Download our Child Safeguarding Policy [PDF, 19 pages]
This policy sets out of SYHA’s approach to working with safeguarding and our responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults in our community; to ensure that they live safely, free from abuse and neglect.
The Safeguarding Children Policy sets out our approach to safeguarding those aged 17 and below. This can include an unborn child. The status or entitlement to a service does not change because a child is older than 16 years under the children’s Act 1989.
We believe everyone has a responsibility to promote the welfare of all children and young people, to keep them safe and to work in a way that protects them.
We will give equal priority to keeping all children and young people safe regardless of their age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.
We recognise that some children are additionally vulnerable because of the impact of discrimination, previous experiences, their level of dependency, communication needs or other issues.
At SYHA we will meet our commitment to keeping children safe by:
Guidelines:
The main difference between safeguarding adults and safeguarding children is an adult’s right to self-determination. Adults may choose not to act at all to protect themselves, and it is only in extreme circumstances that the law intervenes. This will often only happen when an adult is assessed to lack capacity, or where the concerns may extend to children, such as when they are living in the same household. This is not the case for children.
Safeguarding children is defined in ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children 2015’ as:
Working Together to Safeguard Children states:
In order that organisations and practitioners collaborate effectively, it is vital that every individual working with children and families is aware of the role that they have to play and the role of other professionals.
Any professionals with concerns about a child’s welfare should make a referral to Local Authority children’s social care. Professionals should follow up their concerns if they are not satisfied with the Local Authority children’s social care response.
This policy and procedure has been developed with guidance available from the NSPCC. This policy is not “stand alone” and operates alongside other policies and procedures, particularly:
Safeguarding is on the SYHA corporate risk register. Risks are escalated from the Safeguarding risk register as appropriate.
The Care Act 2014 sets out the 6 principles of safeguarding which apply to children as adults:
Making Safeguarding Personal
In addition to the six principles above the Care Act gives direction around making safeguarding personal: ‘We all have different preferences, histories, circumstances and lifestyles. Making safeguarding personal means it should be person-led and outcome-focused.
SYHA overarching safeguarding principles.
The Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 and safeguarding are intrinsically linked, as the MCA provides the legal framework to protect vulnerable adults who lack the mental capacity to make their own decisions. Safeguarding is the process of preventing harm, and the MCA ensures that this process is carried out in a way that respects the autonomy of the individual, following five key principles: a person is assumed to have capacity, all practicable steps to support them must be taken first, decisions must be in their best interests, and any actions should be the least restrictive option.
Key principles of the Mental Capacity Act
Every adult is presumed to have the mental capacity to make their own decisions unless it’s proven they lack capacity.
Individuals must be given all possible help and support to make their own decisions.
A person cannot be considered unable to make a decision just because it seems unwise to others.
If a decision needs to be made for someone who lacks capacity, it must be done in their best interests.
Any action taken must be the least restrictive of the person’s rights and freedom of action.
The link to safeguarding
When a safeguarding concern arises, decisions will need to be made about the individual’s care, treatment, and finances. These decisions must be made in line with the MCA principles.
The MCA provides a legal foundation to protect those who are vulnerable due to illness, injury, or other issues, from abuse and neglect.
By following the MCA, safeguarding becomes a person-centered process that prioritizes the individual’s wishes and well-being, even if they are unable to express them directly.
An amendment to the MCA, DoLS provides a legal framework to authorise deprivation of liberty in specific circumstances, but only after a stringent process and when it is in the person’s best interests.
Definition: Hurting or injuring a person / child on purpose. Includes: assault, hitting, slapping, pushing, misuse of medication, restraint, inappropriate physical sanctions.
Definition: Any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening behaviour, violence, or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality. Includes: but is not limited to psychological, physical, sexual, financial, emotional abuse, so called ‘honour’ based violence. Coercive control (A new offence of coercive and controlling behaviour in intimate and familial relationships was introduced into the Serious Crime Act 2015. The offence will impose a maximum 5-year imprisonment, a fine or both – see appendix 2)
Domestic abuse always has an impact on children. Being exposed to domestic abuse in childhood is child abuse.
Children may experience domestic abuse directly, but they can also experience it indirectly by:
Definition: not meeting a child’s basic physical and psychological needs.
It is a form of child abuse that can have serious and long-lasting impacts on a child’s life – it can cause serious harm and even death.
The four main types of neglect are:
Neglect can happen at any age, sometimes even before a child is born e.g. Substance misuse in the mother. Neglect can affect brain development, physical development, physical health, mental health, relationships and attachments, risk taking behaviour and safety.
Definition: Child sexual abuse (CSA) is when a child is forced or persuaded to take part in sexual activities. This may involve physical contact or non-contact activities and can happen online or offline. Children and young people may not always understand that they are being sexually abused.
This involves activities where an abuser makes physical contact with a child.
Includes: sexual touching of any part of the body, whether the child is wearing clothes or not. Forcing or encouraging a child to take part in sexual activity.
Making a child take their clothes off or touch someone else’s genitals.
Rape or penetration by putting an object or body part inside a child’s mouth, vagina or anus.
This involves activities where there is no physical contact. It Includes: Flashing at a child, encouraging or forcing a child to watch or hear sexual acts, not taking proper measures to prevent a child being exposed to sexual activities by others, making a child masturbate while others watch, persuading a child to make, view or distribute child abuse images (such as performing sexual acts over the internet, sexting or showing pornography to a child), making, viewing or distributing child abuse images, allowing someone else to make, view or distribute child abuse images, meeting a child following grooming with the intent of abusing them (even if abuse did not take place)
Child sexual exploitation: exploiting a child for money, power or status.
Includes: rape, indecent exposure, sexual harassment, inappropriate looking or touching, sexual teasing or innuendo, sexual photography, subjection to pornography or witnessing sexual acts or sexual assault.
Definition: when individuals or groups seek to harm, intimidate or coerce someone who is perceived to be vulnerable (Oxford English Dictionary, 2021). It can involve people of any age, and can happen anywhere – at home, school or using online platforms and technologies (cyberbullying). This means it can happen at any time.
Includes:
Sexting definition: When people share a sexual message and/or a naked or semi-naked image, video or text message with another person. It’s also known as nude image sharing. Children and young people may consent to sending a nude image of themselves. They can also be forced or coerced into sharing images by their peers or adults online. If a child or young person originally shares the image consensually, they have no control over how other people might use it. If the image is shared around peer groups, it may lead to bullying and isolation. Perpetrators of abuse may circulate a nude image more widely and use this to blackmail a child and/or groom them for further sexual abuse. It’s a criminal offence to create or share explicit images of a child, even if the person doing it, is a child. If sexting is reported to the police, they will make a record but may decide not to take any formal action against a young person.
Harmful sexual behaviour (HSB) definition is developmentally inappropriate sexual behaviour displayed by children and young people which is harmful or abusive.
County lines definition: A form of criminal exploitation where urban gangs persuade, coerce or force children and young people to store drugs and money and/or transport them to suburban areas, market towns and coastal towns (Home Office, 2018). It can happen in any part of the UK and is against the law and a form of child abuse. Children and young people may be criminally exploited in multiple ways. Other forms of criminal exploitation include child sexual exploitation, trafficking, gang and knife crime. County lines gangs are highly organised criminal networks that use sophisticated, frequently evolving techniques to groom young people and evade capture by the police. Perpetrators use children and young people to maximise profits and distance themselves from the criminal act of physically dealing drugs (National Crime agency, 2019). Young people do the majority of the work and take the most risk.
Dedicated mobile phone lines or “deal lines” are used to help facilitate county lines drug deals. Phones are usually cheap, disposable and old fashioned, because they are changed frequently to avoid detection by the police. Gangs use the phones to receive orders and contact young people to instruct them where to deliver drugs. This may be to a local dealer or drug user, or a dealer or drug user in another county.
Phrases that young people may use to refer to county lines include: ‘running a line’, ‘going OT/out there ’‘going country’ ‘going cunch’.
Child trafficking is child abuse. It’s defined as recruiting, moving, receiving and harbouring children for the purpose of exploitation (HM Department for Education (DfE) and Home Office, 2011; Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety and Police Service of Northern Ireland, 2011; Scottish Government, 2013; Wales Safeguarding Procedures Project Board, 2020).
Child trafficking is a form of modern slavery.
Many children are trafficked into the UK from overseas, but children can also be trafficked from one part of the UK to another.
Children are trafficked for:
child sexual exploitation, criminal activity, including cannabis cultivation, street crime – such as pickpocketing, begging and bag theft, moving drugs, benefit fraud, immigration fraud, selling pirated goods, forced marriage domestic servitude, including cleaning, childcare, cooking, forced labour, including working in restaurants, nail bars, factories, agriculture, illegal adoption, unreported private fostering arrangements (for any exploitative purpose).
Definition: Emotional abuse is the ongoing emotional maltreatment of a child, which can have a severe and persistent negative effect on the child’s emotional health and development. It’s also known as psychological abuse. Exposing a child to aggression, cruelty or abuse between others is also a form of emotional abuse.
Most forms of abuse include an emotional element, but emotional abuse can also happen on its own.
Children can be emotionally abused by anyone: parents or carers, family members, other adults, other children.
Includes:
Emotional neglect, ignoring the child, not showing affection, not responding to a child’s emotional needs, Rejection, telling a child they aren’t good enough, physical abandonment, excluding the child from activities, not listening to a child or letting them express their views, belittling a child, not communicating with the child, Isolating, putting unreasonable limitations on a child’s freedom, restricting or preventing social interaction.
Manipulation Coercing or persuading a child to take part in activities that: they aren’t comfortable with, aren’t appropriate for their age or stage of development, are unsafe.
Terrorising: Threatening violence, deliberately frightening a child, deliberately putting a child in a dangerous situation.
Bullying: Verbal humiliation, name-calling, undermining or mocking a child. Physical bullying can also have emotional effects.
Financial abuse is the main form of abuse investigated by the Office of the Public Guardian both amongst adults and children at risk. Financial abuse can occur in isolation, but where there are other forms of abuse, there is likely to be financial abuse occurring.
Includes: theft, fraud, internet scamming, coercion in relation to a child’s financial affairs or arrangements.
Definition: abuse that focuses on a difference or perceived difference. This may involve any of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010: race, gender, disability, or age, gender reassignment, marriage, or civil partnership (in employment only) pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sexual orientation.
Includes:
Direct discrimination – treating someone with a protected characteristic less favourably than others.
Indirect discrimination – putting rules or arrangements in place that apply to everyone, but that put someone with a protected characteristic at an unfair disadvantage.
Harassment – subjecting someone to unwanted conduct.
Victimisation – treating someone unfairly because they’ve complained about discrimination or harassment.
Definition: mistreatment of children brought about by poor or inadequate care or support, or systematic poor practice that affects the whole care setting.
Includes: neglect and poor care practice within an institution or specific care setting such as a hospital or care home, for example, or in relation to care provided in one’s own home. This may range from one off incidents to on-going ill-treatment. It can be through neglect or poor professional practice because of the structure, policies, processes, and practices within an organisation.
Female genital mutilation is a procedure where the female genitals are deliberately cut, injured, or changed, but there’s no medical reason for this to be done. It’s also known as female circumcision or cutting, and by other terms, such as sunna, gudniin, halalays, tahur, megrez and khitan, among others.
FGM is usually carried out on young girls between infancy and the age of 15, most commonly before puberty starts.
A term used to describe a combination of practices used principally to control and punish the behaviour of a member of a family or social group, to protect perceived cultural and religious beliefs in the name of ‘honour’. Although predominantly associated with women and girls, male members of a family can also be victims. Violence and abuse may occur when it is felt that an individual’s behaviour has broken the ‘honour code’, bringing disgrace to their family or social group. Perpetrators will feel that they need to restore their loss of face and standing within their community. There is often an element of approval and social acceptance from other family members and the community.
A forced marriage is where one or both people do not (or in cases of people with learning disabilities or reduced capacity, cannot) consent to the marriage as they are pressurised, or abuse is used, to force them to do so. It is recognised in the UK as a form of domestic or child abuse and a serious abuse of human rights.
The pressure put on people to marry against their will may be:
Any crime that is perceived by the victim, or any other person, to be racist, homophobic, transphobic, or due to a person’s religion, belief, gender identity or disability.
Includes: physical attacks – physical assault, damage to property, offensive graffiti, neighbour disputes, and arson threat of attack – offensive letters or emails, abusive or obscene telephone calls, groups hanging around to intimidate a person and unfounded, malicious complaints, verbal abuse or insults – harassment over the phone, by text or face to face, abusive gestures, and remarks, bullying and threats
This is a form of exploitation which occurs when a person is harmed or taken advantage of by someone, they thought was their friend.
This is the process by which people come to support terrorism and violent extremism and, in some cases, to participate in terrorist activities.
There is no obvious profile of a person likely to become involved in extremism or a single indicator of when a person might move to adopt violence in support of extremist ideas. The process of radicalisation is different for every individual and can take place over an extended period or within a very short time frame.
Online abuse is any type of abuse that happens on the internet, for example through social media, or mobile phones. Online abuse covers a wide range of behaviours and technologies. Social networking sites are often used as an easy way to access and target children who are at risk of abuse. Some examples of online abuse can include abusive images, trolling, stealing someone else’s identity, cyber-stalking, cyberbullying.
Incidents of abuse may be one-off, multiple, affecting one customer or more. Serial abuse, in which the perpetrator seeks out and ‘grooms’ individuals. There may also be different types of abuse happening at the same time.
Guidance:
Frontline Staff responsibilities (excluding NEAT and HMT):
In cases of an emergency dial 999 immediately.
If a crime has been committed dial 101.
If you are supporting someone (e.g. you are a LiveWell Keyworker), and you suspect, or are aware of possible abuse, then you should contact the relevant Local Authority Safeguarding Team to express your concerns within the same working day (see appendix 1 for links to the Local Authority websites).
If you are not supporting the person e.g. NEAT operative, Customer Services Assistant: seek advice from a manager.
Line Manager responsibilities (excluding HMT and NEAT managers): For clarity, a Line Manager in this case is Team Leaders, LiveWell Project Leads and Contract managers who have overall operational responsibility for an operational service/project area. Housing Managers, LiveWell Service Managers can support in the absence of the above. The responsibility lies with the Line Manager to offer support to staff who must never be left to deal with situations of abuse or suspected abuse on their own.
The Line Manager has overall responsibility for:
Concerns must always be reported to the Local Authority where there is a risk.
The Leadership team is responsible for ensuring that all staff are aware of safeguarding issues, are aware of their safeguarding responsibilities and that this policy is implemented.
Leads on reporting to Board on Safeguarding. Chairs Safeguarding Steering Group. Shares learning and best practice as decided by SSG. Lead on reporting to Board on Safeguarding.
There is no reference to the Annual Safeguarding Report provided to the Board
If there are concerns about a child or young person’s safety then a social worker must carry out an assessment under section 47 of the Children Act 1989 which includes seeing the child or young person.
Parents are normally asked for their consent before an assessment begins but a safeguarding assessment can take place even if parents don’t agree to it.
