Things got a little serious here for a moment this week, when I was approached by a young girl who needed help. She had missed two periods, and when a pregnancy test came up positive she came in for advice about what she could do next.

She had been to see her GP, who had given her the impression he could do nothing unless she spoke to her parents. She didn’t want to do that because she was afraid her whole world could fall apart. To some extent, I felt out of my depth. I was certainly out of my comfort zone, but as she had reached out to me I had to do something.

Suddenly my whole day became engulfed by this issue. My immediate concern was for her welfare, particularly her emotional wellbeing – she was obviously worried and looked like she needed a cuddle from her mum. She was so frightened she wouldn’t even give me her name.

Typically, there was nobody around to get advice from, as the whole Safeguarding team for Dorset was stuck in a training session! Eventually I got somebody on the phone, and was able to talk the scenario through and come up with an action plan. Fortunately I was able to guide her to an appropriate source of care. A job well done, but some definite lessons learnt for next time.