A campaign has been launched encouraging the public to come forward if they believe a child is in danger of abuse.

The Nottingham Area Child Protection Committee (ACPC) has produced posters and leaflets giving people information about who to contact to report suspected child abuse. The message of the campaign is that everyone has a responsibility to safeguard children and should act on their suspicions by contacting agencies involved in child protection.

Vivien Lines, from the Nottingham City ACPC says: "People often don't know what to do if they are worried about a child or feel that by doing something they might make things worse. The message of our campaign is that the worst thing you can do is nothing."

Child protection in Nottingham is a shared responsibility between a partnership of agencies and organisations co-ordinated by ACPC.

The campaign highlights places such as police stations, health centres, schools, leisure centres and libraries where the public can report any concerns so that appropriate action can be taken and serious concerns passed on to Social Services.

Research shows that many children don't tell anyone of the abuse they are suffering at the time, but that there is often someone outside of the situation who knows or suspects what's going on but doesn't know what to do.

Paul Snell, Chair of the Nottingham City APCP and Acting Chief Executive of the City Council, said: "This is a really important campaign. All the recent enquiries show that protecting children relies on sharing good information between everyone involved with the child and their family.

Often concerns are only identified when many pieces of information are put together and this often includes information from members of the child"s own community."