Safeguarding Declaration for Adults and Children – How we safeguard
PHL provides a range of health and social care services to babies, children, young people and adults. We are understand that we have a key role in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all of our patients and services users and the communities we work within. We are clear about our responsibilities and consider these vitally important and therefore have structures in place to recognise, act upon and monitor our safeguarding standards. We continually drive the culture that safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility.
Definitions
Adults – Safeguarding adults’ procedures relate to the multi-agency response in respect of a person aged 18 years or over:
The Care Act is a large and far reaching piece of legislation and safeguarding changes form part of the new legal requirements. Several safeguarding changes have been brought about with the implementation of the Care Act (2014) which came into force on 1st April 2015 (the Care Act 2014).
Children – Where the term child, children or young person is stated, this relates to a person who has not yet reached their 18th birthday. (Children Act 1989, 2004).
Our legislative responsibilities to safeguard children and young people, requires us to be vigilant and responsive, every time we engage with service users and families.
Guidance is provided by the document; Working Together to Safeguard Children (DCSF, 2010), which defines safeguarding as:
“The process of protecting children from abuse or neglect, preventing impairment of their health and development, and ensuring they are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care that enables children to have optimum life chances and enter adulthood successfully.”
Structure
The Named Professional and Board Executive for Safeguarding is Executive Director of Nursing and Quality Gemma Bond. This role sets PHL safeguarding strategy and oversees safeguarding children, young people and adult matters ensuring safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults is discharged effectively throughout PHL
Each service has a Designated Safeguarding Lead for safeguarding children, young people and adults. They have a clear understanding about their roles and responsibilities and provide the local operating procedure to ensure frontline staff understand how to recognise concerns and make a referral to the appropriate authority.
Independent oversight of safeguarding in PHL is by the Safeguarding Committee Sub Group. They monitor the effectiveness of the safeguarding policies and staff training. They will quality assure all safeguarding practices, support improvements, and make recommendations for best practice implementation.
Policies and Procedures
All policies are written as guided by legislation and local authority publications and are accessible by our staff on PHL Intranet or can be found here – Adults Safeguarding and Children and Young People.
Training
Under Section 11 of the Children Act we ensure that all our staff have undergone safeguarding training and provide additional training over and above the mandatory requirements. Safeguarding training is mandatory for all staff regardless of role. Training is mapped to the National Intercollegiate Guidance for children and adults and delivered via a range of blended learning, online and face to face. We have robust monitoring arrangements for reporting our compliance with mandatory training and this is reported to the board monthly.
Safer Recruitment
PHL meet their statutory requirements for the three nations with Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) used for England and Wales and The Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme in Scotland. Checks are carried out for staff and any escalations are managed and documented in our recruitment policy. Compliance is monitored via our Integrated Governance Structure.
Audit and Quality Assurance
PHL have a safeguarding audit programme in place, which provides the Board with assurance that safeguarding systems and processes are effective.
PHL confirms it has considered their position in regard to safeguarding children, young people and adults and has assurance that it is meeting requirements and is following good practice.
If you have any safeguarding concerns please refer to your local authority
For any queries related to our statement please email phl.safeguarding@nhs.net
USEFUL NATIONAL ORGANISATIONS
Age UK
for help and advice about money matters, health and wellbeing, travel and lifestyle, home and care.
MENCAP
information and advice for families and professionals working or living with someone with a learning disability.
Action on Elder Abuse (AEA)
working to protect and prevent the abuse of vulnerable older adults. The only charity in the UK and in Ireland working exclusively on the issue today.
NSPCC
working to end child cruelty across the UK.
Barnardo’s
working to transform the lives of vulnerable children and young people
The Silver Line
is the only free confidential helpline providing information, friendship and advice to older people, open 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Call anytime on: 0800 4 70 80 90.
