Safeguarding
What is Safeguarding?
Safeguarding is the term used to describe the protection from harm and reporting of instances where harm has occurred. This covers vulnerable adults and children.
Key to safeguarding is protecting the child or adult by doing the right thing at the right time. There are key contacts in Cumberland and Westmorland and Furness councils to support and advise you – once a safeguarding referral is made they will decide on the steps to be taken and guide any involvement as appropriate, but you will need your own guidance, policy and training for your staff and/or volunteers to support them in recognising when to act and how.
Definition of adult and child
An adult, in these circumstances, is someone aged over the age of 18. A child is someone aged under the age of 18.
Safeguarding vulnerable adults
Some adults require additional assistance or care in everyday situations. This is known as being vulnerable.
When an adult is vulnerable, they can be mistreated or targeted by someone who means them harm. Safeguarding a vulnerable adult means that there are steps to prevent the adult form mistreatment or identify and report mistreatment. For a vulnerable adult mistreatment could be in the form of physical, emotional, mental or financial abuse.
Safeguarding Children
Due to age and maturity, children are automatically classified as vulnerable and can be targeted by someone who means them harm. By safeguarding children we mean to protect them from physical, mental, educational and nutritional abuse.
How to report a Safeguarding concern
Cumbria Safeguarding Children Partnership
Cumbria Safeguarding Adults Board
Westmorland & Furness Council:
Child report: call 0300 373 2724 (preferred) or use the online form
Adult report: call 0300 373 3301
Cumberland Council:
Child report: call 0333 2401727 (preferred) or use the online form
Adult report: call 0300 373 3732
What should we do as an employer or group?
It is essential for employers and voluntary groups to have Safeguarding policies to ensure that staff, volunteers, clients and partners are protected. Safeguarding policies also outline the responsibility and procedure for reporting safeguarding concerns to the appropriate person.
It is seen as good practice to ensure that staff and volunteers are trained in this area.
To ensure organisations are kept up to date with policy and reporting, it is also commonplace to appoint a Safeguarding Lead. This person is responsible for training, updating policy and ensuring staff are kept up to date with reporting procedure.
Not sure what is required in a safeguarding policy? We have some handy templates to help you.
Example Safeguarding Policy for organisations – Adults
Example Safeguarding Policy for organisations – Children
Want to talk to one of our Development Team about Safeguarding?
email info@cumbriacvs.org.uk or call us on 01768 800350.
Organisational training for staff
There are a number of different options that you can take to train staff in Safeguarding principles. These can be face to face or online. At Cumbria CVS we work closely with the local authority and use their free online training platform for Safeguarding training, but there are other options available that we have tried and tested.
Please note, Safeguarding training deals with difficult and emotional topics. It is recommended that online training should be sought in the first instance before securing face to face sessions.
For staff, typically online training is sufficient to carry out day to day duties with an awareness of safeguarding (Level 1 or Level 2 training). Safeguarding Leads usually require additional training. This is known as Level 3 training.
Depending on the nature of your service and the client group it supports it may be that you require some more in-depth Level 3 training on certain subjects.
It is good practice that all staff recomplete safeguarding training at Level 1 every couple of years to keep up to date with changes in the field or revised best practice.
Providing Level 1 and Level 2 training (plus various specialist subject safeguarding courses).
Online and Face to Face Training – Level 1 and Level 2.
Cumberland Council and Westmorland and Furness Council also have some more in depth and face to face training available – check their websites for details.
Our training partner, VSL Learning, also offer introductory courses covering both Adult and Children’s Safeguarding.
