Safeguarding Children and Young People Policy
(POL-004)

Introduction

We believe that:

• the people that we support, should never experience abuse of any kind
• we have a responsibility to promote the welfare of all children, young people and vulnerable adults, to keep them safe and to practise in a way that protects them.

We recognise that:

• the welfare of the people that we support, is paramount in all the work we do and in all the decisions we take
• working in partnership with the people that we support and their parents, carers and other agencies is essential in promoting their welfare
•  all people, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation have an equal right to protection from all types of harm or abuse
• some people are additionally vulnerable because of the impact of previous experiences, their level of dependency, communication needs or other issues
• extra safeguards may be needed to keep people, who are additionally vulnerable safe, from abuse.

Healios will ensure that helping people to be safe is at the heart of our work and a key priority across all areas of the organisation. We will do our absolute best to keep the people that we support safe from harm.

Purpose

Every organisation that works with children has a statutory responsibility to ensure that sufficient capacity is in place for them to fulfil their responsibilities in relation to safeguarding children, as outlined in legislation (detailed in the grid below).

This policy outlines the overarching principles and framework that guides Healios approach to safeguarding children.

Scope

This policy applies to anyone working on behalf of Healios UK, including senior managers and the board of trustees, paid staff, volunteers, sessional workers, agency staff and students. This includes staff that work for Melios.

For the purpose of this policy the term ‘Safeguarding’ incorporates:

• Child protection,
• Early help / Intervention
• Children in need.

Healios recognise that there are different legal frameworks across England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. This policy is written taking legislation from the four nations into account.

Associated processes, policies or legislation

• Information Governance Policy
• Incident Management Policy
• Managing Complaints Policy
• Clinical Risk Management Policy
• Supervision policy
• Clinical record keeping policy

Legal Framework

This policy has been developed on the basis of legislation and guidance that seeks to safeguard children in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. A table summary of the key legislation and statutory guidance is detailed below:

England
Children Act 1989 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1989/41/contents

Children Act 2004 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/31/contents

Children and Social Work Act 2017 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2017/16/contents/enacted

Working Together to Safeguarding Children 2023 (statutory guidance) WT 2023

Scotland
Children (Scotland) Act 1995 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1995/36/contents

Children and Young people (Scotland) Act 2014 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2014/8/contents/enacted

Getting it right for every child, 2018 https://www.gov.scot/policies/girfec/

National guidance for child protection in Scotland 2014a (statutory guidance)
https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-guidance-child-protection-scotland/

Wales
Children Act 1989 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1989/41/contents

Children Act 2004 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/31/contents

Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2014/4/contents

Working Together to Safeguarding people 2018 *updated Dec 2022
Wales Safeguarding Procedures https://www.safeguarding.wales/

Ireland
Children’s First Act 2015
https://www.tusla.ie/children-first/children-first-guidance-and-legislation/

Children First National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children 2017
https://www.tusla.ie/children-first/children-first-guidance-and-legislation/

Definitions of keywords

‘A child’: A child is defined in legislation, for the purpose of safeguarding, as anyone under the age of 18. This is a common definition held across England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

‘Safeguarding’ is defined for the purpose of this policy as:

• protecting children from maltreatment
• preventing impairment of children’s health or development
• ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
• taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.

‘Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023’

‘Significant Harm’:  “Harm” is the “ill treatment or the impairment of the health or development of the child” (Section 31, Children Act 1989; Article 2, Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995; Scottish Government, 2014).

Harm can be determined “significant” by “comparing a child’s health and development with what might be reasonably expected of a similar child”.

‘Abuse’: A form of maltreatment of a child. Somebody may abuse or neglect a child by inflicting harm, or by failing to act to prevent harm. Harm can include ill treatment that is not physical as well as the impact of witnessing ill treatment of others.  Children may be abused by an adult or adults, or another child or children.

For further information on safeguarding children Ireland please see the addendum in appendix 1.

Principles of safeguarding children:

The key principles that underpin all child safeguarding work at Healios are:

• Adopting a child Centred Approach: A child centred approach means keeping the child in focus when making decisions about their lives and working in partnership with them and their families. Anyone working with children should see and speak to the child: listen to what they say; take their views seriously; and work with them and their families collaboratively when deciding how to support their needs.
• Safeguarding children is everyone’s responsibility: Everyone who works with children has a responsibility for keeping them safe. No single practitioner can have a full picture of a child’s needs and circumstances and, if children and families are to receive the right help at the right time, everyone who comes into contact with them has a role to play in identifying concerns, sharing information and taking prompt action.
• The Welfare principle: The “Welfare of the Child is Paramount” became a legal principle under the 1989 Children Act. It means that the considerations which might apply to other situations should not be allowed to override the right of children to be protected from harm.
• Partnership working: Healios have a responsibility to work in partnership with local authority safeguarding teams nationally.

Recognising abuse

All staff at Healios have a responsibility to recognise and respond, if they believe a child to be at risk of harm or they have significant concerns about their welfare. The competency to be able to do this is achieved through the level 1 safeguarding training that all staff at Healios are required to complete on induction (This forms part of the mandatory induction organised by the learning and development team).

Every child that Healios provides support to, will have a risk assessment completed within the first clinical session. This is an opportunity to discuss and identify any risks to the child’s safety or welfare. This is done in collaboration with the child and their parent (where appropriate). Safeguarding concerns may become evident at this point or at any stage during our interactions with the young person or their family.

Healios promote a ‘Think family’ approach to keeping children safe. This encourages us to think about recognising the risks to the child but also the parental capacity to manage risk and environmental factors. Clinicians are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the framework for assessment of children in need (2000).

Best practice in safeguarding is to ensure that where appropriate, you see and speak to the child: listen to what they say; take their views seriously; and work with them and their families collaboratively when deciding how to support their needs. Special provision should be put in place to support dialogue with children who have communication difficulties or do not speak English as their first language.

Responding

Responsibility to refer to statutory children’s services: Healios  have a responsibility to refer a child to Children’s social care if they believe or suspect that the child:

• Has suffered significant harm;
• Is likely to suffer significant harm;
• Has a disability, developmental and welfare needs which are likely only to be met through provision of family support services (with agreement of the child’s parent) under the Children Act 1989;
• Is a Child in Need whose development would be likely to be impaired without provision of services.

All staff members are responsible for acting on safeguarding concerns identified and ensuring that any onward referrals are made, with support from team managers and the internal safeguarding team.

Referrals may be made into the following social care departments:

• Early Help / Intervention: Early help / intervention means providing support as soon as a problem emerges, at any point in a child’s life, from the foundation years through to the teenage years. Early intervention can also prevent further problems arising.
• Child protection: Under section 47 of the children’s act you have a responsibility to refer into children’s social care if you have reasonable cause to suspect a child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm.
• Child In Need: a child in need is defined under the Children Act 1989 as a child who is unlikely to achieve or maintain a reasonable level of health or development, or whose health and development is likely to be significantly or further impaired, without the provision of services; or a child who is disabled. Children in need should be referred into children’s services for a full assessment of needs.

Healios staff have a responsibility to refer into children’s services following the local procedures for the area that the child lives in. All staff should be aware, with support from the internal safeguarding team of local policy and threshold guidance.

Prevent

Prevent forms part of the home office national strategy to tackle extremism.

Section 26 of the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015 (CT&SA) places responsibilities on specified authorities to “have due regard to the need to prevent people from becoming drawn into terrorism”. This duty applies to all healthcare organisations. Further information on the Prevent Duty can be found here:

Home Office Prevent Duty Guidance 

Staff at Healios may well come into contact with children and adults who are vulnerable to exploitation. All staff have a responsibility to safeguard children and adults at risk.

All staff at Healios received Prevent training at a level appropriate to their role. This is delivered as part of the mandatory induction.

Healios have a named lead for prevent.

• Managing Allegations against a person in a position of trust (PIPOT):

If an allegation has been made about a person in a position of trust, we have a responsibility to ensure that this information is shared with the local authority designated officer who will lead on the investigation. This process is led by the Healios Internal safeguarding team and should be informed immediately if a concern is raised.

• Safeguarding support and supervision:

Staff are not expected to make safeguarding decisions in isolation, it is best practice in safeguarding to discuss concerns and reflect on different perspectives. All staff members have access to safeguarding support and supervision through the internal safeguarding team.

It is a mandatory requirement that all clinical staff members attend safeguarding group supervision as part of maintaining level 3 competencies.

• Documentation

Staff should record detailed and contemporaneous notes on the client’s account in Panacea, in relation to any safeguarding concern. Any records relating to safeguarding information could potentially be required in a criminal of civil court and be used as evidence. All records should be kept in line with the Healios Clinical record keeping policy.

Multi agency working

In line with ‘Working together to safeguard children’ legislation, Healios have a responsibility to ensure that they work closely with multi agency partners. Healios are contracted to follow local area multi agency safeguarding policies.

There may be occasions when requests are made for clinical staff to attend multi agency safeguarding meetings. Healios safeguarding team support this process.

Information sharing

Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 states that:

“Effective sharing of information between professionals and local agencies is essential for effective identification, assessment and service provision to keep children safe. Fears about information sharing must not be allowed to stand in the way of the need to promote the welfare, and protect the safety of children which must always be of paramount concern”.

Practitioners must have due regard to the relevant data protection principles which allow them to share personal information, as provided for in the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Healios have a national statutory reporting duty to share information related to female genital mutilation and radicalisation (prevent). Concerns in relation to these types of abuse should always be discussed with the internal safeguarding team who have a responsibility for ensuring that these statutory reporting duties are fulfilled.

Escalation of Concerns

When there are professional concerns or disagreements over another professional’s decisions, actions or lack of actions in relation to a referral, an enquiry or assessment / intervention, the repercussions can be extremely serious for the children and young people.

When communicating disagreement, professionals should remain respectful of each other at all times and this should be evidenced in both their direct and written communication, and throughout the escalation resolution process.

The Healios safeguarding team supports this process.

Training

All staff are expected to undertake training in accordance with the requirements described in the Safeguarding Children and Young People, Roles and Competencies for Healthcare Staff Intercollegiate Document.  This framework identifies five levels of competence, and gives examples of groups that fall within each of these.

Healios have completed a review to ensure that our safeguarding training matrix is also aligned to the ‘National Framework for Child Protection learning and development in Scotland 2012’.

Monitoring compliance and effectiveness

The internal safeguarding team have assurance processes in place to ensure that this policy and associated Standard operating procedures are being adhered to.

Safeguarding audits will be completed as part of the Healios Audit Cycle.

Section 11 audit:

Healios is  required under statute and regulation to have effective arrangements in place to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Healios demonstrate compliance to the following areas:

•  Identification of named professionals for safeguarding children.
• Safe recruitment practices and arrangements for dealing with allegations against staff.
• Provision of an Executive Lead for safeguarding children, adults at risk and Prevent.
• An annual report for safeguarding children to be submitted to the trust board.
• A suite of safeguarding policies and procedures that support local multi-agency safeguarding procedures.
• Effective training of all staff commensurate with their role and in accordance with the Intercollegiate Document for Safeguarding Children and Intercollegiate Documents for Looked after Children.
• Safeguarding must be included in induction programmes.
• Providing effective safeguarding supervision arrangements for staff, commensurate to their role and function (including for named professionals).
• Developing an organisational culture where all staff are aware of their personal responsibilities for safeguarding and information sharing.
• Developing and promoting a learning culture to ensure continuous improvement.
• Policies, arrangements and records to ensure consent to care and treatment is obtained in line with legislation and guidance such as the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Healios review the section 11 audit on a monthly basis  to ensure that we are meeting our statutory obligations in relation to safeguarding children.

Healios have completed a review to ensure that our section 11 audit is also aligned to the Quality framework for child protection in Scotland this comes from the national-guidance-child-protection-scotland-2021.pdf

EIA

The Equality Impact Assessment helps to ensure that any new policy or policy changes are fair and don’t discriminate against or negatively impact any protected group. Using this tool helps to centre inclusion and equity when reviewing our policies, and consider the intentional and unintentional impact they have. Please click here for the full details of the EIA. An assessment concluded that this policy has a positiveimpact on all protected characteristic groups.

Appendix 1

Ireland Addendum:

Legislation

The Children First Act 2015 places specific obligations on organisations which provide services to children and young people, including the requirement to:

• Keep children safe from harm while they are using the service:
• Carry out a risk assessment to identify whether a child or young person could be harmed while availing of the service
• Develop a Child Safeguarding Statement that outlines the policies and procedures which are in place to manage the risks that have been identified
• Appoint a relevant person to be the first point of contact in respect of the organisation’s Child Safeguarding Statement.

Mandated person

Schedule 2 of the Children First Act 2015 specifies the following classes of persons as Mandated Persons for the purposes of the Act:

1. Registered medical practitioner within the meaning of section 2 of the Medical Practitioners Act 2007.
   2. Registered nurse or registered midwife within the meaning of section 2(1) of the Nurses and Midwives Act 2011.
   3. Physiotherapist registered in the register of members of that profession.
   4. Speech and language therapist registered in the register of members of that profession.
   5. Occupational therapist registered in the register of members of that profession.
   6. Registered dentist within the meaning of section 2 of the Dentists Act 1985.
   7. Psychologist who practises as such and who is eligible for registration in the register (if any) of members of that profession.
   8. Social care worker who practises as such and who is eligible for registration in In In accordance with Part 4 of the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 in the register of that profession.
   9. Social worker who practises as such and who is eligible for registration in accordance with Part 4 of the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 in the register (if any) of that profession.
   10. Emergency medical technician, paramedic and advanced paramedic registered with the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council under the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council (Establishment) Order 2000 (S.I. No. 109 of 2000).
   11. Probation officer within the meaning of section 1 of the Criminal Justice (Community Service) Act 1983.
   12. Teacher registered with the Teaching Council.
   13. Member of An Garda Síochána.
   14. Guardian ad litem appointed in accordance with section 26 of the Child Care Act 1991.
   15. Person employed in any of the following capacities:

Reporting duties of mandated person:

Mandated persons have two main legal obligations under the Children First Act 2015

• To report harm of children, above a defined threshold, to Tusla
• To assist Tusla, if requested, in assessing a concern which has been the subject of a mandated report

As a mandated person, under the legislation you are required to report

‘any knowledge, belief or reasonable suspicion that a child has been harmed, is being harmed, or is at risk of being harmed’.

The Act defines harm as assault, ill-treatment, neglect or sexual abuse, and covers single and multiple instances.

The reporting requirements under the Children First Act 2015 apply only to information that you as a mandated person, received or became aware of since the Act came into force. However, if you have reasonable concern about past abuse, where the information came to your attention before the Act and there is possible continuing risk to children, you should report it to Tusla under the Children First Guidance 2017.

Thresholds:

Definition of Harm:

The threshold of harm for each category of abuse at which mandated persons have a legal obligation to report concerns is outlined below.

“Harm” means, in relation to a child:

(a)   assault, ill-treatment or neglect of the child in a manner that seriously affects or is likely  to seriously affect the child’s health, development or welfare, or

(b)   sexual abuse of the child