Safeguarding is at the heart of all that we do in CSH Surrey
CSH Surrey is committed to its role in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults at risk. The safety and welfare of children and adults who come into contact with our services either directly or indirectly is paramount and all staff have a responsibility to ensure that best practice is followed, including compliance with statutory requirements.
Within CSH Surrey safeguarding responsibilities include service users who are under the age of 18 years, children who are carers or parents, or are the children of service users and adults.
At risk adults are defined as those aged 18 years or over who may be in need of community care services by reason of mental or other disability, age or illness; and who is or may be unable to take care of him or herself, or unable to protect him or herself against significant harm or exploitation.
Section 11 of the Children Act (2004) and the Care Act (2014) places a duty on every organisation delivering health services to have arrangements in place to ensure that the organisation and all staff working within it have regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and adults at risk. CSH Surrey regularly reviews its arrangements against these requirements and is compliant with them.
All staff within CSH Surrey has a responsibility for the safety and wellbeing of service users and colleagues. Living a life that is free from harm and abuse is a fundamental human right and an essential requirement for health and well-being. Safeguarding is about the safety and well-being of all our service users but providing additional measures for those least able to protect themselves from harm or abuse.
Safeguarding is a fundamental part of patient safety and wellbeing and therefore integral to complying with legislation, regulations and delivering cost effective care.
The following measures ensure that safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and adults at risk of abuse or neglect are given priority and are discharged effectively in the organisation and are as follows:
- Systems to train staff to the appropriate level to recognise and report safeguarding issues.
- A clear line of accountability for safeguarding; reflected in our governance arrangements.
- Systems in place to ensure we hold ourselves to account through regular review of safeguarding arrangements through internal quality scrutiny processes.
- Arrangements to work with local authorities and other partners through our Local Safeguarding Children Boards, Local Safeguarding Adults Boards.
- Arrangements to share information between service users, multi-agency partners and commissioners.
- A clear statement of the CSH Surrey responsibilities for staff and ensuring that safeguarding children and adults strategies and associated policies are in place, including safe recruitment of staff, a whistle-blowing policy and safeguarding training and supervision policies which ensure staff exercise vigilance to mitigate against the risk that people using CSH Surrey services might be suffering from abuse.
- Named Professionals and Head of Safeguarding and Professional Standards who are responsible for safeguarding children, looked after children and adults.
Safer employment
CSH Surrey uses the Safer Recruitment system when recruiting staff to work with children and adults at risk of harm. This process includes the use of the enhanced Disclosure and Debarring Service (DBS) as part of the vetting process. References and work history are always checked before an offer of employment is made.
Safer recruitment and selection training are mandatory for all appointing officers. CSH Surrey has a nominated lead for addressing allegations relating to children or adults at risk. They work closely with the Designated Officer for Local Authorities if concerns arise.
Policies and procedures
CSH Surrey safeguarding policies for adults and children guide staff around their practice. The polices have been written in accordance with the national legislative framework Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018) and the Care Act (2014).
CSH Surrey services have flagging systems as part of clinical electronic records to highlight children or adults at risk where safeguarding concerns have been identified as well as those that have known vulnerabilities and where additional support is being is required. All staff have access to refer children, families, or adults at risk to partner agencies for additional support should they be assessed as requiring this.
Staff have access to the Named Nurses or Head of Safeguarding for supervision when they are concerned about the welfare of children or an adult at risk. They also have access to CSH Surrey children and adult safeguarding policies as well as access to online material such as the Local Safeguarding Partnership Boards policies. The local Children and Adult Social Services will provide advice where there are concerns around the welfare of children or adults at risk and a possible need for referral. Online referral forms and access to CSH Surrey and Local Safeguarding Partnership Boards policies are easily accessible to staff as many staff are provided with the equipment to work as mobile practitioners.
Our Modern Slavery statement outlines the approach CSH Surrey have taken, and continue to take to ensure that modern slavery or human trafficking is not taking place within our organisation or supply chain. We have a zero tolerance approach to any form of modern slavery (slavery, servitude, human trafficking and forced labour).
Safeguarding training
Staff should understand their role and responsibilities in safeguarding children and adults at risk as well as the roles of other professionals in other agencies. This is essential for multi-agency and inter-agency working. Safeguarding children and adult training are mandatory for all staff regardless of their role. CSH Surrey training needs analysis is mapped to the National Intercollegiate Guidance ( 2018 Adults and 2019 Children) published by the Royal College of Nursing. Training is delivered via a range of blended learning, with online and face to face training options. CSH Surrey has a robust system in place for monitoring and ensuring compliance which is reported to the Executive Board, Commissioners, Quality Safety Assurance Committee and Local Safeguarding Partnership Boards as part of the quarterly and annual reporting system.
Safeguarding team
CSH Surrey employs a team which provides staff with support and advice around the issues of safeguarding including safeguarding supervision and training. The team includes:
- Director of Nursing and Quality
- Head of Safeguarding and Professional Standards
- Named Professional for Safeguarding Adults
- Named Nurses Safeguarding Children
- Named Nurse for Looked After Children
- Adult Safeguarding Advisors
- Safeguarding Children Advisors
- Looked After Children Nurses
- Administrators
CSH Surrey representation at Executive Board level is provided by the Director of Nursing and Quality. They are the “Children’s Champion” in accordance with the Children’s Act 2004. The Head of Safeguarding, Named Nurses and Safeguarding Advisors provide advice, support and supervision to clinicians. As well as providing training around safeguarding children and adults.
Governance
The Executive Board receives quarterly reports around compliance and details of the services use of safeguarding teams within CSH Surrey.
The CSH Surrey Safeguarding Working Group senior management members approve the safeguarding work plan and the overall case review action plans. As part of this, the Safeguarding Team conducts regular audits to ensure that the safeguarding arrangements in place are working. The Safeguarding Team also supports teams within CSH Surrey who have safeguarding action plans from other inspections such as Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Joint Targeted Area Inspections (JTAI) by Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).
CSH Surrey is also required to undertake an audit of its safeguarding arrangements against the requirements of Section 11 of the Children Act 2004. The report is submitted to the Local Safeguarding and Children Partnership Boards, CSH Surrey Executive Board and the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Boards who monitor any actions arising from them.
These websites offer advice and support if you have concerns about adults, children or young people:
What to do if you are worried about an Adult: www.surreycc.gov.uk/social-care-and-health/contacting-social-care/contact-adult-social-care
What to do if you are worried about a Child: www.surreycc.gov.uk/social-care-and-health/contacting-social-care/contact-childrens-services
Preventing Child Sexual Abuse: “Stop it Now” www.stopitnow.org.uk/
On line safety: www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/
What to do if you are worried about Domestic Abuse: Surrey against Domestic Abuse www.surreyagainstda.info/
What to do if you are worried about the use of Drugs: “Talk to Frank” www.talktofrank.com/
What to do if you are worried about misuse of alcohol: www.catalystsupport.org.uk/
What to do if you are worried about mental health: www.healthysurrey.org.uk/your-health/mental-wellbeing/
Support for Carers: www.actionforcarers.org.uk/
Support for people who have been abused in childhood: NAPAC www.napac.org.uk/
Our Modern Day Slavery policy
Our Modern Slavery statement outlines the approach we've taken, and continue to take, to make sure that modern slavery or human trafficking is not taking place within our organisation or supply chain. We have a zero tolerance approach to any form of modern slavery (slavery, servitude, human trafficking and forced labour).
Read our full Modern Day Slavery statement.