Children's charity the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is using unified communications technology to improve the services it provides to children.

The system will provide unified access to the charity's Childline and NSPCC Helpline service using instant messaging, SMS, email and whiteboarding, with the aim of improving communications between counsellors and children.

As well as secure email, the system will provide a secure messageboard for online blog discussions. Children will be able to run web chat sessions with picture drawing support, a feature commonly used with youngsters involved in family breakdown who can find it difficult to express themselves fully. Other applications will include a "fridge magnet" messaging area and "poetry corner".

"We're creating a highly secure online environment for users of our Childline and NSPCC Helpline services, which comes as close to the face-to-face experience as possible," said NSPCC chief information officer Phil Reed.

"The system will use a full range of communications channels, some of which are already in wide use by young children and teenagers who generally have more access to PCs and mobile phones."

The NSPCC chose Alcatel-Lucent's OmniTouch Premium system, which will be rolled out by supplier ProtoCall One. The platform is designed to be highly scalable, and will use high-availability virtual servers and a multi-layered security infrastructure.