What is safeguarding?
Everyone has the right to feel safe. This means protecting and preventing harm towards children, young people and adults at risk of abuse. It's important to tell us if you have concerns for yourself, a child or young person or an adult.
Safeguarding is how we protect children, young people and adults at risk of abuse.
What is safeguarding?
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
What is abuse?
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 (neglect)
- 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
- Drawing a vulnerable adult into extremist/terrorist views and activities (radicalisation)
Who could be an abuser?
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
Where can abuse happen?
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
What we can do to help?
Take action to ensure the safety of the person and anyone else who it may affect. We will talk to the person, or their representative to establish what is happening and work out a plan to keep them safe.
We will investigate allegations of abuse or neglect with our partners where appropriate to do so and ensure action is taken. Following investigation, we will make sure to take the appropriate action.
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