Our provided services and activities include working with vulnerable people. The purpose of this policy is to protect them and provide stakeholders and the public with the overarching principles that guide our approach in doing so.
Safeguarding Lead
A lead director is appointed to provide oversight of safeguarding and to lead on any incident investigation and reporting.
Safeguarding Lead
Kerry Malster
Applicability
This policy applies to anyone working on our behalf, including our directors, contractors, staff and volunteers.
Partner organisations will be required to have their own safeguarding procedures that must, as a minimum, meet the standards outlined below, and include any additional legal or regulatory requirements specific to their work.
Safeguarding should also be appropriately reflected in other relevant policies and procedures.
Principles
We believe that:
Nobody who is involved in our work should ever experience abuse, harm, neglect or exploitation.
We all have a responsibility to promote the welfare of all of our beneficiaries, staff and volunteers, to keep them safe and to work in a way that protects them.
We all have a collective responsibility for creating a culture in which our people not only feel safe, but also able to speak up, if they have any concerns.
Types of Abuse
Abuse can take many forms, such as physical, psychological or emotional, financial, sexual or institutional abuse, including neglect and exploitation. Signs that may indicate the different types of abuse are at Appendix 1.
Reporting Concerns
If a crime is in progress, or an individual in immediate danger, call the police, as you would in any other circumstances. If you are a participant, client, beneficiary, or member of the public, make your concerns known to a member of our team, who will alert a senior member of the organisation. For members of the organisation, make your concerns known to your supervisor. If you feel unable to do so, speak to a director.
Responsibilities
Directors
This safeguarding policy will be reviewed and approved by the Board annually.
A lead director is given responsibility for the oversight of all aspects of safety, including whistleblowing and H&SW. This will include:
Creating a culture of respect, in which everyone feels safe and able to speak up.
An annual review of safety, with recommendations to the Board.
Receiving regular reports, to ensure this and related policies are being applied consistently.
Providing oversight of any lapses in safeguarding.
And ensuring that any issues are properly investigated and dealt with quickly, fairly and sensitively, and any reporting to the Police/statutory authorities is carried out.
Leading the organisation in a way that makes everyone feels safe and able to speak up.
Ensuring safeguarding risk assessments are carried out and appropriate action taken to minimise these risks, as part of our risk management processes.
Ensuring that all relevant checks are carried out in recruiting staff and volunteers.
Planning programmes/activities to take into account potential safeguarding risks, to ensure these are adequately mitigated.
Ensuring that all appointments that require DBS clearance and safeguarding training are identified, including the level of DBS and any training required.
Ensuring that a central register is maintained and subject to regular monitoring to ensure that DBS clearances and training are kept up-to-date.
Ensuring that safeguarding requirements (eg DBS) and responsibilities are reflected in job descriptions, appraisal objectives and personal development plans, as appropriate.
Listening and engaging with clients, beneficiaries, staff, volunteers and others and involving them as appropriate.
Responding to any concerns sensitively and acting quickly to address these.
Ensuring that personal data is stored and managed in a safe way that is compliant with data protection regulations, including valid consent to use any imagery or video.
Making staff, volunteers and others aware of:
Our safeguarding procedures and their specific safeguarding responsibilities on induction, with regular updates/reminders, as necessary.
The signs of potential abuse and how to report these.
Everyone
To be aware of our procedures, undertake any necessary training, be aware of the risks and signs of potential abuse and, if you have concerns, to report these immediately (see above).
Online Safety
We will identify and manage online risks by ensuring:
Volunteers, staff and directors understand how to keep themselves safe online. We may use high privacy settings and password access to meetings to support this.
The online services we provide are suitable for our users. For example, use age restrictions and offer password protection to help keep people safe.
The services we use and/or provide are safe and in line with our code of conduct.
We protect people’s personal data and follow data protection legislation.
We have permission to display any images on our website or social media accounts, including consent from an individual.
This policy will be reviewed as part of any safeguarding incident investigation, to test that it has been complied with and to see if any improvements might realistically be made to it.
