Adult safeguading

What is safeguarding?

All organisations need to have strategies and practices in place to ensure that people in their organisation are safe and know how to raise concerns. This is generally known as ‘safeguarding’.

Safeguarding adults policy

The Care Act 2014 established some legal obligations around the safeguarding of adults. If your organisation has regular contact with the public, you have a duty of care towards, and a responsibility to identify, support and report people who may be at risk of harm.

People in your organisation need to be informed enough to ensure that complaints and concerns about adults at risk are properly identified and acted upon. You must actively work to prevent abuse from occurring within your organisation and be prepared to respond proportionately if abuse or neglect has occurred.

Further resources and reading

• What is safeguarding? Guidance from Tower Hamlets council.
• Safeguarding Adults in the Voluntary Sector - Ann Craft Trust.
• Safeguarding and protecting people for charities and trustees - Guidance from the Charity Commission.
• Safeguarding: law rules and duties from NCVO.
• Why your organisation needs a safeguarding policy and procedures - Guidance from the Ann Craft Trust.
• Tips for writing an adult safeguarding policy from the Ann Craft Trust.
• Safeguarding Adults - Tower Hamlets Connect.
• Tower Hamlets Safeguarding Adults Board.
• Eligibility guidance for standard DBS checks.

Template Adult safeguarding policy & procedures

This template is aimed at voluntary and community organisations. Whilst the document covers the main areas generally expected in an adult safeguarding policy, if your organisation provides, or aims to provide, services to adults at risk then you may need to add in more detail to make sure all areas of your work are adequately covered.

If you provide services to children and young people or run projects or spaces where children and young people are present then you will also need to create and implement a separate policy around children’s safeguarding.

Note:

• You will need to replace the red text with your organisation’s details.

If you would like to discuss any aspect of this policy or need help completing it, Tower Hamlets CVS can help. Please email us at info@thcvs.org.uk