Safeguarding Policy and Procedure

Keeping people safe is at the heart of everything we do. We work with children, young people, and adults, and we take our responsibility to protect anyone who may be at risk of harm very seriously.

If you believe someone is in immediate danger, you must contact emergency services on 999.

What do we mean by safeguarding?

Safeguarding means protecting people from harm, abuse, or neglect, and making sure they are treated with dignity and respect. This includes:

• Children and young people (under 18)
• Adults who may need extra support to stay safe

Abuse can take many forms, including physical, emotional, sexual, financial, or neglect.

Our commitment

The safety and wellbeing of individuals always comes first in our work. We respect people’s privacy. However, if we believe someone is at risk of harm, we may need to share information with other services to keep them safe. We will always try to explain this clearly.

We are committed to:

• Listening to people and taking concerns seriously
• Acting quickly if someone may be at risk
• Treating everyone fairly and with respect
• Working with other services (such as social care or the police) when needed
• Creating a safe environment for everyone who uses our service

How we keep people safe

We take a number of steps to make sure our services are safe:

• We have a Designated Safeguarding Lead (Alice Matthews) who oversees all safeguarding matters
• All staff and volunteers receive safeguarding training
• We carry out background (DBS) checks on all staff and volunteers
• We have clear policies, and procedures for reporting concerns
• We keep information secure and confidential

What happens if there is a concern?

If we are worried that someone may be at risk:

1. We listen carefully and take the concern seriously
2. We share the concern with our Designated Safeguarding Lead
3. We may contact appropriate services (such as social care or the police)
4. We keep a clear and secure record of what has happened

If you are using our service and have a concern about your own safety or someone else’s, please tell us. You can speak to a member of our team at any time using the numbers provided on this page or our contact us form. You can also contact your Case Coordinator, if one has been allocated to your case.

If you believe someone is in immediate danger, you must contact emergency services on 999.

Our policies and procedures

We will be adding our full policies to this page shortly. You can request a copy at any time.