Embedding good practice

Safeguarding should be central to your organisation’s day to day operations. There are a number of things you can do to demonstrate commitment to safeguarding adults and embed safeguarding practices. 

All members of your organisation, regardless of whether they are participants, workforce members or visitors, should understand the processes and practices in place. Below are some hints and tips to help.

Policies and procedures

• Have a clear policy and relevant procedures in place for safeguarding adults and ensure that everyone is aware of them.
• Separate your Safeguarding Adults Policy and procedures from your Safeguarding Children and Young People Policy and procedures. Ensure that you have clear procedures that meet the needs and requirements for different age groups.
• Link the Safeguarding Adults Policy and Procedures to other relevant ones such as Safeguarding Children, Equality and Diversity, Safer Recruitment, Complaints and Whistleblowing.
• Communicate your policies and procedures. Regular communication of your policy and procedures will help ensure that all participants, members and the paid and volunteer workforce fully understand what to do if they need to report a concern or allegation.
• Have copies of your policies and procedures readily available. This might include having copies easily accessible (online and at any facilities), covered as part of your induction and as part of your membership renewal process.
• Ensure that those policies and procedures responsible for safeguarding within your organisation are regularly reviewed (minimum every 3 years) and kept up to date with the latest legislation. Any changes should be communicated organisation wide.

Welfare officer and recruitment

• Have a designated Welfare Officer and make sure information on how to contact them is easily accessible and readily available. If possible, try to ensure there is a primary contact for any safeguarding concerns at all times, even when your Welfare Officer is not available.
• Ensure that the contact details of your Local Authority Safeguarding Adults Team are readily available. You can find their details on the page of your Local Safeguarding Adults Board.
• Ensure that your organisation incorporates safe recruitment processes when engaging new volunteers or members of your paid workforce.

Responding to concerns

• Create a culture where everyone feels able to discuss concerns, which are listened to and acted upon. Click here for more information on creating a safer culture.
• Empower adults to make their own decisions about the outcome of any safeguarding concerns.
• Make sure that people understand how to report any concerns and that appropriate procedures are in place to respond to these.
• Record any concerns or allegations accurately and ensure they are stored appropriately.
• Include safeguarding concerns or issues as a standing agenda item at your committee/management meetings. 

To support organisations to understand their current approach to safeguarding adults and ensure they have the right policies and procedures in place, the Ann Craft Trust have developed a Safeguarding Adults Checklist accessible here.

Who should we contact for further support?

There are a number of bodies that can provide you with further information, advice and guidance on safeguarding adults. These include:

• Ann Craft Trust – a leading UK authority on safeguarding adults.
• Local Safeguarding Adults Board – a statutory body, made up of a number of organisations (including the Local Authority, Police and Health), working together at a strategic level in your local area to help safeguard adults.
• National Governing Bodies (NGB) – Your organisation may be affiliated to an NGB who are likely to have their own tools and resources to support you to ensure that you are appropriately safeguarding adults. Find out who the safeguarding lead for each NGB is here. 
• Active Partnerships – There are 43 Active Partnerships across England, who work to increase sport and physical activity levels in their local area. Each partnership has a designated Safeguarding Lead who can provide some guidance, should your organisation not be affiliated to a national governing body. Contacts for Active Partnerships are available here.