creating communities to be proud of
safeguarding people
At Shoreline we encounter people who are vulnerable in our daily work. This may be during home visits, where people call into our offices or through telephone contact.
As part of customer focus and within our responsibilities as a social landlord, we will play our role in seeking to safeguard people from harm and abuse.
We have reviewed our Safeguarding People policy and this tells you what it’s about.
The policy is aimed at helping employees to know how they can assist in preventing vulnerable people from harm. Here are some examples that occur:
- When carrying out routine repairs in someone’s home an operative is concerned about the condition of a home where there are children who look unwell and uncared for.
- A new housing applicant appears to have moved frequently without any apparent reasons. Are they trying to hide or move to avoid being tracked, is it ok to ask questions about this?
- When a Neighbourhood Officer is carrying out an annual tenancy visit a tenant will not allow the officer into a particular room or is acting strangely. It’s nothing specific but something feels odd. Should the officer do anything about this?
In each of these examples, there will usually be nothing to worry about but the key to preventing harm is to alert a manager and note the concern. In cases where serious abuse such as the death of a child has been investigated, there have been many people who felt something was wrong. As one-off individual concerns they amounted to very little but, if put together, they provided strong indicators of the problem and those concerned were left feeling “if only I had done something”.
We will seek to make sure that all employees including contractors and sub-contractors attend short awareness training sessions so that they know what to look for and what to do if they are concerned about someone’s well-being. Here is a brief outline of the main terms:
'Safeguarding' policies refer to children, vulnerable adults and people who experience domestic abuse.
Abuse can include physical violence or threats, neglect, mental or financial abuse.
Vulnerable people include children, adults with a physical or mental disability, older people and people from minority groups. It can also include people going through traumatic situations or people with dependencies such as an alcohol issue.
Alerting is letting the safeguarding authorities know that you are concerned something is wrong. Anyone can alert if they are concerned that someone is being harmed.
Safeguarding authorities are special bodies within the local authority who have responsibility for coordinating information, investigating and taking action where there is suspected abuse. There is a local Children’s Safeguarding Board and a Safeguarding Adults Board.
Within Shoreline there is a small Safeguarding Group that meets regularly to act as “safeguarding champions”. Our employees do not make judgements about people’s private lives but within their roles, they do have a duty to report any concerns where someone may be at risk of harm or abuse.
North East Lincolnshire Council’s website provides information on safeguarding adults and safeguarding children.
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Registered Charity Number 1107876. |
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