CHILDREN as young as nine across Wales are to become the target of a new ground-breaking service aimed at protecting future generations from all forms of abuse.
The NSPCC are ready to expand the ChildLine service, which has offered counselling to over 2.6 million vulnerable youngsters on matters such as bullying, physical and sexual abuse for the past 25 years, to include children of primary school age for the first time.
As stories of child abuse, exploitation and systematic child protection failures continue to dominate the headlines, ChildLine's organisers believe the time is right to turn their attention to safeguarding younger children to help them understand and and stay safe from abuse.
Traditionally, most of those who have contacted ChidLine since the service was founded by Esther Rantzen in 1986, have been over the age of 11.
But NSPCC research has shown that an average of two children in every primary school classroom has suffered from some form of abuse or neglect - the majority of cases going undetected.
"These young children often feel along and desperate and many have nobody to turn to," said an NSPCC spokeswoman.
"Most children who contact ChildLine are over 11 years of age. However, many of those may have suffered in silence for months, or even years, before eventually finding the courage to contact ChildLine, leaving themselves and other children at risk from perpetrators.
"If we are really serious about stopping child abuse, we need to reach these children when they are younger."
A recent report from NSPCC Wales estimated that almost a third of all 470,840 pupils in Wales today are bullied, with cyber-bullying via social websites, mobile phones or email a growing concern.
And the first all-Wales survey of bullying, released by the Welsh Assembly Government at the end of 2009, concluded that 15% of Year 4 pupils reported being bullied “all the time”.
To coincide with Anti-bullying Week (November 19-23), the Welsh Government is running a campaign of posters in line with its 'Respecting Others' document which provides guidance and practical solutions on preventing and responding to incidents of bullying in schools.
But the new ChildLine Schools Service will take a more hands-on approach, with the use of assemblies and workshops designed to encourage young children to recognise situations where they may need help and to tell them ways of accessing support.
"The aim of this new service is to give children the knowledge they need, in clear, reassuring language which is age-appropriate," said director of ChildLine Peter Liver.
"This is a real opportunity to change the face of child protection in the UK. The ChildLine Schools Service is fundamentally focused on safeguarding young people and we belive it will make a significant contribution to preventing child abuse."
Sessions at primary schools will be sensitively tailored to ensure topics are covered in a way that nine to 11-year-olds can understand, and have been approved by child protection specialists.
During an 18-month pilot the ambitious new programme visited 1,400 school across the UK and has reached out to 90,000 children. The youngsters are shown how to talk to trusted adults about problems that may be troubling them, and also told about ChildLine and how to contact the helpline if they should ever need to.
Results were encouraging, with two-thirds of the children who took part saying they were "much more likely to talk to someone" after the ChildLine Schools Service had visited their school.
The NSPCC will launch a national appeal to raise money for the new service early next year, with the need to recruit a UK national army of 4,000 volunteers to reach 23,420 schools and over 1.8 million primary age children by 2016.
"It is so important that children are encouraged to ask for help if they are in distress, and that they know ChildLine is there to support them," said Esther Rantzen.
"I found it really moving to hear an assembly of children recite our number, 0800 1111, and then watch them having fun learning to express the ChildLine number in sign language.
"But it's more then just fun. As a result of our work so far, we have already found that some young children have been able for the first time to disclose abuse and have been protected from it."
* FOR further information on the ChildLine Schools Service, and how to get involved as a volunteer, please visit the dedicated pages on the NSPCC website at: http://www.nspcc.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer-your-time/help-in-schools/help-in-schools_wdh82611.html.