The Child Law Advice Line

The Child Law Advice Line provides free legal advice and information covering all aspects of law and policy affecting children.

An advisor can be contacted on 08088 020 008. The advice line is open from 9.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday.

The majority of calls relate to private family law, such as parental responsibility, contact and residence disputes. Other regular subject matters include abduction, adoption, abuse, benefits, child employment, confidentiality, health, housing, maintenance and public proceedings.

Please note that the Child Law Advice Line does not provide advice on criminal offences or juvenile justice.

Click here to view some typical case examples

In addition, there is also a pre-recorded advice system that callers can listen to when all advisors are busy or during the lines closed hours.

If you would prefer to view the frequently asked questions on child law click here and if the information you are looking for is not covered within this section please contact the Child Law Advice Line.

The Child Law Advice Line has been accredited by the Telephone Helplines Association Executive Committee.

Information About Helplines

Caller Privacy and Exceptional Circumstances

The Children's Legal Centre offers a confidential service. The caller may be asked some questions such as where they heard about the advice line, where in the UK they are calling from and what their ethnic origin is. This is to analyse caller trends.

If the caller provides the Children’s Legal Centre with their name, address or phone number it will remain confidential and is not passed onto third parties.

If the Children’s Legal Centre is informed of information that suggests a person is at serious risk of harm and the Children’s Legal Centre has personal details, then a breach of confidentiality may be necessary in order to protect that person.

Call Recording

Please note that all calls to and from the Children’s Legal Centre are recorded.

The purpose of this is firstly to ensure that the highest quality of call handling is maintained.

Further, our calls are recorded to establish the existence of fact in the event of any doubt and will be admissible in court.

In the interest of confidentiality, these records will only be accessible by the Children’s Legal Centre management unless further action needs to be taken and the record produced to a third party.

All records will be destroyed after three months unless still in use.

Cost of Calls

The National Education Line calls can cost up to 4 pence per minute peak rate, networks and mobile charges may vary.

Communication

If you find it difficult to speak English, call us to connect to an interpreter. We have access to interpreters in 150 languages through Language Line.

We welcome calls from textphone users via Typetalk.