Safeguarding

Safeguarding means protecting a person’s right to live safely, free from abuse and neglect.  Safeguarding can apply to both children and vulnerable adults.  We all have a role to play in keeping people safe.

In Kirklees, adult safeguarding is overseen by the Kirklees Adult Safeguarding Board (KASB), and children’s safeguarding is overseen by the Kirklees Safeguarding Children Partnership (KSCP).

Safeguarding is the responsibility of everyone in your organisation, including your staff, volunteers and trustees. Everyone should know about and understand your safeguarding policies and know the correct procedures for recognising, responding and reporting any concerns. Ideally you should have a Safeguarding Lead, and everyone should know who that is and how to contact them.

The responsibility comes from your management committee or board down. In a charity, it is the responsibility of the board of trustees to set the right tone, and the Charity Commission says:
“Trustees should promote a fair, open and positive culture and ensure all involved feel able to report concerns, confident that they will be heard and responded to.”

We recommend you have separate safeguarding policies for children and ‘adults at risk’ as each has a different approach.
Your safeguarding procedures will need to outline:

how to report a concern
who your Safeguarding Lead is

You can contact us for template policies and procedures that you can use as a starting point – becky@tslkirklees.org.uk

Whenever you are planning a new activity, using a new venue or creating a new staff or volunteering role in your organisation, you should do a risk assessment. This should include any safeguarding risks you identify and should include appropriate safety measures to minimise those risks.

It can also be useful to have a ‘code of conduct’ or set of ‘expectations’ that can help staff and volunteers to understand what they should and shouldn’t do as part of their role. This should help establish acceptable boundaries and help people avoid putting themselves or others at risk.

Your risk assessment (see above) will help you assess the level of risk in recruiting staff or volunteers, and you can adjust your recruitment processes accordingly.
Safer recruitment can involve:

• ID checks
• taking up references
• induction and training
• supervision and probationary periods
• as well as DBS checks (checking people’s criminal records and whether they are any concerns about them working with children or vulnerable adults)

There are 3 levels of DBS check – basic, standard and enhanced.

Anyone can have a basic DBS check, and you can even apply for one on yourself (via an online form).  It costs £23 and shows any convictions or cautions that are not ‘spent’.  This might form part of your standard recruitment process.

You can only request a standard or enhanced DBS check for certain eligible roles where someone will be in direct contact with children or vulnerable adults. You must only get whichever one is relevant to their role in relation to working with children or adults (or both, if they work with both). The process is the same for both volunteers and employees but checks for volunteers are free.

DBS check do not expire, but please bear in mind that the information is only up to date when the check is done, and the DBS is issued.  You will therefore, need to build in a review/recheck procedure into your safeguarding policies.  For this reason, it’s worthwhile getting people to register for the electronic update service once they’ve received their certificate (within one month of it being issued).  This means that checks can be redone as often as needed without having to go through the whole process again. This costs £13 per year or is free for volunteers.

See the Government’s eligibility guidance and online eligibility tool for further details:   https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dbs-eligibility-guidance 

Guidance for employers: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/dbs-check-requests-guidance-for-employers#types-of-dbs-checks-and-how-to-apply

Kirklees Council can process your DBS applications for a small admin fee. Contact us for more information and a copy of the application form – becky@tslkirkees.org.uk.

Basic Awareness Training (for all staff and volunteers) – we recommend this is undertaken every 3 years.

• An Awareness of Child Abuse and Neglect (e-learning) https://kirklees.event-booking.org.uk/elearning-detail/%3D%3DQN3cjN/An-Awareness-of-Child-Abuse-and-Neglect
• Safeguarding Adults at Risk- Basic Awareness- Contact us to access this free training (delivered online in 90 mins) or for a copy of the Safeguarding Adults Basic Awareness Workbook for Volunteers. becky@tslkirklees.og.uk

Training for Safeguarding Leads – we recommend this is undertaken every 3 years.

• ‘Working Together to Safeguarding Children’ (full day) and Refresher (half day). Free to charity and community groups in Kirklees https://kirklees.event-booking.org.uk/
• Kirklees Safeguarding Adults Board – ‘Concerns Manager’ Training (3 hours) – https://www.kirklees.gov.uk/beta/adult-social-care-providers/pdf/safeguarding-adults-training.pdf

Other Learning and Development

The two Kirklees Safeguarding Partnerships, Kirklees Safeguarding Children Partnership and Kirklees Safeguarding Adults Board offer a wide range of e-learning and events to help develop your skills and understanding. These include topics such as Domestic Abuse, Child Sexual Exploitation, Prevent and Modern Slavery. You can view more details here:

• KSCP E-learning: https://kirklees.event-booking.org.uk/elearning-list
• KSCP Online Events: https://kirklees.event-booking.org.uk/events-list
• KSCP Practice presentations and 5 minute Guides: https://www.kirkleessafeguardingchildren.co.uk/safeguarding-2/safeguarding-processes-and-systems/multi-agency-training/practice-guidance-presentations/
• KSAB training plan: https://www.kirklees.gov.uk/beta/adult-social-care-providers/pdf/safeguarding-adults-learning-and-development-offer.pdf 

If you can’t find what you are looking for then please let us know and we will do our best to help.