Reviewed: March 2023

INTRO­DUC­TION

Faith in Strangers aims to cre­ate an atmos­phere where all adults feel val­ued and safe and a place where their wel­fare is promoted.

This pol­i­cy sets out the pro­ce­dures for safe­guard­ing adults work­ing with Faith in Strangers staff, cus­tomers, work­space mem­bers and those in the indus­try who we col­lab­o­rate with.

Faith in Strangers staff and man­age­ment are expect­ed to be aware of Kent and Med­way Safe­guard­ing Adults Board poli­cies and pro­ce­dures, which can be found at the fol­low­ing link:

https://​www​.kmsab​.org​.uk/​profe…

Six Key Prin­ci­ples Under­pin All Adult Safe­guard­ing Work: 

ï Empow­er­ment

Peo­ple being sup­port­ed and encour­aged to make their own deci­sions and have 

informed consent

ï Pre­ven­tion

It is bet­ter to take action before harm occurs 

ï Pro­por­tion­al­i­ty

The least intru­sive response appro­pri­ate to the risk presented

ï Pro­tec­tion

Sup­port and rep­re­sen­ta­tion for those in great­est need 

ï Part­ner­ship

Local solu­tions through ser­vices work­ing with their com­mu­ni­ties. Com­mu­ni­ties have 

a part to play in pre­vent­ing, detect­ing and report­ing neglect and abuse 

ï Account­abil­i­ty

Account­abil­i­ty and trans­paren­cy in deliv­er­ing safeguarding 

Safe­guard­ing Adults Criteria

The safe­guard­ing duties apply to an adult who:

• Has needs for care and sup­port (whether or not Faith in Strangers is meet­ing any of those needs) 

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

• As a result those care and sup­port needs are unable to pro­tect them­selves from either the risk of, or the expe­ri­ence of abuse, or neglect.

Although Faith in Strangers is not a mem­ber of the Kent and Med­way Safe­guard­ing Adults Board (KMSAB) it agrees to com­ply with the Kent and Med­way Safe­guard­ing Adults Pol­i­cy, Pro­ce­dures, Statu­to­ry Guid­ance and local Prac­tice Guid­ance and be clear on their roles and Adults Safe­guard­ing responsibilities.

Any con­cerns will be tak­en seri­ous­ly and act­ed upon appro­pri­ate­ly and the organ­i­sa­tion will pay atten­tion to what adults feel.

Faith in Strangers will be rig­or­ous and vig­i­lant in pro­tect­ing every­one using our ser­vices from abuse, bul­ly­ing and intimidation. 

Every­one involved with the work at Faith in Strangers is oblig­ed to make sure that any­one using the ser­vices is safe. 

They must report con­cerns to Immy Bawtree (Safe­guard­ing Lead) with­out delay.

All those involved in the organ­i­sa­tion will be made aware of this pol­i­cy and of what to do if they have any con­cerns. There is guid­ance for those respon­si­ble for respond­ing to con­cerns so that they are prop­er­ly dealt with.

1. EQUAL­I­TY& DIVERSITY
   

This Pol­i­cy & Pro­ce­dure recog­nis­es the diver­si­ty of our soci­ety. Indi­vid­u­als and organ­i­sa­tions need to be respon­sive to needs of dif­fer­ent groups and indi­vid­u­als and have due regard to issues relat­ing to: 

ï Gen­der

ï Reli­gion

ï Sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion (Gay, Les­bian, Bisex­u­al & Transgender) 

ï Racial ori­gin, cul­ture and lin­guis­tic background 

ï Dis­abil­i­ty

ï Age

ï Gen­der Identification

ï Preg­nan­cy & maternity

ï Mar­riage & Civ­il Partnership

With­in safe­guard­ing pro­ce­dures actu­al or poten­tial effects of deci­sions should be con­sid­ered in rela­tion to the equal­i­ty issues above and any sub­se­quent out­comes for the adults at risk. Fur­ther infor­ma­tion on the Equal­i­ty Act 2010 can be found here:

https://​assets​.pub​lish​ing​.ser​vice​.gov​.uk/​g​o​v​e​r​n​m​e​n​t​/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​s​y​s​t​e​m​/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​a​t​t​a​c​h​m​e​n​t​_​d​a​t​a​/​f​i​l​e​/​8​5​0​4​1​/​e​q​u​a​l​i​t​y​-​d​u​t​y.pdf

2. DEF­I­N­I­TIONOF ABUSE

Abuse is a vio­la­tion of an individual’s human or civ­il rights, by any oth­er per­son or per­sons. Pro­fes­sion­als should not lim­it their view of what con­sti­tutes abuse or neglect, as they can take many forms and the cir­cum­stances of the indi­vid­ual case should always be con­sid­ered. The fol­low­ing types of abuse and neglect are iden­ti­fied with­in the Care Act 2014, but should not be con­sid­ered exhaustive; 

• Phys­i­cal abuse – includ­ing assault, hit­ting, slap­ping, push­ing, kick­ing, mis­use of med­ica­tion, restraint or inap­pro­pri­ate phys­i­cal sanctions.

• Domes­tic abuse – An inci­dent or pat­tern of inci­dents of con­trol­ling, coer­cive or threat­en­ing behav­iour, vio­lence or abuse by some­one who is or has been an inti­mate part­ner or fam­i­ly mem­ber regard­less of gen­der or sex­u­al­i­ty. Includes psy­cho­log­i­cal, phys­i­cal, sex­u­al, finan­cial, emo­tion­al abuse, so called ​‘hon­our’ based vio­lence, Female Gen­i­tal Muti­la­tion and Forced Marriage.

• Sex­u­al abuse – includ­ing rape, inde­cent expo­sure, sex­u­al harass­ment, inap­pro­pri­ate look­ing or touch­ing, sex­u­al teas­ing or innu­en­do, sex­u­al pho­tog­ra­phy, sub­jec­tion to pornog­ra­phy or wit­ness­ing sex­u­al acts, inde­cent expo­sure and sex­u­al assault or sex­u­al acts to which the adult has not con­sent­ed or was pres­sured into consenting. 

• Sex­u­al exploita­tion- involves exploita­tive sit­u­a­tions and rela­tion­ships where peo­ple receive ​‘some­thing’ (e.g. accom­mo­da­tion, alco­hol, affec­tion, mon­ey) as a result of per­form­ing, or oth­ers per­form­ing on them, sex­u­al activities. 

• Psy­cho­log­i­cal abuse – includ­ing emo­tion­al abuse, threats of harm or aban­don­ment, depri­va­tion of con­tact, humil­i­a­tion, blam­ing, con­trol­ling, intim­i­da­tion, coer­cion, harass­ment, ver­bal abuse, cyber bul­ly­ing, iso­la­tion or unrea­son­able and unjus­ti­fied with­draw­al of ser­vices or sup­port­ive networks.

• Finan­cial or mate­r­i­al abuse – includ­ing theft, fraud, inter­net scam­ming, coer­cion in rela­tion to an adult’s finan­cial affairs or arrange­ments, includ­ing in con­nec­tion with wills, prop­er­ty, inher­i­tance or finan­cial trans­ac­tions, or the mis­use or mis­ap­pro­pri­a­tion of prop­er­ty, pos­ses­sions or benefits.

• Mod­ern slav­ery – encom­pass­es slav­ery, human traf­fick­ing, forced labour and domes­tic servi­tude. Traf­fick­ers and slave mas­ters use what­ev­er means they have at their dis­pos­al to coerce, deceive and force indi­vid­u­als into a life of abuse, servi­tude and inhu­mane treatment. 

• Dis­crim­i­na­to­ry abuse – includ­ing forms of harass­ment, slurs or sim­i­lar treat­ment; because of race, gen­der and gen­der iden­ti­ty, age, dis­abil­i­ty, sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion or religion.

• Organ­i­sa­tion­al abuse– includ­ing neglect and poor care prac­tice with­in an insti­tu­tion or spe­cif­ic care set­ting such as a hos­pi­tal or care home, for exam­ple, or in rela­tion to care pro­vid­ed in one’s own home. This may range from one off inci­dents to on-going ill-treat­ment. It can be through neglect or poor pro­fes­sion­al prac­tice as a result of the struc­ture, poli­cies, process­es and prac­tices with­in an organisation. 

• Neglect and acts of omis­sion – includ­ing ignor­ing med­ical, emo­tion­al or phys­i­cal care needs, fail­ure to pro­vide access to appro­pri­ate health, care and sup­port or edu­ca­tion­al ser­vices, the with­hold­ing of the neces­si­ties of life, such as med­ica­tion, ade­quate nutri­tion and heating 

• Self-neglect – this cov­ers a wide range of behav­iour neglect­ing to care for one’s per­son­al hygiene, health or sur­round­ings and includes behav­iour such as hoarding.

Crim­i­nal Offences

Some instances of abuse will con­sti­tute a crim­i­nal offence. In these cas­es, ref­er­ence to the police should be made as a mat­ter of urgency. The respon­si­bil­i­ty for ini­ti­at­ing action rests with the police and the Crown Pros­e­cu­tion Ser­vice. Crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion by the police takes pri­or­i­ty over all oth­er lines of enquiry.

Who are the Abusers?

Adults may be abused by a wide range of peo­ple including:

• Rel­a­tives and fam­i­ly members

• Pro­fes­sion­al staff

• Paid care workers

• Vol­un­teers

• Oth­er ser­vice users

• Neigh­bours, friends and associates

• Peo­ple who delib­er­ate­ly tar­get vul­ner­a­ble people

• Strangers

3. PRO­CE­DURESFORDEAL­INGWITHBREACH­ESOFTHEPOLICY

In the case of mem­bers of staff at Faith in Strangers, a seri­ous breach of this pol­i­cy may result in ter­mi­na­tion of employ­ment or mem­ber­ship, in line with the pro­ce­dures con­tained with­in this pol­i­cy document.

4. SAFEWORK­INGARRANGEMENTS

The safe­guard­ing lead will be the lead offi­cer for adult pro­tec­tion respon­si­ble for mak­ing sure that the Safe­guard­ing Adults Pol­i­cy is work­ing. She will be trained to know how to respond when safe­guard­ing adult con­cerns are raised to her. 

Deter­mined abusers have often man­aged to gain access to chil­dren and young peo­ple. Our pol­i­cy and pro­ce­dures are impor­tant safe­guards to stop this hap­pen­ing. They will be under­stood by good appli­cants and will put ill-inten­tioned peo­ple off.

All vol­un­teers and staff, includ­ing tem­po­rary event and casu­al staff will be sub­ject to a care­ful and rig­or­ous selec­tion and vet­ting process with the fol­low­ing elements:

All aspects of recruit­ment will involve the senior Faith in Strangers man­age­ment team includ­ing the safe­guard­ing lead.

All appoint­ments will involve the com­ple­tion of an appli­ca­tion form and check­ing the person’s iden­ti­ty by their nation­al insur­ance number.

All rel­e­vant staff will receive train­ing in recog­nis­ing the signs of abuse. Faith in Strangers will ensure that users of the ser­vice, their fam­i­lies and car­ers are aware of the Safe­guard­ing Adults Pol­i­cy and who to speak to if they have any con­cerns and the pro­ce­dures to follow.

Faith in Strangers will devel­op appro­pri­ate guid­ance for staff work­ing with adults, which out­line codes of behav­iour. These will be devel­oped on a group by group basis tak­ing into account the needs of the par­tic­u­lar group.

Respon­si­bil­i­ty for imple­ment­ing and mon­i­tor­ing the pol­i­cy rests with the Faith in Strangers man­age­ment team and the safe­guard­ing lead.

All work with adults will be mon­i­tored in accor­dance with the organisation’s mon­i­tor­ing and eval­u­a­tion pro­ce­dures which are:

• spe­cif­ic sur­veys are car­ried out from time to time in with members

5. GUIDE­LINESFORTHELEADOFFICER

The safe­guard­ing lead should:

• know about signs and symp­toms of abuse;

• know about how abusers (per­pe­tra­tors) behave;

Ask about train­ing if you don’t know these things

• know about Kent and Med­way Safe­guard­ing Adults Boards’ guide­lines on deal­ing with con­cerns about abuse;

• know who to con­tact at the Kent and Med­way Safe­guard­ing Adult Board so that she can either ask for advice when they are not sure what to do or, refer a case with­out delay where there are adult safe­guard­ing concerns; 

For Thanet Area in par­tic­u­lar refer­rals can be made to;

• Thanet South Kent Coast — SafeguardingadultsTSKC@​kent.​gov.​uk

Refer­rals to Kent Coun­ty Coun­cil will be made by tele­phone in the first instance,

• call 03000416161 (text relay18001030004161 61)

• email social.​services@​kent.​gov.​uk

If you need to con­tact us out­side of nor­mal office hours, for exam­ple dur­ing the night, call 030004191 91.

If you think some­one is in imme­di­ate dan­ger, the best thing to do is call 999 for the emer­gency services.

• Make sure that adults using Faith in Strangers know;

• about the Safe­guard­ing Adults pol­i­cy and procedures,

• that you are the per­son to speak to if they have any concerns,

• who to speak to if you are not there,

• make sure staff and vol­un­teers know how to respond if an adult talks to them about abuse,

• make sure they have access to guidelines;

• pro­vide infor­ma­tion about helplines and oth­er sources of help for adults.

6. GUID­ANCEFORWORK­ERSONACTIONTOBE TAKEN

If you sus­pect an adult is being abused:

• imme­di­ate­ly dis­cuss with the safe­guard­ing lead

• record the facts as you know them

If an adult dis­clos­es abuse by some­one else:

• allow them to speak with­out inter­rup­tion, accept­ing what is said

• advise that you will offer sup­port where pos­si­ble, but you must pass the infor­ma­tion on

• dis­cuss with the safe­guard­ing lead

If you receive an alle­ga­tion about any adult or about yourself:

• imme­di­ate­ly dis­cuss with the safe­guard­ing lead

• record the facts as you know them

• try to ensure no-one is placed in a posi­tion which could cause fur­ther compromise

7. GUIDE­LINESFORVOLUNTEERS/STAFFRESPOND­INGTO A REPORTOFABUSEFROMAN ADULT

Do’s and Don’ts

DO

• Do treat any alle­ga­tions extreme­ly seri­ous­ly and act at all times towards the adult as if you believe what they are saying.

• Do tell the adult they are right to tell you.

• Do reas­sure them that they are not to blame.

• Do be hon­est about your own posi­tion, who you have to tell and why

• Do tell the adult what you are doing and when, and keep them up to date with what is happening.

• Do take fur­ther action – you may be the only per­son in a posi­tion to pre­vent future abuse – tell your lead offi­cer immediately.

• Do write down every­thing said and what was done (see notes on recording).

DON’T

• Don’t make promis­es you can’t keep.

• Don’t inter­ro­gate the adult – it is not your job to car­ry out an inves­ti­ga­tion – this will be up to the police and Kent Safe­guard­ing Adults Board, who have expe­ri­ence in this.

• Don’t cast doubt on what the adult has told you, don’t inter­rupt or change the subject.

• Don’t say any­thing that makes the adult feel respon­si­ble for the abuse.

• Don’t do noth­ing – make sure you tell your lead offi­cer imme­di­ate­ly – they will know how to fol­low this up and where to go for fur­ther advice

Fear puts a lot of peo­ple off of dis­clos­ing about wrongdoing.

Remem­ber, you always have a duty to make sure con­cerns are report­ed. Then appro­pri­ate action can be taken.

Tell the safe­guard­ing lead they will be able to get fur­ther advice and/​or refer the sit­u­a­tion to Kent & Med­way Safe­guard­ing Adults Board.

If for any rea­son you can­not tell the safe­guard­ing lead, then you should tell anoth­er trust­ed staff member.

8.KEEP­ING A RECORDOFCONCERNS

When a safe­guard­ing adult con­cern aris­es, it is essen­tial you record what is said or seen and what action was taken.

This record or any oth­er writ­ten record should be kept in a locked cab­i­net or draw­er. Access should be lim­it­ed to only:

• the per­son who has com­plet­ed the form;

• the safe­guard­ing lead.

The adult con­cerned can be shown this doc­u­ment but dis­cre­tion should be used. Their per­mis­sion should be obtained before show­ing it to the family/​carer