Safeguarding

Revision Table

Date	Version	Revised By
03/09/2024	3	Christine Woodcock

Safeguarding Policy
Overseeing the conduct of Corsenside Parish Council during their work.

Purpose

This policy defines how Corsenside Parish Council (CPC) operates to safeguard children, young people and adults at risk of harm or neglect.

We have a duty of care and are committed to the protection and safety of everyone who comes in to contact with CPC including children, young people and adults at risk. We also have a duty to safeguard and support our staff, councillors and volunteers.

We believe that:

• Nobody who is involved in our work should ever experience abuse, harm, neglect or exploitation.

• We all have a responsibility to promote the welfare of our beneficiaries, councillors, staff and volunteers, to keep them safe and to work in a way that protects them.

• We all have a collective responsibility for creating a culture in which our people not only feel safe, but also able to speak up, if they have any concerns.

Definitions

Children and young people are defined as those persons aged under 18 years old. This policy will apply to all councillors, staff and volunteers and will be used to support their work.

For the purposes of this policy, adult at risk refers to someone over 18 years old who, according to paragraph 42.1 of the Care Act 2014

• has care and support needs

• is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect

• as a result of their care and support needs is unable to protect themselves against the abuse or neglect or the risk of it.

CPC Safeguarding policy & the legal framework

Throughout all their work CPC has a zero-tolerance approach to abuse. Within the context of its own activities and direct action CPC recognises that under the Care Act 2014 it has a duty for the care and protection of adults who are at risk of abuse. It also recognises it’s responsibilities for the safety and care of children under the Children Act 1989 and 2004 and the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. CPC has regard to the Care Act 2014, the Children Act 1989 and 2004. All citizens of the United Kingdom have their rights enshrined within the Human Rights Act 1998. CPC is committed to promoting wellbeing, harm prevention and to responding effectively if concerns are raised.

The limitations of Corsenside Parish Council’s responsibility

The parish council are not the correct point of contact for parishioners who have general safeguarding concerns outwith any business or contact they have directly with CPC. Such concerns should be directed to the designated safeguarding lead for either the appropriate organization, NCC or Northumbria Police whose contact details appear in Appendix One.

CPC is committed to the following principles:

• The welfare of the child, young person or adult at risk is paramount;

• All children, young people and adults at risk have the right to protection from abuse

• Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility: for services to be effective each professional and organisation should play their full part; and

• All suspicions and allegations of abuse must be properly reported to the relevant internal and external authorities and dealt with swiftly and appropriately.

CPC will:

• Promote a culture that enables issues about safeguarding and promoting welfare to be addressed;

• Ensure all councillors and staff are aware of this policy

• Ensure councillors and staff are familiar with their safeguarding responsibilities and procedures to be followed if anyone has any concerns

• Entrust the clerk, as the designated safeguarding lead, to take responsibility for CPC’s safeguarding arrangements who will liaise with other organisations and be the focal point for all referrals and/or concerns.

The parish clerk will have responsibility for the oversight of this policy by:

• Fostering a culture of respect, in which everyone feels safe and able to speak up.

• Ensuring an annual review of safeguarding.

• Ensuring that any issues are properly investigated and dealt with quickly, fairly and sensitively, and any reporting to the Police/statutory authorities is carried out.

• Ensuring safeguarding risk assessments are carried out and appropriate action taken to minimise these risks.

Any concerns surrounding the conduct of the clerk should be reported to the Parish Council Chair. If this is not appropriate the complainant should contact Northumberland Association of Local Councils or Northumberland County Council.

CPC will ensure that all councillors are informed of:

• Core legal safeguarding requirements and their responsibility to keep safe children and adults at risk who interact directly with the council.

• That all CPC associates who come into contact with children and adults at risk are alert to their needs and any risks of harm that individual abusers, or potential abusers, may pose to children and adults at risk;

• The requirement to share appropriate information in a timely way with the designated lead (the clerk)

• The issues of consent and decision making in relation to safeguarding adults.

• Annually our councillors will be reminded of this policy and some key signs of abuse they need to be aware of, this will be facilitated by directing them to further reading from reputable online sources such as those included in the appendix.

Online Safeguarding, CPC will identify and manage online risks by ensuring:

• Councillors, volunteers and staff understand how to keep themselves safe online.

• That online services we provide are suitable for our users.

• The services we use and/or provide are safe and in line with our code of conduct.

• Protect people’s personal data and follow GDPR recommendations.

This policy and related guidance will be monitored and reviewed annually; this information should also be shared to all current councillors as annual refresher training.

Appendix One:

Contact details:

Emergencies (imminent danger) should always be reported using 999

Parish Clerk

Christine Woodcock, 44 Brierley Gardens, Otterburn, NE19 1HB. 07737518867

Parish Council Chair

Carl Hamilton, Curlew Cottage, Ridsdale, NE48 2TN. 07875 849 389

Northumberland Association of Local Councils (NALC)

info@northumberlandalc.uk 0797 696 1070 or 0747 674 6082

Northumberland County Council

Re Children: Search Safeguarding Children at www.northumberland.gov.uk or use this link

Re Adults: Search Adult Safeguarding at www.northumberland.gov.uk or use this link

For Adults or Children you can contact 24/7 Onecall telephone: 01670 536400

Northumbria Police

https://www.northumbria.police.uk 01661 872555 or 101.
Hexham Police Station, Shaftoe Leazes, Hexham, NE46 3DG Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm

Appendix Two:

A) Further reading from Training Express.

What are the 4 Rs in Safeguarding?

4 Rs in safeguarding are – Recognise, Record, Report and Refer. These 4 Rs will help us understand how to identify and act in a dangerous situation and safeguard vulnerable people accordingly. Let’s see the 4 Rs in safeguarding.

Recognise

In the process of safeguarding, first, you need to recognise the risk of abuse. These risks could be physical abuse, mental or emotional harm etc. Without identifying the risk, you can’t proceed with the other Rs.

Record

After you recognise the risk, it’s important that you record everything. In this section, some questions can arise. For example:

When did it happen?
How did it happen?
With whom did this incident occur?
What was going on?
Who said that?
How can you report that?

Report

After identifying and recording the risk, what is the next thing you should do? Do you take care of it or take immediate action to protect the victims? You need to report that to the proper authorities so that they can take the necessary action to prevent the abuse.

Refer

These 3 R’s we have previously discussed above will go in vain if we don’t give any attention to ‘Refer’. This is defining that – after identifying, reporting and recording the abuse and maltreatment, you need to call the police, safeguard or any local adult social care team who can take the necessary steps to prevent these injustices.

The Care Act

The care act 2014 provides a legal structure for the local government and community to protect the vulnerable who are at a high risk of danger. The focus of this law is to ensure the well-being of children and the independence of vulnerable adults.

B) Signs of Abuse, further reading from SCIE

What are the ten different types of abuse?

The Care and support statutory guidance identifies ten types of abuse, these are: