Safeguarding Policy

Safeguarding Policy
Created: January 2021
Reviewed: December 2023
To be reviewed: December 2024

 

Wellbody Wellmind Wellbeing provides evidence-based programmes to organisations and individuals, adults and children, to foster healthy life-long habits in body and mind.

Wellbody Wellmind Wellbeing ensures safeguarding is at the heart of all our activities.

The purpose of this policy statement is:

  • to protect adults, children and young people who attend Wellbody Wellmind Wellbeing’s programmes from harm. This includes the children of adults who use our services.
  • to provide staff, contractors and volunteers, as well as children and young people and their families, with the overarching principles that guide our approach to safeguarding and child

This policy applies to anyone working on behalf of Wellbody Wellmind Wellbeing, including managers, the board of trustees, paid staff, volunteers and students.

This policy statement should be read alongside our organisational policies, procedures, guidance and other related documents, such as:

  • Positive behaviour management policy, including behaviour codes for children and young people
  • GDPR policy: Photography and sharing images guidance and child protection records retention and storage
  • Staff recruitment including code of conduct for staff and volunteers and induction, training, supervision and support, and adult to child supervision ratios
  • Complaints procedure
  • Health and safety policy and procedures, including risk assessments, first aid, fire safety and digital safety
  • Whistleblowing policy
  • Anti-bullying policy

 

We recognise that:

  • Harm and abuse have a devastating impact
  • We have a responsibility to ensure we don’t cause harm to anyone who has contact with our charity
  • We recognise that working with children or adults at risk have extra responsibilities.
  • the welfare of our service users is paramount in all the work we do and in all the decisions we take
  • everyone, regardless of age, disability, gender, reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation, has an equal right to protection from all types of harm or abuse
  • some children are additionally vulnerable because of the impact of previous experiences, their level of dependency, communication needs or other issues
  • working in partnership with children, young people, their parents, carers and other agencies is essential in promoting young people’s welfare.

Our trustees ensure that our charity fulfils this responsibility. Even by delegating some activities to a safeguarding lead or group, our trustees retain overall responsibility.

We have a strong safeguarding culture in our charity:

  • We protect people and minimise the risks of any harm or abuse
  • everyone has confidence their concerns will be dealt with appropriately
  • everyone in our charity understands their role with regards to safeguarding

We identify and address our charity’s safeguarding risks associated with:

  • who we work with
    • working with children and young people
    • working with adults at risk
  • where we operate/run our activities including online work
  • the activities we do
  • working with other bodies
  • preventing terrorist abuse

We ensure we have suitable policies and practices in place which everyone understands and uses. These include making sure everyone knows how to identify and report a concern or incident.

 

Manage the risks

Protecting people and safeguarding responsibilities is a governance priority for us.

As part of fulfilling our trustee duties, whether working online or in person, we take reasonable steps to protect from harm people who come into contact with our charity, including:

  • people who benefit from our charity’s work
  • staff
  • volunteers
  • other people who come into contact with our charity through its work

We understand that the Charity Commission will hold trustees to account if things go wrong and will check that trustees followed this guidance and the law. The Commission will refer concerns to relevant safeguarding agencies where needed to take further action as it is not a nominated body with the power to implement safeguarding legislation. Our trustees take responsibility for putting things right and promote an open and positive culture and ensure all involved feel able to report concerns, confident that they will be heard and responded to.

In summary, all our trustees ensure our charity:

  • has appropriate policies and procedures in place, which are followed by all trustees, volunteers and beneficiaries
  • checks that people are suitable to act in their roles
  • knows how to spot and handle concerns in a full and open manner
  • has a clear system of referring or reporting to relevant agencies as soon as concerns are suspected or identified
  • sets out risks and how they will be managed in a risk register which is regularly reviewed
  • follows statutory guidance, good practice guidance and legislation relevant to their charity: this guidance links to the main sources of information
  • is quick to respond to concerns and carry out appropriate investigations
  • does not ignore harm or downplay failures
  • has a balanced trustee board and does not let one trustee dominate its work – trustees should work together
  • makes sure protecting people from harm is central to its culture
  • has enough resources, including trained staff/volunteers/trustees for safeguarding and protecting people
  • conducts periodic reviews of safeguarding policies, procedures and practice

We understand that if we work with children or adults at risk there are more safeguarding legal requirements. We must check whether these requirements apply to our charity. If they do, we must work within them.

Types of Risks and Harm

Harm and risks we must be alert to, whether online or in person, include but is not exclusive to the following:

  • sexual harassment, abuse and exploitation
  • criminal exploitation
  • a charity’s culture, which may allow poor behaviour and poor accountability
  • people abusing a position of trust they hold within a charity
  • bullying or harassment
  • health and safety
  • commercial exploitation
  • cyber abuse
  • discrimination on any of the grounds in the Equality Act 2010
  • people targeting our charity
  • data breaches, including those under General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)
  • negligent treatment
  • domestic abuse
  • self-neglect
  • physical or emotional abuse
  • extremism and radicalisation
  • forced marriage
  • modern slavery
  • human trafficking
  • female genital mutilation

Policies, procedures and practices

Our charity’s policies and procedures for protecting people and safeguarding should be:

  • put into practice
  • responsive to change
  • reviewed as necessary, always following a serious incident and at least once a year
  • available to the public
  • compliant with all relevant legislation, noting this can vary depending on who we work with

 

We ensure all trustees, staff, volunteers, partners and beneficiaries are aware of our policies and how to apply them, such as how we will:

  • protect people from harm
  • make sure people can raise safeguarding concerns
  • handle allegations or incidents
  • respond, including reporting to the relevant authorities

 

Code of conduct

We have a clear code of conduct which sets out our charity’s culture and values about how people in our charity should behave.

 

Checking our charity’s policies, procedures and practices

All our policies, procedures and practice are checked yearly and challenged to ensure they’re fit for purpose, to ensure our charity:

  • works within all relevant statutory guidance
  • keeps accurate records
  • stays aware of current affairs, trends and themes and how these can influence our policies and practices
  • complies with its policies and procedures, as well as with good practice and legislation
  • updates policies and procedures to reflect changes to statutory requirements, good practice and current issues

Trustees have clear oversight of how safeguarding and protecting people from harm are managed within our charity. We monitor our performance with supporting information, such as reports to help understand common themes, identify risks and gaps to ensure they are addressed.

If we change the way we work, such as working in a new area or in a different way, we:

  • review our current policies and make sure they’re suitable
  • consider whether any extra policies are needed to cover any new situations or risks
  • record these discussions and decisions as part of our risk management procedures

Our trustees use the following to help with their checking and assurance, including:

  • recording the risks faced by our charity and how these are managed
  • speaking to people in our charity and beneficiaries to make sure they understand how to raise concerns and get feedback on past experiences
  • carrying out checks on any sites our charity may work in and seeing any necessary paperwork
  • working with statutory agencies and partners
  • setting training plans for trustees, staff and volunteers on safeguarding and protecting people from harm
  • recording any potential conflicts of interest at any level
  • having a standing agenda item on safeguarding and protecting people from harm at meetings
  • reviewing a sample of past concerns to identify any lessons to be learnt and make sure they were handled appropriately
  • organising external reviews or inspections as needed

 

Get checks on trustees, staff and volunteers

We risk assess and ensure that trustees, staff and volunteers are suitable and legally able to act in their positions, using whichever methods are appropriate:

  • criminal records checks
  • references and checks on gaps in work history
  • confirmation that staff can work in the UK
  • health checks
  • Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) – criminal records checks alongside references and interviews to give us a broad and informed view to manage the risk of abuse or harm. We get a standard, enhanced or enhanced with barred list check from the DBS when a role is eligible for one.

 

Protect our volunteers and staff

Our charity protects our volunteers and staff from harm by having clear policies and procedures on bullying and harassment and whistleblowing. We ensure our volunteers and staff know how to raise any bullying or harassment concerns, and how to handle and report incidents appropriately following our policies and procedures, such as:

  • handling and recording in a secure and responsible way
  • acting quickly, ensuring we stop or minimise any further harm or damage
  • reporting to all relevant agencies

We ensure we have suitable insurance in place that covers the activities we run, staff, volunteers and participants.

When our charity works with children or adults at risk, either online or in person, we should:

  • establish appropriate safeguarding policies and procedures that all trustees, staff and volunteers follow, which fit with the policies and procedures of our local authority safeguarding partnership or safeguarding children or adults board
  • make sure all staff and volunteers receive regular training on child protection or working with adults at risk
  • appoint a safeguarding lead to work with our local authority safeguarding partnerships or boards and/or create a plan for responding to concerns overseas
  • manage concerns, complaints, whistleblowing and allegations relating to child protection or adults at risk effectively
  • have clear policies when DBS checks are required, how we assess the level of check needed and how we handle the information

 

a) Safeguarding children

Safeguarding children includes anyone under the age of 18. Safeguarding children means to:

  • protect children from abuse and maltreatment
  • prevent harm to children’s health or development
  • ensure children grow up with the provision of safe and effective care
  • take action to enable all children and young people to have the best outcomes

 

b) Safeguarding adults at risk

Safeguarding adults at risk means protecting their right to live in safety and free from abuse and neglect. Our charity may have trustees, staff, volunteers, beneficiaries or other connections who are classed as adults at risk.

Adults at risk includes anyone working with anyone aged 18 or over who:

  • has needs for care and support (whether or not the local authority is 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

An adult at risk of abuse may:

  • have an illness affecting their mental or physical health
  • have a learning disability
  • suffer from drug or alcohol problems
  • be frail

 

Operating online

We are aware that operating online carries specific safeguarding risks connected to protecting people from abuse and protecting sensitive information. We ensure these are managed and reflected in our policies and practices, by

  • having adequate control over our website and social media accounts such as how people talk to each other when using our online services. We look at how we can keep users safe, such as using passwords to access services and monitoring what people do, say and share when using our services.

We must be satisfied that our charity identifies and manages risks:

  • be confident volunteers, staff and trustees understand how to keep themselves safe online. We use password access to meetings to support this
  • be sure the online services we provide are suitable for our users. For example, use age restrictions and offer password protection to help keep people safe
  • know the services our charity uses and provides are safe and in line with our charity’s code of conduct
  • protect people’s personal data and follow GDPR legislation
  • make sure we have permission to display any images on our website or social media accounts. We may need individual or parental permission
  • clearly explain how users can report online concerns

 

Working with children or adults at risk

We refer all safeguarding concerns with children or adults at risk to our local safeguarding children (LADO) or adult team. We refer concerns to the DBS

 

Working with or making grants to other organisations

We carry out proper due diligence when we work with any other bodies, including:

  • delivery partners
  • connected charities

to ensure partner bodies are suitable with appropriate safeguarding procedures in place, clear lines of responsibility and reporting between all bodies involved, with a written agreement or contract that sets out:

  • our relationship
  • the role of each organisation
  • monitoring and reporting arrangements

 

Terrorism and the Prevent duty

All charities must prevent abuse for extremist purposes.

 

Contact details

Nominated child protection lead:

Name: Nicole Hartley/Maria O’Donnell

Email:
nicole@wellbodywellmindwellbeing.co.uk
maria@wellbodywellmindwellbeing.co.uk

 

Trustee lead for safeguarding and child protection

Name: Sam (Adcock) McDowell

Email: sammcdowell69@gmail.com