPCC "warning" of the risk of children being murdered by strangers was criticised as a fearmongering fundraising tactic, as such occurrences are exceedingly uncommon. Why this NSPCC advert is harmful to children. The Guardian. Retrieved 21 November 2011. A Stranger Danger. Sirc.org. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
In November 2014, fifty Paddington Bear statues, created by various celebrities and organisations—including the NSPCC designed "Patchwork Paddington"—were located around London prior to the release of the film Paddington, with the statues auctioned to raise funds for the NSPCC.
In 2017, the Information Commissioner's Office fined eleven charities that breached the Data Protection Act by misusing donors' personal data. NSPCC was fined £12,000.
In 2019, the NSPCC engaged transgender activist Munroe Bergdorf as its first LGBTQ+ campaigner for ChildLine. The relationship was ended controversially after what Bergdorf described as a transphobic hate campaign against her, including false allegations that she had taken part in pornographic films. The NSPCC stated that their reason was nothing to do with Bergdorf being transgender, but because she invited LGBTQ+ young people to contact her directly over social media, which was not compatible with the NSPCC's own safeguarding policies. Over 150 NSPCC staff complained to senior management about the charity's treatment of Bergdorf.
The NSPCC runs local service centres across the UK where it helps children, young people, and families. Since 2009, the NSPCC has run a Child Protection Consultancy service aiming to make organisations safer for children. This offers training and consultancy to organisations which have contact with children, ranging from schools to sporting bodies. The charity works through local safeguarding children's boards (LSCBs), where the police, health, social and education services and others can work together.
The charity is regularly audited and publishes its annual report and accounts as required by the Charity Commission.
In May 2021, a helpline that was launched for victims to report abuse and harassment in educational settings had taken hundreds of calls since it opened. The NSPCC received 353 calls between 1 April and 16 May. Of these, 65 were referred to external agencies such as the police and children's services.
In 2016, the NSPCC launched a web-based 'Impact and Evidence' hub which was designed to promote and make accessible the research evidence that it produced. The hub contained sections on:
Research and evidence reports produced by the NSPCC include evaluations of:
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