Safeguarding Policy

1. Sensing Friends has a designated safeguarding staff member (DSSM) of staff who has overall responsibility for dealing with the organisations safeguarding referrals. The DSSM will be suitably qualified to take overall leadership responsibility in this area.

Name: Moira Vincent

2. All staff are responsible for familiarising themselves with the Sensing Friends safeguarding policy.

3. All staff will undertake essential safeguarding training overseen by the Sensing Friends DSSM. The training of all staff will be updated regularly.

4. All staff will have appropriate, satisfactory, DBS checks insuring that they meet the necessary current safeguarding legal requirements for staff working with vulnerable individuals. The DSSM will organise essential DBS checks for all staff.

5. Sensing Friends staff who have Safeguarding concerns will raise the issues firstly with the DSSM and seek their advice. In extreme cases where a serious safeguarding threat has been disclosed and the DSSM cannot be reached a member of staff must contact the Front Doors For Families team themselves.

6. If it is felt that a safeguarding issue is occurring at the current moment, while the disclosure is taking place staff must alert the police immediately using 999.

7. Disclosures related to possible safeguarding concerns from a service user to a member of staff must be handled in a sensitive may, respecting where possible the service users autonomy and confidentiality.* Please see related Sensing Friends Standard Safeguarding Referral Procedures Document.

8. In the case of disclosures that do not pose an imminent risk, to the service users or relevant others such as involved family members, it is important that safeguarding concerns are first discussed in supervision, with the service user and relevant others before a Safeguarding referral is made to Front Doors For Families, this is important to maintain trust with service users.

9. All safeguarding referrals must be documented and where possible disclosed to service users, this is important to maintain trust with service users.

10. Sensing Friends will use regular external objective consultations, as supervision, from suitably experienced and qualified professionals in relation to the ongoing social and emotional issues that may arise when working with service users.

Sensing Friends Standard Safeguarding Referral Procedures

1. If a Sensing Friends member of staff or volunteer receives a disclosure from a service user that raises safeguarding concerns it is important that where possible this is discussed in a sympathetic way, in more detail with the service user. The aim in doing this is firstly to highlight to the service user that the member of staff or volunteer has recognised the disclosure as raising a safeguarding issue. Secondly further discussion will enable the member of staff to gather further important information that may need to be passed onto the Front Doors For Families team.

2. With general safeguarding concerns, after consulting the DSSM and seeking their advice, the member of staff will speak to the service user and inform them that they are going to make a referral to the front doors for families team. This needs to be done sensitively after supervision has been received in relation to discussing this with the service user.

*Where disclosure about the pending Front Doors For Families referral might cause more risk in relation to the safeguarding issue it might be advised by the supervisor or DSSM that the Front Doors For Families referral needs to happen before discussing it with the service user. These type of referrals will only happen if it’s deemed that vulnerable individuals may be at risk of more harm if the disclosure of the pending Front Doors For Families referral was disclosed to the service user.

3. After carrying out the above steps the member of staff or volunteer will contact the Front Doors For Families team and pass on the information to the team.

4. After the referral is made the member of staff or volunteer must record the incident in the Sensing Friends incident book

5. When the service user is next contacted or spoken to the member of staff or volunteer needs to inform the service user that the referral has been made and that someone from the Front Doors For Families team will be contacting them.

6. Any further disclosures relating to the safeguarding issue need to be discussed in supervision and either also reported to the Front Doors For Families team but also recorded in the incident book as they may be relevant and needed by the Front Doors For Families team.

7. The service user will need support and reassurance in relation to the referral and it is important that the member of staff or volunteer facilitates this by talking it through individually with the service user. This process needs to be supported for the member of staff or volunteer with the aid and advice of the DSSM or supervisor.

This Policy was reviewed on
Date 06/07/2021
Signed by Penny Wright (Chairperson)

This Policy will be reviewed again on
Date 06/07/2022