Contents
Please ensure that all written correspondence relating to Safeguarding or welfare concerns are emailed to: rachael@jamup.net
Spectrum Tailored Technologies makes a positive contribution to a strong and safe community and recognises the right of every individual to stay safe.
Spectrum Tailored Technologies encounters children who may be at risk through its app development work, which typically takes place in the form of focus group meetings, interviews and written correspondence.
Spectrum Tailored Technologies believe everyone has a responsibility to promote the welfare of all children and young people, to keep them safe and to practise in a way that protects them. We will ensure we give equal priority to keeping all children and young people safe regardless of their age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. We recognise that some individuals are additionally vulnerable because of the impact of discrimination, previous experience, their level of dependency, communication needs or other issues.
Spectrum Tailored Technologies will meet our commitment to keeping children and young people safe by:
The purpose of this policy statement is:
This policy applies to anyone working on behalf of Spectrum Tailored Technologies, including senior managers and the board of trustees, paid staff, volunteers, sessional workers, agency staff and students.
This policy as been drawn up based on legislation, policy and guidance that seeks to protect children in England. A summary of the key legislation and guidance is available from:
https://nspcc.org.uk/childprotection
Safeguarding is about embedding practices throughout the organisation to ensure the protection of children wherever possible. In contrast, child protection is about responding to circumstances that arise.
Abuse is a selfish act of oppression and injustice, exploitation and manipulation of power by those in a position of authority. This can be caused by those inflicting harm or those who fail to act to prevent harm. Abuse is not restricted to any socio-economic group, gender or culture.
It includes the following:
Definition of a child
A child is any person under the age of 18 (as defined in the United Nations convention on the Rights of a Child).
5.1 All employees and contractors (paid or unpaid):
All employees and contractors (paid or unpaid) have responsibility to follow the guidance laid out in this policy and related policies, and to pass on any welfare concerns using the required procedures.
We expect all employees and contractors (paid or unpaid) to promote good practice by being an excellent role model, contribute to discussions about safeguarding and to positively involve people in developing safe practices.
5.2 The Senior Leadership Team (SLT) have responsibility to ensure:
5.3 The Designated Safeguarding Officer (DSO) has the following responsibilities:
5.4 The Safeguarding Team Leads have the following responsibilities:
6.1 Safe Recruitment
Spectrum Tailored Technologies ensures safe recruitment through the following processes:
6.2 Disclosure and Barring Gap Management
The organisation commits resources to providing DBS check on employees (paid or unpaid) and whose roles involve contact (e.g. in-person or by phone, email, webchat, video call or other mechanism) with children.
In order to avoid DBS gaps, the organisation will maintain and review a list of roles across the organisation which involve contact with children.
Risk assessments will be carried out on any member of the staff team:
All DBS risk assessments must be completed by HR or the DSO, these will need to be completed prior to the first day of employment, before they have access to BiH user data or commence any duties with children. Employees who are considered as being too high risk to enter employment with Spectrum Tailored Technologies will be informed at the earliest opportunity and before their planned start date.
Risk assessments are conducted sensitively and only those conducting the risk assessment (HR and DSO) will have access to them, they will also be stored and destroyed in line with our GDPR Policy. Neither HR nor the DSO will share information from the risk assessment with their proposed line Manager, only that the job offer has been withdrawn.
In addition to checks on recruitment for roles involving contact with children, the following processes are in place:
6.3 Service delivery contracting and sub-contracting
Spectrum Tailored Technologies commits resources for induction, training of employees and contractors (paid and unpaid) and consultants, and effective communications and support mechanisms in relation to Safeguarding.
7.1 Induction and Training
All employees, contractors and consultants who, through their role, are in contact with children will complete safeguarding training at an appropriate level.
7.2 Support
We recognise that involvement in situations where there is risk or actual harm can be stressful for employees concerned. The mechanisms in place to support employees include:
Professional boundaries are what define the limits of a relationship between a service or support provider (including, non-medical helpers) and a client. They are a set of standards we agree to uphold that allows this necessary and often close relationship to exist while ensuring the correct detachment is kept in place. Spectrum Tailored Technologies expects employees to protect the professional integrity of themselves and the organisation. Breaching professional boundaries and / or organisational policies could result in disciplinary procedures.
If an employee or contractor is notified, or becomes aware through the declaration, indication or disclosure (behaviourally, verbally or in writing) of an individual, that a child is being, or has been, abused or is at risk from themselves or others, the employee or contractor must:
10 Safeguarding risks around videos and photos
Spectrum Tailored Technologies recognises that
We will seek to keep children and young people safe by:
We will also develop a procedure for reporting the abuse or misuse of images of children as part of our child protection procedures. We will ensure everyone involved in our organisation knows the procedures to follow to keep children safe.
11.1 The employees, contractors and consultants must make it clear that if they are concerned about the wellbeing or safety of any child then they will report the risk to Spectrum Tailored Technologies Safeguarding Team, who may notify other services as appropriate in accordance with the Spectrum Tailored Technologies Terms and Conditions of Use and Safeguarding Policy.
11.2 Where an isolated concern for welfare is raised the user should always be encouraged to disclose this to the appropriate person themselves or consent gained for the Spectrum Tailored Technologies Safeguarding Team to escalate externally on their behalf. If the Service User is under the age of 18, all welfare issues will be reported to the Safeguarding Team.
11.3 Where there are cumulative welfare concerns for a user, or a user is at increased risk of harm, consent is not required but the user must be informed that the concern is being reported to the Spectrum Tailored Technologies Safeguarding Team and may be escalated externally if appropriate. Only where it is deemed unsafe or placing the user at more risk may the risk be reported to the Spectrum Tailored Technologies Safeguarding Team without the users’ knowledge.
11.4 If there is a concern for the immediate safety of a child, a high risk of harm to the service user, or a risk of the service user harming others, this should be escalated to the appropriate 999 service and their emergency contact, and then reported to the Safeguarding Team once the risk has been addressed. In such high-risk situations the risk can be escalated externally with or without consent from the user, but the user should still be informed. Only where it is deemed unsafe or placing the user at more risk may the risk be escalated to the emergency services or the Spectrum Tailored Technologies Safeguarding Team without the user’s knowledge.
11.5 The Spectrum Tailored Technologies Safeguarding Team may (where it is in the vital interest of the user or others) escalate cumulative welfare concerns, high risks of harm or immediate risks of harm by contacting the service user’s school, college or university, Student Support Team or Non-Medical Help Provider, the individual’s support provider or referring agency, their Local Authority Safeguarding Team, or the police or other emergency services as appropriate.
11.6 If the person who is disclosing abuse or harm is a child, they may not wish to take the matter further than the person they have informed. They may fear the effect this will have on their or another person’s family or may fear forms of retribution. The child must be helped to understand why the report must be made and what is likely to happen as a result. This discussion need not happen if on the balance of probabilities having the discussion could result in a worsening situation or further avoidable harm. If a child alleges that they or another child is a cause for concern, Safeguarding Procedures must be followed in respect of both parties. Spectrum Tailored Technologies will attempt to ensure their disclosure is handled confidentially, although no absolute guarantees will be offered.
12.1 All child protection or safeguarding concerns must be recorded on a Spectrum Tailored Technologies Safeguarding Incident Form and emailed securely to rachael.malthouse@jamup.io
12.2 Where forms are unable to be submitted securely, to ensure delays do not occur, a report may be made by phone, and a signed or emailed copy must follow within one week (5 working days).
12.3 All forms must be completed, reviewed, and relayed onwards if appropriate within 24 hours of having a concern or an incident occurring.
12.4 All forms will be reviewed by the Safeguarding Team within 24 hours (1 working day) of receipt.
12.5 These records may need to be disclosed to third parties such as childrens services, police, the courts and solicitors, so every care must be taken that they are clear, accurate and objective.
12.6 Employees and contractors should take care not to write speculative comments and stick to the facts given by the person raising the concern.
12.7 Employees’ opinions may in some circumstances be crucial, but they must be recorded as an opinion and evidence accompanied to support these opinions.
12.8 All fields should be completed and where information is non-applicable, ‘unknown’ or ‘unavailable’ must be clearly noted.
12.9 The person filling in the form is responsible for the contents and ensuring it is emailed securely to rachael@jamup.net
13.1 The decision whether to make a referral to an external agency will be based on the information provided in the Incident form and following review by the DSO and SLT if appropriate. Any other issues Spectrum Tailored Technologies is aware of in relation to the child should be taken into account, and any risks associated with not taking action should be assessed and documented.
13.2 The referral to the appropriate services will be made by the DSO or a member of the Safeguarding Team under the guidance of the DSO or the Deputising DSO.
13.3 If appropriate, after discussing with a member of SLT and taking advice from the NSPCC helpline, it is the responsibility of the DSO to decide whether the parents/carers of the child be informed of the report, if they have not already been made aware of this.
13.4 If the child has a known contact with an external agency, they must be informed of Spectrum Tailored Technologies ’s concerns.
13.5 Once the referral has been made in writing, the DSO or Deputising DSO must ensure he/she has a written record that this has been received. This must be stored with the reporting form and any other paperwork relating to the case in line with agreed processes.
13.6 If a referral is made outside the organisation, it is the responsibility of the DSO or, under the guidance of the DSO, the Safeguarding Team member to ensure that the referral has received appropriate attention from the external agency within 7 days. The DSO or the Safeguarding Team Member should confirm this and record the action on the form.
14.1 Information will be gathered, recorded and stored in accordance with the Data Protection Policy and Access to Confidential Information Policy.
14.2 All employees must be aware that they have a professional duty to share information with other agencies to safeguard children. The public interest in safeguarding children may override confidentiality interests. However, information will be shared on a need-to-know basis only, as judged by the DSO.
14.3 All employees must be aware that they cannot promise service users or their families / carers that they will keep secrets.
14.4 All concerns and any discussions about the welfare of a child must be recorded and reported on a safeguarding incident form it must include whether further action is taken.
14.5 Safeguarding incident form and associated records will be logged on the safeguarding Incident Log (Register of Risk), with relevant documents / emails / records attached to the record, audited for any patterns or trends and lessons learnt objectives. This Log is held securely on the shared drive in a restricted folder. Any Hard copies must then be shredded.
14.6 Only the DSO, Safeguarding Team Members and appropriate members of SLT (including CEO) will have access to these records. Any other employees will need to request access from the DSO, which will only be granted only for a valid reason.
14.7 Verbal discussions around any child protection or safeguarding case will be conducted confidentially and not in the open office. Verbal conversation should be recorded in written format and attached to the incident log case file.
14.8 Any information sent through the post around a child protection or safeguarding case will be marked ‘Confidential – addressee only’ for the attention off the Designated Safeguarding Officer.
14.9 Sensitive information sent in emails around a child protection or safeguarding case must be encrypted or, included in a password-protected document attached to the email.
Under Section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, and as part of our safeguarding procedures, all employees and contractors working for and on behalf of Spectrum Tailored Technologies must have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”. The Prevent Strategy is part of the Government’s overall counter-terrorism strategy, known as CONTEST. The specific aim of Prevent is to stop people becoming drawn into terrorism. The three specific strategic objectives under Prevent are:
The following list of behaviours may indicate an individual as at risk of radicalisation:
The above list is not exhaustive, and it should be noted that the behaviours listed above are not in themselves indicators of criminality or criminal intent. Prevent is about looking for signs that an individual may be at risk and benefit from some supportive intervention.
There is evidence that radicalisation can be linked to a crisis of identity and uncertainty about belonging, which may be triggered by experiences of victimisation, racialism, or abuse, hence the importance of identifying clients who may be vulnerable due to issues and challenges within their personal and home life. Employees or contractors should not investigate concerns or allegations themselves but should report them immediately to the Spectrum Tailored Technologies DSO.
Employees and contractors need to act without delay by speaking with the designated person. Referral should follow Spectrum Tailored Technologies ’s existing safeguarding protocols.
Spectrum Tailored Technologies will ensure that this Safeguarding policy is readily available on their website.
This policy will be reviewed by the DSO and SLT at least every two years and when there are changes in legislation.
Nominated Child Protection lead
Name: Rachael Malthouse
Phone/email: rachael.malthouse@jamup.io
Deputy Child Protection lead(s): Not appointed currently
Names(s): Not appointed currently
Phone / email: N/A
Trustee / Senior lead for safeguarding and child protection
Name: Rachael Malthouse
Phone/email: rachael.malthouse@jamup.io
NSPCC Helpline
0808 800 5000
We are committed to reviewing our policy and good practice annually.
This policy was last review on 8th of January 2024.
Signed: Rachael Malthouse
Date: 8th January 2024
Date: 8th January 2024