Safeguarding policy
Introduction:
This Policy demonstrates Space 2B You’ commitment to working with other agencies to ensure that people accessing Space 2B You services are appropriately safeguarded in accordance with national and local policies. Space 2B You is committed to promoting the welfare of children and adults at risk and to protecting them from abuse and neglect. The purpose of this policy is to detail the arrangements for safeguarding children and adults at risk. This includes the roles and responsibilities of all staff across the organisation and outlining the structure and systems that support the promotion, welfare and protection of children and adults at risk. Staff must be aware of their role in safeguarding and protecting children and adults at risk. There must be a framework for the development of competence and confidence in this role. Furthermore, Space 2B You will provide appropriate support to achieve this.
Scope:
This policy sets out the key responsibilities and arrangements for clinical staff/Contractors, and all employees who have contact with children, adults at risk and their families/carers. Therefore, ensuring the safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and adults at risk. This Policy has been developed to ensure that any person who has contact with Space 2B You as a service user, carer or family member of our service users are afforded adequate care and protection whilst accessing our services.
For the purposes of this Policy ‘safeguarding’ refers to safeguarding children and adults and covers all forms of abuse and neglect including domestic abuse/violence.
This Policy therefore defines what constitutes a “Child” or an “adult at risk’ and outlines how their care should be managed if safeguarding concerns are identified.
All staff have access to information on each trusts local safeguarding policies and contact details for any safeguarding referral that needs to be completed.
Definitions:
Child
A child is defined as “anyone who has not yet reached their 18th birthday. The fact that a child has reached 16 years of age, is living independently or is in further education, is a member of the Armed Forces, is in hospital or in custody in the secure estate, does not change his/her status or entitlements to services or protection. (HM Government 2013).
Adult at Risk
A person who is aged over 18 who needs care and support and/or is experiencing or at risk of abuse or neglect. As a result of either of these factors they are unable to protect themselves against the abuse or neglect (or the risk of it).
Safeguarding
Safeguarding means to protect people’s health, wellbeing, and human rights, enabling them to live free from harm, abuse, and neglect.
This policy covers any form of abuse or neglect and includes, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, neglect, racism and where children and adults at risk are, or may be, affected by Domestic Abuse or Substance Misuse (drugs and alcohol) of another person.
Power Diary is Space 2B You' internal electronic patient record system. All data stored in Power Diary is securely and is maintained by the Space 2B You Technical team. Annual penetration testing is carried out on both internal and external systems to ensure that Space 2B You complies with Cyber Essentials Plus and maintains the highest possible level of security for client data.
Duties:
Safeguarding Executive Lead
The Executive Director Lead for Safeguarding takes leadership responsibility at Board level, for the organisation’s safeguarding arrangements; ensuring that effective safeguarding systems are in place across Space 2B You services.
Safeguarding Operational Lead
The Operational Lead for Safeguarding takes leadership responsibility at Operations level, for the organisation’s safeguarding arrangements.
Deputy Safeguarding Operational Lead
The Deputy Operational Lead for Safeguarding will provide cover for the Safeguarding Operational Lead to ensure the provision of a comprehensive safe service.
Space 2B You Clinical Staff/Contractors
All members of staff that have contact with children, young people and adults at risk have a responsibility to safeguard and promote their welfare and should know what to do if they have concerns about safeguarding issues, including child protection. It is the duty of all members of staff and contractors to ensure that they are familiar with Space 2B You’ policies and procedures.
Specific details:
There are resources available to staff to provide support or further information, should they have a concern about a child. Space 2B You clinicians can discuss their concerns with the Safeguarding Lead, their Line Manager/ Clinical Lead, supervision or identified safeguarding lead within the Trust, ICB or local authority that Space 2B You is commissioned by who will be able to provide them with further guidance and support.
This policy outlines the responsibilities of all Space 2B You staff/contractors separated into expectations of clinicians during sessions as well as staff who may be required to respond to safeguarding concerns outside of sessions.
1)What to do if you have a safeguarding concern in a clinical session
Assess for immediate risk. If it is considered anyone within the family is at immediate risk, then it is the clinician’s responsibility to act upon this information as a priority. This could include involving local emergency services as well as local authority safeguarding service.
The clinician should explain their duty of care to the family and that information will need to be shared with relevant persons to ensure the safety of all involved. This should be done as sensitively and collaboratively as possible.
N.B. Safeguarding concerns relating to any person under 18 should be reported. An adult at risk has the right to refuse consent to share safeguarding concerns unless they are deemed not to have capacity, or others may also be at risk. In situations where safeguarding concerns only relate to an adult at risk and that person refuses consent to share, the clinician should make every attempt to work collaboratively with the person to enable appropriate sharing.
For non-immediate / urgent concerns relating to children and young people under 18, it is the clinician’s responsibility to report concerns to the relevant local agency within 24 hours of a concern being raised.
Any concerns should be raised sensitively and confidentially with the Directors, supervisor, or clinical lead who will then advise appropriate action.
The clinician maybe be asked to complete an electronic referral to Children’s services. This must be discussed with the Space 2B You Directors prior to completing the referral. The referral should be password protected and emailed to referral address. The Clinician must document the completion of the referral on power diary and upload an electronic copy to the files section.
Any referrals to Children’s services should be followed up within 24 hours of submission to confirm receipt and outcomes. This responsibility can be handed over from the clinician to the Director/Safeguarding lead (the Clinician must discuss this with the Director/Safeguarding Lead). Power diary notes must be updated.
Clinician’s must contact the directors via telephone of any safeguarding concerns. This information will be held confidentially on Space 2B You’s safeguarding register. The clinician will be asked to complete an incident/safeguarding form and to send this to the Directors.
These steps should be followed in concordance with the local safeguarding SOP and process agreed during the contractual phase between Space 2B You and the specific NHS Trust, Local Authority and ICB.
N.B. At any point clinicians can approach the Safeguarding Lead/Clinical Lead for support / guidance.
2) What to do if a safeguarding concern is raised out of sessions e.g. telephone or email to any Space 2B You member of staff:
Safeguarding concerns may be shared, by referred clients, their families/carers, or local services, with Space 2B You employees outside of clinical sessions via telephone and/or followed up with an email. In these instances, the first point of contact is likely to be a member of the administration/office team. The responsibility of the staff member receiving the information is as follows:
Gather information.
Explain to the person sharing the information that you have a responsibility to ensure the safety of anyone accessing the service and that you will need to ask them some questions and pass the information over to the appropriate person.
The aim of this conversation is to try to ascertain whether anyone is at risk of IMMEDIATE harm. If YES then confirm the current location of the person at risk and call 999.
The Directors must be informed via telephone and they will add this information to the safeguarding register.
If NO immediate risk, ask for more information about:
Details of concern / what happened / when/ where and outcome. For example, has anyone been hurt, is this a current or historical concern? Who else is aware? What support (if any) is being requested, has support been accessed previously? This information should be recorded on the Space 2B You Risk Capture form (Appendix 2).
Advise
Explain that you will share this information with the safeguarding lead who will be in contact with them and the Clinician working with the client.
Report
Complete the Risk Capture Form (appendix 2) and upload onto the client’s power diary profile. The staff member will also document the conversation on the power diary notes section. This will then be visible to the Safeguarding and Directors. Please also alert Directors / Safeguarding Lead via telephone that a new safeguarding concern has been recorded.
Staff members may be required to inform social care teams of concerns relating to safeguarding.
Record keeping and documentation.
All information relating to safeguarding children and adults at risk (with consent to share status), should be captured on Space 2B You’ approved client record management system Power Diary. Staff members/Clinicians maybe requested to produce a report (which must be discussed with the directors) to local NHS Trust, local authority, social care and/or ICB. All reports must be uploaded to power diary. All information relating to the safeguarding concern should be saved in accordance with the Space 2B You Information Governance Policy.
Safeguarding Supervision
Safeguarding discussions should remain a standard agenda item within clinical supervision and discussed as relevant. Any actions should be clearly documented together with responsibilities of both supervisor and supervisee. Clinicians should not wait until their next supervision if they have concerns about the safety of any Space 2B You client but instead follow the steps outlined above and consult with the Safeguarding Lead/ Directors as required.Training
All staff who have contact with children and / or adults at risk as part of their work require a certain level of training to ensure they are competent in fulfilling their duties and responsibilities. At Space 2B You the minimum expectation for all clinical staff working with children and/or adults at risk is level 3 safeguarding certification for both children and adults. This needs to be updated every three years in accordance with national standards together with enhanced DBS checks. Staff and Clinicians are required to be on the DBS update systems, and these will be checked annually. All clinicians are also expected to undertake Prevent (safeguarding people from being radicalised) and Mental Capacity Act training every two years. All policies and procedures will be reviewed annually, and refresher training will be provided to all staff annually. Any additional training needs should be identified and discussed during supervision.
Dissemination and Implementation
All Staff members will be required to sign to say they have read and understand the Safeguarding Policy. Any additional support/training would be identified as part of supervision with an agreed plan would then be put into place to action the identified need.
Any updates to the Risk Management Policy will be disseminated through to all staff. All policies and documents can be found within the Google Drive.
Policy Governance
The Directors at Space 2B You are responsible for the full implementation of this policy.
Review and Revision
This policy will be reviewed as it is deemed appropriate, but no less frequently than every 12 months.
Information Governance
Personal identifying Information for both clients and staff is confidential and must not be disclosed to unauthorised persons and will continue in perpetuity. This is a legal obligation; therefore, any breaches of personal confidential information or data may result in prosecution and/or an action for civil damages under the General Data Protection Regulations 2018.
Disciplinary Actions
Breach of this Code of Conduct may result in disciplinary action.
Contact Details
If staff members are concerned that there has been a breach of this Code of Conduct, they must inform Space 2B You directors Marie-Anne McKee and Alison Joyce.
Telephone:
020 3048 3331 (ext. 301)
Email:
barbara.johnston@space2byou.co.uk
marie-anne.mckee@space2byou.co.uk