Daughters of Boudica is committed to promoting the welfare of all adults who use our services, ensuring that they are not exploited or abused and that our working practices minimise the risk of abuse and protect service users from existing or further abuse and/or harm.
Safeguarding is a specific activity that is undertaken to protect adults at risk and to keep them safe. We are committed to working in a way that protects them and recognise that all adults, regardless of age, disability, gender, racial heritage, religious belief, sexual orientation or identity, have a right to equal protection from all types of harm or abuse.
The Policy Sets Out
To prevent harm and reduce the risk of abuse and neglect to adults who have support needs (whether or not those needs are currently being met).
To safeguard individuals who receive services from Daughters of Boudica in a way that supports them to make choices and have control over how they live their lives.
To provide staff and volunteers with the overarching principles that guide our approach to adults at risk.
An adult at risk is an individual aged 18 and over who:
Has needs for care and support, and
Is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect and
As a result of those care and support needs, is unable to protect themselves.
Staff and volunteers should be able to recognise abuse and, through the use of this policy, know the appropriate steps that should be taken if abuse is suspected or known about. Training will be made available to workers.
If abuse is reported to a worker or if staff suspect abuse, Daughters of Boudica will take steps to ensure that no service user remains in an unsafe or unsupported situation.
This policy refers to any service user, as it applies to any adult who has needs for care and support (whether or not the local authority is/statutory services are meeting any of those needs), and is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect, and as a result of those care and support needs is unable to protect themselves from either the risk of, or the experience of, abuse or neglect.
The operation of this Safeguarding Adults policy will be monitored and reviewed on a bi-annual basis by the Daughters of Boudica Board of Trustees.
Daughters of Boudica Commitments and Responsibilities
Daughters of Boudica will:
Recruit staff safely, ensuring all necessary checks are made and that all staff and volunteers working with service users (either face to face or remotely) have enhanced Disclosure Barring Service checks (DBS) prior to engaging in any work with the organisation and are precluded from involvement in the organisation as appropriate.
Provide clear and detailed procedures on decision making, accountability and recording of adult at risk safeguarding situations.
Provide thorough and effective training for staff on adult at risk safeguarding, our organisational duties, policies and procedures. This includes comprehensive induction training, refresher training every 3 years, and any additional or ongoing training where a need is identified.
Appoint a member of staff as Designated Safeguarding Lead and other key members of staff as Safeguarding Advisors.
Provide regular and consistent supervision and support to all workers who are responsible for the safety and welfare of clients and ensure that all supervision offered enables staff to maintain vigilance for indications of abuse.
Empower and support staff and volunteers to seek timely advice and guidance from designated Safeguarding Leads and take appropriate action when they suspect an adult is at risk. For example, by letting service users know that they are concerned and asking them appropriate and relevant questions.
Ensure that the organisation can learn from specific adults at risk situations and review policy and procedures as necessary.
Maintain current knowledge of adult at risk safeguarding procedures.
Staff and volunteers will seek to keep adults at risk safe by:
Valuing, listening to and respecting them.
Adopting adult at risk safeguarding practices through diligent implementation of this policy and related Daughters of Boudica procedures.
Ensuring all service users receive, and confirm they understand, Daughter of Boudica’s confidentiality policy and our statutory duty to protect any individual who may be at risk of/are suffering from abuse.
Sharing information about adult at risk safeguarding (where appropriate) and good practice with colleagues, volunteers, trustees, and other professionals who work with the organisation.
Sharing concerns and relevant information as necessary with agencies that need to know (in accordance with this Safeguarding policy and Daughter of Boudica’s Information Sharing and Confidentiality policy).
Attending all appropriate training as required by the organisation, including safeguarding training at induction and refresher safeguarding training every 3 years.
Role Description: Safeguarding Leads
Being the main contacts within Daughters of Boudica in relation to Adult and Child Safeguarding and responding to all enquiries from external parties including Children and Young People’s Service and Adult Safeguarding Service.
Available for all workers to discuss safeguarding concerns.
Overseeing, maintaining and updating Daughter of Boudica’s Safeguarding activity log sheets of current cases with a safeguarding dimension.
Discussing safeguarding with designated safeguarding advisors on Daughter of Boudica’s Board of Trustees.
Co-ordination Daughter of Boudica’s in-house Safeguarding Training and Induction Programme.
Ensuring that Policies and Procedures relating to Safeguarding are up-to-date and reflect best practice and current guidelines.
Ensuring that Safeguarding Policy and Procedures are reviewed bi-annually.
General Procedure
The Designated Adult at Risk Safeguarding Leads for Daughters of Boudica are Chris Wilkinson and Christiane Fullalove.
No individual worker should make a decision regarding the safeguarding of Adults at risk alone. No staff member should make a referral regarding an adult who may be at risk or break confidentiality without the agreement of a Safeguarding Lead.
Confidentiality in this respect refers to the requirement not to share anything about a service user without their consent to anyone outside of Daughters of Boudica. It is vital that information is shared within the organisation so that the safest decisions are made. It is vital that the actions and thoughts of those involved are recorded to show due process was adhered to.
Maintaining the confidentiality of those who use Daughters of Boudica is a vital part of the ethos of the organisation. Vulnerable adults can be reassured that no information will be disclosed without their consent, unless related to a significant risk to their life, the lives of others or the welfare of a child.
Consent must be “informed” – the person giving consent needs to understand:
why information needs to be shared,
who will see their information,
the purpose to which it will be put,
and the implications of sharing that information.
If an adult does not have the “capacity” to understand or make decisions about information sharing they cannot therefore give “informed” consent. If confidentiality cannot be maintained, then only relevant and necessary information will be shared with the appropriate people.
Referral Procedure
The following procedures should be followed:
If a worker suspects that an adult at risk is being abused or is at risk of being abused, they must report the matter to the Safeguarding Lead as soon as possible, and within 24 hours, in order that a discussion can take place.
The worker will have discussed their concern with the client and discussed possible outcomes if appropriate. If necessary the Safeguarding Lead will also have a discussion with the client to explain what the Safeguarding process will be.
All concerns should be written up comprehensively, in a timely manner, and in as much detail as possible – using factual information only, providing a clear list of events and using the person’s own words where possible.
If there is no consent from the service user to make a referral, the Safeguarding Lead will make a decision about whether confidentiality will need to be broken, and a referral made.
If it is decided that a formal referral is necessary, the Safeguarding Lead will pass on the information which is relevant and necessary to the relevant authorities. The local authority does not have a duty to investigate allegations of adult abuse, as it does for child abuse, however it will have clear procedures for assessing and following up reported cases.
Reassurance will be provided to the client through all stages of the process where possible, ensuring their wellbeing and informing them about the process.
The referral will be logged using a Safeguarding Log Sheet and completed by the worker who made the referral.
The Safeguarding Lead will remain in contact with the agency they passed information to, to find out about the outcome of the referral and this will be communicated to the service user if they are still in contact.
Situations where no referral is possible may leave staff members and volunteers with uncomfortable feelings and these should be discussed in person with Safeguarding Lead.
Record Keeping
Records must be kept of discussions, decisions and actions taken at all stages of the procedure, clearly indicating who was present. These will be kept on safeguarding activity log sheets and stored securely by Daughters of Boudica.
