ChildLine calls prompted by parents' drink and drugs

More than 100 children a week are contacting the ChildLine helpline with worries about their parents' drinking or drug use, according to the NSPCC. It said in the year to March, 5,700 children had called, but founder Esther Rantzen told the BBC there were likely to be many more too afraid to do so. Two-thirds of those callers had mentioned their parents' drinking. The children calling about that issue were also more likely than other child callers to report abuse, it added.

Ms Rantzen said: "These are the children that know our number and ring us, but what about the many, many thousands of children who aren't, alas, familiar with ChildLine's work and who might be fearful of ringing us?"

She added: "I am, in a sense, imploring those people who work with children to be alert to the possibility that the silent, friendless child... may have trouble at home created by alcohol and drug problems."