Ask Sam

Thank you for your letter and well done for writing in to get some support.

It sounds like there’s something on your mind that you’d really like to talk to ChildLine about - but you're worried about what might happen.

Maybe it would help if I told you a little bit about how ChildLine works. We are a confidential service, which means that we don’t tell anyone anything that you tell us, unless you want us to or unless we felt that you were in immediate, life threatening danger.

To find out more about ChildLine you can check out our about us and confidentiality promise pages. We also have a video about contacting ChildLine.

We don’t take children and young people out of their homes - we are here to listen to you. We want to support you and help you work out what you would like to happen next. You can also decide how much you feel comfortable telling ChildLine and say as much or as little as you feel comfortable with.

If it's something at home that is worrying you and that’s the reason you’re feeling worried about being taken away from there, you might like to take a look at the home and families page too.

If you do decide you’d like to talk to a counsellor, there are a few different ways to do that. You can call on 0800 1111 (all calls are free and don’t show up on the bill), have a 1-2-1 chat (it works like instant messenger), or send an email, through an account you set up on our site.

I hope that helps give you more of an idea about how we work.

Take care,

Sam