Safeguarding
Policy

MHWB Network

 

Safeguarding Policy

 

Safeguarding Policy
Updated: 13th March 2023
Next review date: 13th March 2024

 

The MHWB Network acknowledges the need to protect children, young people, and vulnerable adults and is dedicated to doing so. We will adhere to Keeping Children Safe in Education 2022 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1101457/KCSIE_2022_Part_One.pdf

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The main goal of this safeguarding policy is to safeguard all children, young people, and vulnerable adults from harm while promoting their wellbeing across our organisation.

This policy applies to all MHWB Network clients, whether learning takes place online or face to face. It covers all facets of a learner's programme no matter where it is conducted. All employees are accountable for comprehending how they assist safeguarding in all facets of provision and for being familiar with the relevant processes and other policies that go along with this overall document.

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MHWB Network also aims to: 

 

• Establish a safe and secure atmosphere where learners and staff may voice their concerns and are taken seriously. 

• Ensure that all staff members are aware of their obligations regarding safeguarding. 

• Establish a clear reporting structure should a concern be expressed; enable all personnel to understand these obligations and how they should be carried out; 

• integrate safeguarding throughout the learning process.

 

 

Types of Abuse:

 

Financial - Can involve misuse or appropriation of property, belongings, or advantages; theft; fraud; internet scamming; coercion in respect to an adult's financial affairs or arrangements; and coercion in connection with wills, property, inheritance; or financial transactions.

 

Physical - Can involve physical abuse such as assault, hitting, slapping, pushing, drug abuse, restraint, or improper physical punishment.

 

Neglect - Can include denying access to necessary health, care, support, or educational services, ignoring medical, mental, or physical care needs, and denying access to basic essentials like medication, nourishing food, and heat.

 

Sexual - Includes rape, indecent exposure, sexual harassment, inappropriate looking or touching, sexual teasing or innuendo, sexual photography, subjection to pornography or witnessing sexual acts, indecent exposure and sexual assault, or sexual acts to which the adult has not consented or was pressured into consenting.

 

Psychological/Emotional - Can involve the withholding of contact, humiliation, blaming, controlling, intimidation, coercion, harassment, verbal abuse, cyberbullying, isolation, or the unfair and unjustified withdrawal of services or supportive networks.

 

Organisational - Can involve abuse or subpar care practises within a business or particular care environment, like a hospital or nursing home. It might also have anything to do with care you receive at home. This might include isolated occurrences as well as persistent mistreatment. The structure, policies, procedures, and practises used inside an organisation may result in neglect or bad professional practise.

 

Discriminatory - Including racial, gendered, age, handicap, sexual orientation, or religious discrimination in the form of harassment, slurs, or similar abuse.

 

Self-Neglect - This encompasses behaviours like hoarding and a wide range of other behaviours including disregarding your personal cleanliness, health, or surroundings.

 

Domestic – Can involve psychological, physical violence, financial, power, emotion, or so-called "honour," among other things.

 

Modern Slavery – Can include forced labour, domestic servitude, and human trafficking. Slave owners and traffickers coerce, manipulate, and force people into a life of abuse, slavery, and harsh treatment using any methods at their disposal.

 

 

Peer-on-peer sexual abuse includes the following: 

 

• Sexual violence, including rape, sexual assault, and assault by penetration.

• Sexual harassment, including sexual comments, statements, jokes, and online sexual harassment, can be isolated incidents or part of a larger pattern of abuse. 

• Upskirting is the act of secretly photographing a person's genitalia or buttocks for sexual enjoyment or to cause the victim shame, anguish, or alarm.

• Sexting (also known as "youth-produced sexual images") is the act of sending or receiving sexually explicit text messages.

 

Harmful Sexual Behaviour

Sexual behaviours exhibited by children and adolescents under the age of 18 that are developmentally inappropriate, potentially damaging to the kid or others, or abusive towards another child, teen, or adult.

 

 

The Designated Senior Person for Safeguarding.

 

DSP: Yvette Dooley

Contact: ydooley@mhwbnetwork.com

 

Yvette Dooley, the senior designated person and safeguarding officer, is in charge of ensuring that safeguarding protocols and procedures are reliable and consistently followed and that the MHWB Network performs its legal obligations in accordance with legislation. 

 

As the senior representative for the company, Yvette is responsible for leading efforts to increase staff knowledge of concerns pertaining to the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults as well as the development of a secure learning environment inside the organisation. 

 

Responsibilities of the DSP are: 

 

• Directing the submission of claims or suspected abuse cases to Children's Social Care. 

• Ensuring that all employees receive regular safeguarding training and are familiar with the organisation's safeguarding procedures. 

• Ensure annual reviews.

• Provide staff members with advice, direction, and help with matters pertaining to safeguarding. 

• Establishing a safe method for the secure, private archiving of any safeguarding records (even where that concern does not lead to a referral). 

• Ensuring that MHWB Network’s Safeguarding Children, Young People, and Vulnerable Adults Policy is understood by employers and personnel who work for the organisation.

·       Liaising with the LA, Safeguarding Children’s Board, Children’s and Adult Social Care and other appropriate agencies as and when required.

·       The DSP is required to receive regular training in safeguarding issues and inter-agency working, as required by the Safeguarding Children’s Board, and will receive regular refresher yearly unless legislation dictates sooner.

 

 

Key Principles

 

The MHWB Network must ensure that all personnel fulfil their obligations for protecting children, adolescents, and vulnerable adults. We will guarantee that: 

 

• Staff and customers will treat all individuals with respect and decency in an atmosphere free of harassment and discrimination. 

 

• All training rooms, facilities, and equipment will conform with statutory health and safety standards and provide a safe and secure learning environment under the supervision and guidance of qualified personnel. 

 

• MHWB Network will work with learners, employers, and other agencies to promote a safe and healthy culture, particularly with local Safeguarding Children's Boards, to ensure that learners are protected through the effective implementation of the company's procedures for protecting children, young people, and vulnerable adults. The company will make its Safeguarding Children, Young People, and Vulnerable Adults Policy available to all parties involved. 

 

• MHWB Network will cultivate partnerships to protect students at risk of abuse, neglect, or radicalisation. 

 

• Staff will be trained and have a clear understanding of personal safety and good safeguarding practises, as well as the factors that may make students vulnerable to a variety of safeguarding concerns, and will be able to recognise external signs of abuse or unexplained changes in behaviour or performance that may be indicative of abuse. All personnel will be educated on the indicators of abuse and the reporting processes. 

 

• MHWB Network will collaborate with students to enhance their health, well-being, and safety, especially their online safety. 

 

• MHWB Network will proactively promote awareness of radicalisation and extremism in order to prevent individuals from being drawn into terrorism. 

 

• Learners and employers will receive confidential advice, direction, and assistance for a variety of challenges they may encounter. They will be directed to external agencies if they require specialised assistance. 

 

• MHWB Network will assist students in developing personal resiliency and the ability to make informed and judicious decisions regarding their safety and well-being in an effort to prevent their exploitation and/or abuse. 

 

•MHWB Network has established and will regularly review procedures for reporting suspected child abuse, taking into account any new government legislation, regulations, or best practise documents, to ensure that all staff members are fully informed of their responsibilities and obligations pertaining to the safety and well-being of children. 

 

•MHWB Network will handle any complaints of employee abuse in accordance with the Company's Disciplinary Rules.

 

 

Safer Recruitment

 

MHWB Network will comply with safer recruitment and training practices in accordance with statutory standards. The Recruitment Policy of the MHWB Network endorses this document. The staff will be subjected to the usual pre-employment screenings, including DBS checks where applicable, and will be required to complete safeguarding training pertinent to their position. The staff will comprehend the concepts of safe working practises and how to avoid putting themselves in circumstances that endanger them or the students. All new hired staff will get a suitable orientation, including training on safeguarding procedures.

 

Safeguarding Learners

 

The MHWB Network is required by law to safeguard children, young people and vulnerable adults from abuse. The MHWB Network has a safeguarding officer (Yvette Dooley) and any employees or commissioned staff are educated in Safeguarding L2 to guarantee that any disclosures made by students are handled promptly, compassionately, and responsibly. All personnel will receive training on the proper response to a disclosure and the correct protocol for handling concerns about a student. Staff members will collaborate with learners and employers to proactively safeguard them from abuse and neglect and prevent placement in abusive situations. Refresher training will be conducted every two years, unless legislations requires it sooner.

 

Online Learning

Keeping learners and instructors safe during remote education is crucial. The aforementioned ideas also apply to remote instruction. 

 

The MHWB Network provides learners with clear channels for reporting any remote online education-related safeguarding concerns.

 

MHWB Network’s online interactions with learners are conducted in a professional manner. Where feasible, we correspond during business hours (or agreed-upon hours), and we advise students not to disclose personal data. 

 

The MHWB Network uses secure online educational platforms. All classes are delivered in a secluded or quiet room with care for the surrounding environment. 

 

 

Safeguarding Adults

 

Protecting adults falls under the purview of everyone. It is essential that we be vigilant and cautious for symptoms and indicators of abuse and neglect.

Any safeguarding concerns should be reported to: 

 

Community Health and Social Care Direct (8am to 5pm) - 0191 278 8377 

 

Outside these hours, please dial 0191 278 7878. 

 

Always dial 999 during an emergency.

 

 

Recording Concerns

 

The organisation will maintain precise and exhaustive records of any disclosures and/or claims of abuse. 

 

The company will adhere to the rules of the Data Protection Act of 1998, which permits disclosure of personal information when necessary to protect a student's interests.

 

 

Each member of staff is responsible for fostering a learning and working environment free of sexual harassment and abuse. Any instances of sexual harassment, including sexual comments, statements, or jokes, should be confronted, and it should be made clear that the MHWB Network will not allow any sort of sexual harassment or abuse.

 

Promoting the Reporting of Disclosures 

All learners are briefed and constantly reminded of the contact information for the authorised safety officer. It is crucial that staff in regular contact with learners, especially Training Officers, regularly discuss with learners how to report a safeguarding concern or how to make a disclosure, and ensure that learners are aware that these concerns / disclosures can include sexual harassment, abuse, or harmful sexual behaviours, including abuse by other learners. 

 

Any staff member to whom a safeguarding concern is reported or to whom a disclosure is made must adhere to the safeguarding protocol outlined in the policy.