Safeguarding Adults Policy

Aims

To assist those from the age of 18 upwards in overcoming a wide range of debilitating life situations, by streamlining individuals into relevant services and activities.

We endeavour to increase the confidence and self-esteem of disadvantaged and debilitated individuals, providing activities, which will assist in allowing individuals to reach their potential and improve their physical, mental and emotional health.   

To create safe and inclusive spaces where like-minded groups can encourage each other, build confidence and fulfilment, and transform lives for the better.

To provide network assistance for information, advice, support, referring those who come to Harmony Youth Project to other appropriate services that would be of benefit to our project users. 

Harmony Youth Project will not tolerate the abuse of adults in any of its forms and is committed to safeguarding adults with care and support needs from harm. 

This policy outlines the steps Harmony Youth Project will make to safeguard an adult with care and support needs if they are deemed to be at risk or at risk. This policy sets out the roles and responsibilities of Harmony Youth Project in working together with other professionals and agencies in promoting the adult’s welfare and safeguarding them from abuse and neglect. 

Harmony Youth Project will ensure that decisions made will allow adults to make their own choices and include them in any decision making.  will also ensure that safe and effective working practices are in place. 

This policy is intended to support staff and volunteers working within Harmony Youth Project to understand their role and responsibilities in safeguarding adults. All staff and volunteers are expected to follow this policy.  

The key objectives of this policy are for all employees and volunteers of Harmony Youth Project to: 

• • Have an overview of adult safeguarding
  • Be clear about their responsibility to safeguard adults 
  • Ensure the necessary actions are taken where an adult with care and support needs is deemed to be at risk

This policy is based on:

• • The Care Act 2014 and the Care and Support statutory guidance
  • London Safeguarding Adults policy and procedures
  • Islington Safeguarding Adults Board’s local procedures and appendices 

Under the Human Rights Act 1998, everyone has the right to live free from abuse and neglect.  

Copies of this policy should be available within Harmony Youth Project and Harmony Youth Project will not tolerate the abuse of adults in the organisation and staff and volunteers should be made aware of how this policy can be accessed. 

All adults should be able to live free from fear and harm. But some may find it hard to get the help and support they need to stop abuse. 

An adult may be unable to protect themselves from harm or exploitation due to many reasons, including their mental or physical incapacity, sensory loss or physical or learning disabilities. This could be an adult who is usually able to protect themselves from harm but maybe unable to do so because of an accident, disability, frailty, addiction or illness.

Harmony Youth Project adheres to following the six key principles that underpin safeguarding work (See Care Act guidance)

• • Empowerment
  • Prevention
  • Proportionality
  • Protection
  • Partnership
  • Accountability
    

Harmony Youth Project will not tolerate the abuse of adults in staff and volunteers should ensure that their work reflects the principles above and ensure the adult with care and support needs is involved in their decisions and informed consent is obtained. Harmony Youth Project should ensure that the safeguarding action agreed is the least intrusive response to the risk. Partners from the community should be involved in any safeguarding work in preventing, detecting and reporting neglect and abuse. Harmony Youth Project should be transparent and accountable in delivering safeguarding actions. 

Harmony Youth Project will not tolerate the abuse of adults Harmony Youth Project will ensure that adults are involved in their safeguarding arrangements and each individual is dealt with on a case by case basis.  As adults may have different preferences, histories and life styles, the same process may not work for all.

Who do adult safeguarding duties apply to

The Care Act 2014 sets out that adult safeguarding duties apply to any adult who:

• • Has care and support needs, and
  • Is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse and neglect, and
  • Is unable to protect themselves from either the risk of, or the experience of abuse or neglect, because of those needs. 
    

Who to go to if concerned

The named responsible person for safeguarding duties for Harmony Youth Project is Charlie  Barrett  07989476994 / admi_harmony@hotmail.com. All staff and volunteers should contact Charlie  Barrett  for any concerns/queries they have in regards to safeguarding adults. A log of the concern must be kept.

Charlie  Barrett  will be responsible to make decisions about notifying adult social services if required and consider alternative actions, where necessary. 

Nicholas Stratton will also ensure that the safeguarding adults policies and procedures are in place and up to date. They will ensure a safe environment is promoted for staff and volunteers and adults accessing the service. Charlie Barrett  will ensure they are up to date with their safeguarding adults training. 

What to do if concerned

Staff and volunteers at Harmony Youth Project who have any adult safeguarding concerns should:

1. 1. Respond
      1. Take emergency action if someone is at immediate risk of harm/in need of urgent medical attention.  Dial 999 for emergency services
      2. Get brief details about what has happened and what the adult would like done about it, but do not probe or conduct a mini-investigation  
      3. Seek consent from the adult to take action and to report the concern.  Consider whether the adult may lack capacity to make decisions about their own and other people’s safety and wellbeing.  If you decide to act against their wishes or without their consent, you must record your decision and the reasons for this.
   2. Report
      1. Name the person to whom staff/volunteers need to report any potential safeguarding concerns.  This will usually be the organisation’s designated safeguarding lead (see above)
   3. Record
      1. As far as possible, records should be written contemporaneously, dated and signed.
      2. Keep records about safeguarding concerns confidential and in a location where the alleged abuser will not have access to the record. Access should not be given to any unauthorised personal for accessing confidential information including the sharing of passwords. 
   4. Refer
      1. In making a decision whether to refer or not, the designated safeguarding lead should take into account:
         1. The adult’s wishes and preferred outcomes
         2. Whether the adult has mental capacity to make an informed decision about their own and others’ safety
         3. The safety or wellbeing of children or other adults with care and support needs 
         4. Whether there is a person in a position of trust involved
         5. Whether a crime has been committed

This should inform the decision whether to notify the concern to the following people:

• • The police if a crime has been committed and/or 
  • Islington’s Access & Advice Team (part of adult social services) for possible safeguarding enquiry
  • Relevant regulatory bodies such as Care Quality Commission, Ofsted, Charities commission
  • Service commissioning teams
  • Family/relatives as appropriate (seek advice from adult social services)

The designated safeguarding lead should keep a record of the reasons for referring the concern or reasons for not referring.  

Incidents of abuse may be one-off or multiple and may affect one person or more. Staff and volunteers should look beyond single incidents to identify patterns of harm. Accurate recording of information will also assist in recognising any patterns. 

As soon as Adult Social Services becomes involved, a 4-stage safeguarding adults process is followed.  For more information about this 4-stage safeguarding adults process, refer to the London Safeguarding Adults Procedures.  

Roles and Responsibilities

All staff, management, trustees and volunteers at Harmony Youth Project are expected to report any concerns to the named person for safeguarding. If the allegation is against one of Harmony Youth Project members, volunteers, trustees or directors, seek advice from Harmony Youth Project safeguarding lead [insert the person’s name].  If the allegation is against the safeguarding lead, seek advice from Islington’s Access & Advice Team.  

The designated safeguarding adults lead should be responsible for providing acknowledgement of the referral and brief feedback to the person raising the original concern. Feedback should be given in a way that will not make the situation worse or breach the Data Protection Act.  If the police are involved, they should be consulted prior to giving feedback to the referrer to ensure any criminal investigation is not affected. 

The local authority will decide on who will lead on a safeguarding enquiry should it progress to that stage. The named organisation should not conduct its own safeguarding enquiry unless instructed to do so by the local authority. 

Staff and volunteers should ensure that the adult with care and support needs is involved at all stages of their safeguarding enquiry ensuring a person-centred approach is adopted.

Complaints procedure

Harmony Youth Project promotes transparency and honesty when things go wrong.  All staff and volunteers should apologise and be honest with service users and other relevant people when thing go wrong.  

Harmony Youth Project is committed to ensuring that staff and volunteers who in good faith whistle-blow in the public interest, will be protected from reprisals and victimisation. 

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 is to be used when decisions on behalf of those adults with care and support needs who are unable to make some decisions for themselves.  

Confidentiality and Information sharing

Harmony Youth Project expects all staff, volunteers, trustees to maintain confidentiality at all times.  In line with Data Protection law, Harmony Youth Project does not share information if not required. 

It should however be noted that information should be shared with authorities if an adult is deemed to be at risk of immediate harm. Sharing the right information, at the right time, with the right people can make all the difference to preventing harm. 

Recruitment and selection

Harmony Youth Project is committed to safe employment. Safe recruitment practices, such as Disclosure and Barring checks reduce the risk of exposing adults with care and support needs to people unsuitable to work with them. Refer to the council’s guidance on Safer Recruitment (please note this guidance is currently being updated). 

Training, Awareness Raising and Supervision

Harmony Youth Project ensures that all staff and volunteers receive basic awareness training on safeguarding adults as they may come across adults with care and support needs who may be at risk of abuse. Those adults may report things of concern to staff or volunteers who should be equipped with the basic knowledge around safeguarding adults and be confident to identify that abuse is taking place and action is required.  All staff and volunteers should be clear about the core values of Harmony Youth Project and commitment to safeguarding adults. 

It is also useful to discuss training with staff who have attended training sessions to ensure they are embedding this in practice. 

Voluntary organisations (including volunteers) who support adults with care and support needs can access the basic awareness safeguarding adults training provided by Islington Council.  Free on-line training is also available

Similarly, staff and volunteers may encounter concerns about the safety and wellbeing of children.  For more information about  safeguarding, refer to Harmony Youth Project safeguarding policy 

Prevent 

Radicalisation and extremism of adults with care and support needs is a form of emotional/psychological exploitation. Radicalisation can take place through direct personal contact, or indirectly through social media. 

If staff are concerned that an adult with care and support needs is at risk of being radicalised and drawn into terrorism, they should treat it in the same way as any other safeguarding concern.

For more information about Prevent see: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prevent-duty-guidance

Appendix 1

Types of safeguarding adults abuse

The Care and Support statutory guidance sets out the 10 main types of abuse:

• • Physical abuse
  • Neglect
  • Sexual abuse
  • Psychological
  • Financial abuse
  • Discriminatory
  • Organisational
  • Domestic violence
  • Modern Slavery
  • Self-neglect
    

However, you should keep an open mind about what constitutes abuse or neglect as it can take many forms and the circumstances of the individual case should always be considered.

For more information, read section 14.17 of the Care and Support Statutory Guidance.

Possible signs of abuse

Abuse and neglect can be difficult to spot.  You should be alert to the following possible signs of abuse and neglect: 

• • Depression, self-harm or suicide attempts
  • Difficulty making friends
  • Fear or anxiety
  • The person looks dirty or is not dressed properly,
  • The person never seems to have money,
  • The person has an injury that is difficult to explain (such as bruises, finger marks, ‘non-accidental’ injury, neck, shoulders, chest and arms),
  • The person has signs of a pressure ulcer,
  • The person is experiencing insomnia
  • The person seems frightened, or frightened of physical contact.
  • Inappropriate sexual awareness or sexually explicit behaviour
  • The person is withdrawn, changes in behaviour

You should ask the person if you are unsure about their well-being as there may be other explanations to the above presentation. 

Who abuses and neglects adults

Abuse can happen anywhere, even in somebody’s own home. Most often abuse takes place by others who are in a position of trust and power. It can take place whether an adult lives alone or with others.  Anyone can carry out abuse or neglect, including:

• • partners;
  • other family members;
  • neighbours;
  • friends;
  • acquaintances;
  • local residents;
  • people who deliberately exploit adults they perceive as vulnerable to abuse;
  • paid staff or professionals; and
  • volunteers and strangers