Safeguarding – are we doing it right?

When I am training on safeguarding I often get asked by organisations:

‘How can we check what we’re doing is okay… can we carry out some kind of audit?’

There are many audit tools available but a very simple way to check out what you want doing might be to use some learning from the NSPCC.

The NSPCC have produced a briefing identifying learning from Serious Case Reviews.  This can be found here.

Although the information in this was drawn from serious case reviews involving early years settings, I could see that the information and the suggestions would be really useful for anybody involved in safeguarding.

Some key points/suggestions from my reading of this:

• Organisations need to have appropriate safeguarding policies and procedures in place, so people know what they need to do with any concerns
• Organisations need to make sure that staff and volunteers can recognise and identify indicators of child abuse – or indeed abuse of adults at risk – and that if someone is concerned it is very clear who they report to.

Those of you who have been on training with me will know how I often advocate the use of a flowchart – a simple way to make sure that staff or volunteers can see visually what they should do if they are concerned.

The report picks up the theme of professional curiosity – finding out a bit more about children’s home environment and the experience outside the setting.  Again, this is something many of you will have heard me talk about before – think round the situation a bit and ask yourself questions like…what if?...What about?

• The importance of training and regular supervision is highlighted.  One of my recent blogs found here highlights good practice round safeguarding training.  However busy you are, supervision is key and time must be allowed to discuss safeguarding issues.

The final theme is information sharing information – both in a setting and between agencies.  It includes some really good learning about what to do if concerns which have been escalated are not picked up. 

So I would really recommend taking a few moments to read this report and using it as a tool to audit your practice.  As always, I am happy to help in any way I can.