Introduction

Our Safeguarding policy applies to all EdFord stakeholders including trustees, staff, local partners, volunteers or anybody working on behalf of EdFord. We have a responsibility to protect young or vulnerable persons involved in our work from abuse of any kind

Purpose – Protecting Children and/or Vulnerable Adults

Our charitable activities include working with young and vulnerable people.  The purpose of this policy is to protect children and/or vulnerable adults and provide stakeholders and the public with the overarching principles that guide our approach in doing so.

Safeguarding 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 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.

Reporting Safeguarding 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 beneficiary, or member of the public, make your concerns known to a member of our team, who will alert a senior member of the charity.

For members of the charity, make your concerns known to your supervisor.  If you feel unable to do so, speak to a trustee.

Trustee Safeguarding Responsibilities

Trustee safeguarding responsibilities are made clear made clear and individuals provided with any necessary resources to enable them to carry out their role.  It should be reflected in our annual plan and appraisal objectives, reporting to the trustee Board and other procedures, as necessary.

This safeguarding policy will be reviewed and approved by the Board annually.

Trustees are aware of and will comply with the UK Charity Commission guidance on safeguarding and protecting people and the 10 actions trustee boards need to take to ensure good safeguarding governance.

A lead trustee will be given responsibility for the oversight of all aspects of safety, including whistleblowing and Health & Safety at Work. 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 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 consider potential safeguarding risks, to ensure these are adequately mitigated.
• For UK based engagements:

• •  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 (e.g., DBS) and responsibilities are reflected in job descriptions, appraisal objectives and personal development plans, as appropriate.

• Listening and engaging, 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 will be made 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 Safeguarding

We will identify and manage online risks by ensuring:

• Volunteers, staff, and trustees understand how to keep themselves safe online. You could use high privacy settings and password access to meetings to support this
• The online services you provide are suitable for your 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.
• Protect people’s personal data and follow GDPR legislation.
• We have permission to display any images on our website or social media accounts, including consent from an individual, parent, etc.
• We clearly explain how users can report online concerns. Concerns may be reported using this policy, or direct to a social media provider using their reporting process.

Approval and Review