HEALTH will aim to plug the gap in services if the NSPCC pulls out of the island.

The charity has announced plans which would close its local centre within months.

The facility costs £400,000 a year to run and provides therapy for children affected by abuse, a mother and toddler group and chairs child protection conferences for the department.

The centre is also the main provider of a dedicated post-abuse therapeutic service, which works mainly with children and young people who have been sexually abused.

Some money for the centre is provided by HSSD through a service agreement.

Yesterday its director of services for children and young people Jacqui Gallienne (pictured) said the department may be able to provide the NSPCC services that would be lost through using money set aside to develop a further agreement with the NSPCC.

‘If it does close then we will have to look at where the gaps are and work out how we can fill them.

‘But I’m not saying we would definitely replace it as it is.’

She said vulnerable children would not lose out and those who received therapy would not be lost through the system.