Live Unlimited
Safeguarding Policy
Contents
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Purpose of document
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Legal framework
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Related policies and procedures
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What is abuse and neglect
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We believe that
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We will seek to keep children and young people safe
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Procedures
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Dealing with allegations
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Reporting a concern
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Source material
Date policy created: 28/06/23
Date last reviewed: 27/08/24 [approved online by Trustees Harriet Boamah (Trustee Safeguarding Lead] and Jennifer Mohammadi (Trustee Projects Lead] 07/11/24
Date for next review: 27/08/25
Background
The child protection standards in this procedure are consistent with the Government publications:
``Working Together to Safeguard Children” (2015) and ‘What To Do If You’re Worried a Child is
Being Abused (2015)’ and Working Together to Safeguard Children (2023). Please note that this document is designed to complement and provide context for the more detailed Child Protection Procedures and does not replace them. For more detailed information, see https://barnet.gov.uk/citizen-home/children-young-people-and-families/Safeguarding-children.html
Named Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)
Name: Sue Cocker
Appointment: 16/02/2018
Named Safeguarding Trustee Lead (DSL)
Name: Harriet Boamah
Appointment: 04/05/2023
Purpose of this document
Live Unlimited is a charity registered in England and Wales, registered charity number: 1197754. Live Unlimited works with children in the care of the London Borough of Barnet and care leavers up to the age of 25 to provide opportunities and inspiration to fulfil their potential and follow their dreams. We therefore work directly with children and young adults on a range of projects and programmes and have a responsibility to promote the wellbeing and safety of all people we come into contact with.
Safeguarding relates to the action taken to promote the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and to protect them from harm. The purpose of this policy is:
● to protect Barnet’s looked after children and care leavers who engage with Live Unlimited and/or receive or participate in Live Unlimited’s services or activities; and
● to provide those who work for or on behalf of Live Unlimited (team members) with the overarching principles that guide our approach to child protection.
This policy applies to anyone working for, or on behalf of Live Unlimited, including its board of trustees, staff, volunteers, and secondees. (Third party service providers are responsible for ensuring that their own employees are competent and confident in carrying out their responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults.)
Legal framework
It is in every child and vulnerable young adult best interests to be safeguarded from abuse or neglect and there is a legislative framework in place in place to safeguard children and vulnerable adults. This policy has been drawn up on the basis of that legislation, as well as policy and guidance that seeks to protect all children including looked after children, and care leavers.
A summary of the key legislation and guidance followed is available from the NSPCC website. Whilst Live Unlimited does not have any statutory duties beyond those applying to charitable bodies, we have a duty of care to safeguard and promote the welfare of vulnerable children and young adults with whom we interact and are committed to ensuring we do this. A child is defined as anyone under the age of 18. An adult is anyone aged 18 and over.
Live Unlimited therefore aims to ensure that, regardless of their age, ability or disability, gender or gender fluidity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation, socio-economic background, all Barnet’s looked after children and care leavers:
● have a positive and enjoyable experience from their interactions with Live Unlimited;
● are protected from abuse whilst participating in activities delivered by Live Unlimited outside of their home or school.
Related policies and procedures
This document should be read alongside our organisational policies and procedures, including:
● Vulnerable People Policy
This sets out how we identify and engage with vulnerable people
● Managing Disclosures and Allegations Policy and Procedure
This sets out how we deal with disclosure and take action on any allegations of abuse
● Role of the Designated Safeguarding Lead
This sets out the responsibilities of the Trustee Safeguarding Lead
● Trustees Code of Conduct
This sets out the expectations of conduct and behaviour of Trustees in representing and working on behalf of Live unlimited
● Privacy Policy
This sets out why and how we collect and use (process) personal data
● Processing special category and criminal records data policy
This sets out why and how we collect and use (process) these categories of data which have specific requirements under data protection legislation
● Social Media, Image Sharing and Mobile Phone Usage Policy
This sets out our expectations for team members as well as how we deal with these media in terms of data protection
● Complaints procedure
This sets out how to make a complaint outside of safeguarding issues
● Whistleblowing procedure
This sets out protections and how team members can report wrongdoing within Live Unlimited.
What is abuse and neglect
Abuse and neglect are forms of maltreatment – a person may abuse or neglect a child by inflicting harm, or by failing to act to prevent harm. Children and young people may be abused in a family or in an institutional or community setting; by those known to them or, more rarely, by a stranger.
● Physical abuse may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning,
suffocating, or otherwise causing physical harm to a child. Physical harm may also be caused
when a parent or carer fabricates the symptoms of, or deliberately induces, illness in a child.
● Emotional abuse is the persistent emotional maltreatment of a child such as to cause severe
and persistent adverse effects on the child’s emotional development. It may involve
conveying to children that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate, or only valued insofar
as they meet the needs of another person. It may feature age or developmentally
inappropriate expectations being imposed on children. These may include interactions that
are beyond the child’s developmental capability, as well as overprotection and limitation of
exploration and learning or preventing the child participating in normal social interaction. It
may involve seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another. It may involve serious bullying,
causing children frequently to feel frightened or in danger, or the exploitation or corruption
of children. Some level of emotional abuse is involved in all types of maltreatment of a child,
though it may occur alone.
● Sexual abuse involves forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities,
including prostitution, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. The activities
may involve physical contact, including penetrative (e.g., rape, buggery or oral sex) or non-
penetrative acts. They may include non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking
at, or in the production of, sexual on-line images, watching sexual activities, or encouraging
children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways.
We believe that:
● children and young people should never experience abuse of any kind
● we have a responsibility to promote the welfare of all children and young people, to keep them safe and to behave in a way that protects them when they are engaging with us.
We recognise that:
● the welfare of all children and vulnerable adults, including looked after children and care leavers, is paramount in all the work we do
● all children and vulnerable adults, whatever their age, culture, disability, gender, language, racial origin, socio-economic status, religious belief and/or sexual identify, have a right to equal protection from all types of harm or abuse
● looked after children and care leavers can be additionally vulnerable because of the impact of previous experiences, their level of dependency, communication needs or other issues
● working in partnership with looked after children, care leavers, their social care teams, carers, mentors and other agencies is essential in promoting young people’s welfare
We will seek to keep children and young people safe by:
● promoting and prioritising the safety and wellbeing of children and young people
● building a safeguarding culture where team members, children, young people and their families, treat each other with respect and are comfortable about sharing concerns
● developing policies, procedures which promote the protection of children and vulnerable adults, staff and volunteers
● recruiting those who work for or on behalf of Live Unlimited (team members) safely, ensuring all necessary DBS (and other) checks are made
● providing effective management for team members through supervision, support, training and performance measures so that all team members know about and follow our policies, procedures and behaviour codes confidently and competently
● appointing a nominated lead trustee/board member for safeguarding
● ensuring appropriate action is taken in the event of incidents, allegations or concerns of abuse and providing support to the individuals who raise or disclose the concern
● using our safeguarding and child protection procedures to share concerns and relevant information with agencies who need to know, and involving children, young people, parents, families and carers appropriately
● ensuring we have an effective complaints procedure in place
● recording, storing and using information professionally and securely, in line with data protection legislation and guidance
Thresholds
The new Continuum of Help and Support Threshold Document provides a framework for practitioners who are working with children and families in Barnet and aims to help identify when a child may need additional levels of support to achieve their full potential.
Threshold Document: Continuum of Help and Support (londonsafeguardingchildrenprocedures.co.uk)
Procedures
The role for all staff, volunteers and user groups in safeguarding children who may be in need of child
protection services is in identifying children or young people who may be at risk and alerting the appropriate service. Staff and volunteers should be alert to the potential need for early help for any child who:
● is disabled and has specific additional needs;
● has special educational needs;
● is a young carer
● is showing signs of engaging in anti-social or criminal behaviour
● is in a family circumstance presenting challenges for the child, such as substance abuse, adult
mental health, domestic violence; and/or
● Is showing early signs of abuse and/or neglect.
All staff and its user groups must ensure that they know the child protection procedures that are in force at Live Unlimited and which staff member is responsible for child protection issues.
In some cases, advice can be first sought from the Safeguarding Lead. However, this should not preclude a direct referral to MASH particularly if there is any element of immediate risk and the Safeguarding Leads cannot be contacted. If you have concerns about a child’s safety you can telephone the Barnet MASH team. Before referring to the MASH you need to consider if the child or young person’s needs can be met by services from within your own agency, or by other professionals already involved with the family. In order to make a referral you will need to complete an online referral form which can be found here for a child or here for an adult. You will then receive an acknowledgement email from the MASH with a reference number.
Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) Team (Children's) | Barnet Council
Adults Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) | Barnet Council
Professionals should, when to do so would not compromise the child’s safety, discuss intended referrals about children with the adults who provide care and/or hold parental responsibility for them, prior to making a referral to the MASH. The consent of a parent or carer is not required to make a safeguarding referral, but professionals are encouraged to be open about concerns they have for a child. Professionals should include in the referral whether they have spoken to the child and parents about the referral they are making.
Please also download the information leaflet explaining the MASH process which you can give to families. The MASH team will consider if/what information needs to be shared to ensure the child’s needs are being met.
If you have concerns about a child’s safety, you can telephone the MASH team on 020 8359 4066 or email: MASH@barnet.gov.uk to discuss your concerns and give the initial details. You will be expected to follow this with an online referral the same day. The Consultation line for professionals (GPYP team) who would like to discuss a case without making a referral will remain operational on 020 8359 4336. The Consultation Line is now open Monday to Friday between 11am and 12 noon. Outside of these hours care and welfare concerns about children and young people that require an immediate response should be reported to the Emergency Duty Team on 020 8359 2000. Where an emergency response is required, at any time, the police should be called. MASH team are responsible for providing referrers with appropriate and proportionate feedback about the progress of the case whilst in MASH. After a manager has considered your referral and a decision has been made, you will receive a notification or a ‘Feedback to Referrer’ informing you of the outcome. Under no circumstances should you speak to or confront the abuser. Do not share suspicions or information with any other person other than your line manager, MASH and the Police. Information given to MASH or the Police will be taken seriously, handled sensitively and shared only on a ‘need to know’ basis, wholly to protect the child. However, in order to ensure that children are safeguarded on the basis of proper evidence, the source of the referral cannot be kept anonymous.
Dealing with Allegations or concerns against any Employee or Volunteer
Concerns for the safety and wellbeing of children could arise in a number of different ways and in a
range of settings. It is essential to act quickly and effectively if an allegation is made, or if there is
suspicion or concern about a professional or volunteer’s relationship with a child, young person or
group of children/young people, particularly if they have:
● Behaved in a way that has harmed, or may have harmed, a child;
● Possibly committed a criminal offense against or related to, a child; or
● Behaved towards a child or children in a way that indicates she/he is unsuitable to work with
children.
The Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) deals with allegations against staff within the children’s workforce in Barnet. This includes volunteers as well as paid staff and those in a position of trust. They are available to provide advice or support in any allegations process, including advising whether or not immediate suspension of the person concerned should be initiated. Allegations that meet the above criteria must be reported to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) within one working day using the LADO referral form on Barnet Council’s website Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) | Barnet Council
If the concern is raised out of hours you should contact the MASH on the out of hour’s service number or, in an emergency, the police. Records should be stored in a secure place and access to them will be strictly limited to relevant staff and external professionals on a need-to-know basis. The member of staff or volunteer should be treated fairly and honestly, helped to understand the concerns expressed, the process being followed and any outcomes of the process. Safeguarding leads should seek advice from the MASH before informing the person who is subject to an allegation.
In cases where it is unclear if the referral relates to an allegation, a disclosure or a complaint, clarification / advice should be sought from the MASH team manager and LADO. The LADO can be contacted by phone or email. Rob.Wratten@Barnet.gov.uk Tel: 0208 359 5117 or LADO@barnet.gov.uk
Reporting a concern
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The disclosure - If you notice a concern, or if a young person makes a disclosure, listen and observe, and tell the young person that you may have to share what they tell you with the DSL
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Meet with the DSL promptly after a disclosure or observation has been made to share any information
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Make a written record of the disclosure promptly using Live Unlimited’s Cause for Concern form after speaking with the DSL. Ensure that only factual information is being recorded. If opinions are included in the written record, please explain their relevance to the facts.
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Make a referral - Not every case will escalate to a referral however if this is the case you or your DSL should check the Barnet Partnerships website and make a referral to the Barnet MASH team
* A copy of the above flow chart should be made available to all staff and third parties who are directly working with young people at Live Unlimited.
Source Material:
Working together to safeguard children 2023
Working together to safeguard children - GOV.UK
Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/47/pdfs/ukpga_20060047_en.pdf
The Barnet Safeguarding Children Partnership - bscp (thebarnetscp.org.uk)
Staff Training
Multi-agency training is available for staff through The Barnet Safeguarding Children Partnership - (thebarnetscp.org.uk). The BSCP provides a series of multi-agency safeguarding learning and development opportunities including core courses and additional specialised courses, as well as briefing sessions and conferences.
Sue Cocker
NCVO
DSL Safeguarding training
22/08/24
Sue Cocker
Child Protection Company
DSL Safeguarding training certificate
16/11/22
Sue Cocker
NCVO
Safeguarding children training certificate
16/11/22
Michelle Gyamfi
NCVO
Safeguarding training
08/07/24
Michelle Gyamfi
Child Protection Company
Introduction to Child Protection certificate
16/11/22
Michelle Gyamfi
Child Protection Company
Further child protection certificate
16/11/22
Anna Graham
NCVO
Safeguarding training
08/07/24
Trustees Training
Ira Bhattacharya
NSPCC
Charity Trustees: your duties to safeguard & protect CPD certified
May 2024
Jenni Mohammadi
As above
As above
May 2022
Lee Robinson
As above
As above
May 2022
Sheena Leng
As above
As above
May 2022
John Hooton
As above
As above
May 2022
Madiha Bhenick
As above
As above
Nov 2024
Harriet Boamah (Trustee Designated Safeguarding Lead)
Education Child Protection Limited
Advanced (DSL) child protection training
July 2024
Aaliyah Fozol
NSPCC
Charities Trustees: your duties to safeguard and protect CPD certified
Nov 2024
Holly Grant
NSPCC
As above
Nov 2024