What is safeguarding?
Safeguarding is how we protect children, young people and adults at risk of abuse.
Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility, it's about:
- Protecting children, young people and adults who are at risk of abuse
- Preventing neglect, abuse and exploitation
- Helping you to keep yourself safe or put plans in place to help protect those who cannot protect themselves
- Everybody feeling safe no matter who they are or what their circumstances are
Abuse of an adult includes:
- Not caring for an adult properly (neglect)
- Controlling or pressuring an adult to give away money or property (financial)
- Threatening, humiliating or harassing an adult (psychological)
- Hurting an adult and causing injury (physical)
- Touching or doing things to an adult without consent (sexual)
- Treating an adult badly because of disability, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age or gender (discrimination/hate crime)
- An adult who neglects their own health or who self-harms
- Sexually exploiting an adult for money, power or status (sexual exploitation)
- Exploiting an adult for money or power, through tricking, coercing or forcing them to engage in illegal activities (criminal exploitation)
- Faking a friendship in order to take advantage of a vulnerable person (mate crime).
- Female Genital Mutilation - link to: https://www.sunderland.gov.uk/article/12194/Female-genital-mutilation
- Drawing a vulnerable adult into extremist/terrorist views and activities (radicalisation)
Abuse of a child includes:
- Not caring for a child properly (neglect)
- Ongoing emotional maltreatment or emotional neglect of a child (psychological)
- Hurting a child and causing injury (physical)
- Forcing or persuading a child into sexual activities (sexual)
- Cyber bullying, grooming, sexually abusing or exploiting a child online (online)
- Sexually exploiting a child for money, power or status (sexual exploitation)
- Exploiting a child for money or power, through tricking, coercing or forcing them to engage in illegal activities (criminal exploitation)
- Female Genital Mutilation - link to: https://www.sunderland.gov.uk/article/12194/Female-genital-mutilation
- Drawing a vulnerable child into extremist/terrorist views and activities (radicalisation)
Abuse can be carried out by anyone, including:
- Someone in the family
- A partner or friend
- A neighbour
- A member of staff
- Another adult at risk of harm
- A stranger
- More than one person
Abuse can happen anywhere at any time, including:
- At home
- At a day centre, residential home or college
- At a friend's house
- In a hospital
- Somewhere a person spends their free time
- In the street or another public place
How to report a safeguarding concern
External links
Sunderland Safeguarding Adult's Procedures (opens new window)
Sunderland Safeguarding Children Partnership (opens new window)
Together for Children (opens new window)
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