ONE of the UK's leading child protection charities has been given a cash boost to extend its Glasgow services.

The extra £500,000 which ChildLine received today from the Scottish Executive will provide at least one extra supervisor in the charity's Glasgow office.

And it will allow helplines to be staffed for longer, enabling more vulnerable children to have their calls answered.

The funding was announced by Education Minister Hugh Henry at ChildLine's Glasgow office.

The money, which comes on top of £1.2million provided by the Executive to ChildLine since 2003, will be used to expand services in Glasgow and Aberdeen and set up an Edinburgh base.

William Douglas, fund-raising manager for ChildLine Scotland, said most youngsters who used the service came from the Glasgow area.

He added: "This funding will take us even closer to our desire to be there for every young person in need of protection, support and advice."

Mr Douglas said the charity was only able to answer 60% of calls made to its helplines and the aim was to increase that figure to 80%.

He added: "We are also trying to reflect the change in young people's lives. Most children have a mobile phone and can call us any time, day or night.

"We help 100 young people a day in Scotland and the funding will see that figure rising."

Mr Douglas hopes more volunteers will come forward to staff the helplines.