SAFEGUARDING POLICY AND PROCEDURE
OUR SAFEGUARDING STATEMENT
1.1 The Art House at St Mathew’s (working title of St. Matthew’s House Limited) is the church’s charity for vulnerable people in Sheffield to support them on their recovery journey to a more fulfilled life, through the power of art and pottery. Our role is to support our vulnerable participants in a safe and caring environment, protecting and nurturing them in order to heal and flourish.
1.2 This policy and procedure sets out the Art House’s expectations and responsibilities regarding the safeguarding of vulnerable people (children, young people and adults) who may come into contact with our charity, by issuing clear guidelines for identifying risks, reporting concerns and taking the appropriate actions.
OUR POLICY
2.1 The Art House believes that all adults and children have the right to live in safety and be treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to safeguarding all vulnerable adults, children and young people who visit our premises or come into contact with us, regardless of the age, gender, race, religion, belief, disability, sexual orientation or identity.
2.2 The Art House is dedicated in ensuring that the principles and duties of safeguarding children, young people, and adults at risk are promoted holistically, consistently and conscientiously applied with the wellbeing of all, at the heart of what we do.
2.3 The Art House is committed to embedding and promoting safeguarding throughout the building and ensuring that our policies, procedures and practises stay up to date with good practise and the law.
2.4 The Art House recognises that it is not the responsibility of trustee, team members or volunteers to determine if abuse has taken place, but to act upon and report any concerns in accordance with best practise and local reporting arrangements.
2.5 All suspicions and allegations of abuse will be taken seriously and responded to swiftly and appropriately.
2.6 The Art House is committed to working with other agencies and professionals to act whenever there is a safeguarding concern.
2.7 The Art House recognises that people from minority ethnic groups, disabled children and other hard to reach people may face barriers in terms of communication and access that we need to overcome in order to ensure their safety.
2.8 All activities involving children and vulnerable adults will be managed in an exemplary manner, with consideration given to risk assessments and risk management as a routine aspect of our work.
2.9 The Art House is committed to sound selection and recruitment procedures and good practice for all individuals working for the charity whether in a paid or voluntary capacity. Art House team members involved in working directly with participants (who may be deemed vulnerable) will undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check as part of their recruitment.
NOMINATED SAFEGUARDING LEADS
3.1 There are three nominated safeguarding leads that you can report a safeguarding concern depending on who is immediately available to help you.
The Art House:
Ben Clowes Strategic Director – Mobile: 07432 124673 / email: ben.clowes@arthousesheffield.co.uk
The Parish Nursing Project:
Telephone: 0114 2723970 / email: Michaela.suckling@carverstreet.co.uk
Charity (Art House) Trustee:
Dr Stuart Barfield – email: stuartbarfield@gmail.com
RESPONSIBILITIES
4.1 The Board of Trustees is responsible for:
a. Ensuring an appropriate policy and procedure is in place, is effectively implemented and regularly reviewed.
b. Appointing a safeguarding Trustee.
c. Monitoring the effectiveness of the Art House’s safeguarding procedure with the Strategic Director.
d. Ensuring strategic plans include provision for appropriate training.
4.2 The Strategic Director is responsible for:
a. Acting as the Art House’s designated safeguarding lead.
b. Undertaking relevant training in safeguarding procedures and ensure their knowledge is kept up to date.
c. Acting as a point of contact for those who have safeguarding concerns, receiving information and recording those concerns.
d. Acting upon concerns as appropriate in the circumstances for example by making external referrals to social services or police etc.
e. Monitoring the implementation of this policy and procedure and reporting findings to the safeguarding Trustee.
f. Ensuring appropriate training is arranged for team members (and any volunteers).
g. Being the Art House representative on St Matthew’s Safeguarding Group (that includes the church and Parish Nurses Project) that meet three times a year.
4.3 All team members (paid or unpaid) have responsibility to:
a. Read and understand the policy and follow the relevant procedures.
b. Maintain own knowledge and skills, including participating in any training or updates.
c. Raise any safeguarding concerns received regarding an individual with the Art House safeguarding lead.
d. Raise any safeguarding concerns that you may observe with the Art House safeguarding lead.
e. Produce and store appropriate records in liaison with the Art House safeguarding lead.
DEFINITIONS
5.1 Safeguarding and Protection: Safeguarding is the protection of an adults’ or child’s right to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect. The process of safeguarding is about embedding practices throughout the organisation to ensure the protection of children and / or vulnerable adults wherever possible.
In contrast, child and adult protection is about responding to circumstances that arise.
5.2 Definition of a child: A child is under the age of 18 (as defined in the United Nations convention on the Rights of a Child).
5.3 Definition of a vulnerable adult: A person: “who is or 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 themselves, or unable to protect themselves against significant harm or exploitation”.
5.4 Definition of abuse: Abuse is a violation of an individual’s human and civil rights by any other person(s) or group of people. Abuse may be single or repeated acts, and can be:
Physical: for example, hitting, slapping, burning, pushing, restraining or giving the wrong medication.
Domestic abuse / Psychological and emotional: for example, shouting, swearing, frightening, blaming, ignoring or humiliating a person, threats of harm or abandonment, intimidation and verbal abuse. Also so-called honour based violence and modern day slavery
Financial: including the illegal or unauthorised use of a person’s property, money, pension book or other valuables, pressure in connection with wills, property or inheritance.
Sexual: such as forcing a person to take part in any sexual activity without their informed consent – this can occur in any relationship.
Institutional: the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to vulnerable people. This includes a failure to ensure the necessary safeguards are in place to protect vulnerable adults / children and maintain good standards of care in accordance with individual needs, including training of staff, supervision and management, record keeping and liaising with other providers of care.
Neglect and acts of omission: including ignoring medical or physical care needs. These can be deliberate or unintentional, amounting to abuse by a carer or self-neglect by the vulnerable person: for example, where a person is deprived of food, heat, clothing, comfort or essential medication, or failing to provide access to appropriate health or social care services.
Self-neglect: neglecting to care for one’s personal hygiene, health or surroundings.
5.5 The UK Government’s Prevent Strategy (for tackling extremism) highlights the need for agencies to be aware of the requirement to safeguard children from the risk of extremism and radicalisation.
RECRUITMENT / DBS CHECKS
6.1 For Art House staff tutors and volunteers:
All staff tutors (delivering wellbeing activities and /or commercial classes for vulnerable people (also covers children and /or young people without parents/guardians in attendance) will be required to have an Enhanced (with barred list) DBS check, this includes any volunteers who work with the tutor.
Any line manager of a staff tutor requiring a DBS check will also require an Enhanced (with barred list) DBS check.
6.2 For sessional staff:
All sessional tutor (delivering wellbeing activities and /or commercial classes for vulnerable people (also covers children and/or young people without parents/guardian in attendance) will be required to have an enhanced DBS check completed whilst working at the Art House. The cost of the check will be passed over to the tutor to cover.
Alternatively, an Enhanced Check (completed when working at an alternative organisation) will be accepted if the individual has enrolled with the DBS update service and provides authorisation to the Art House to access this information.
The Art House is registered with an on-line DBS application checking company that stores the individual DBS record securely on our St Matthew’s Limited account. DBS checks will be updated every three years.
SAFEGUARDING CONCERNS
7.1 It is the remit of Sheffield City Council and/or the Police and not anyone connected with the Art House to investigate safeguarding concerns.
7.2 Safeguarding concerns may include concerns regarding a child or an adult’s welfare, health or safety or concerns that the child or adult is being abused or harmed or is at risk of abuse or harm (“safeguarding concerns”).
7.3 Concerns about or evidence of abuse come to us through:
A direct disclosure by the individual (child or vulnerable adult).
A complaint or expression of concern by another team member, a volunteer, another service user, a carer, a member of the public or relative.
An observation of the behaviour of the individual (child or vulnerable adult) by a volunteer, team member or carer.
OUR SAFEGURDING PROCEDURES
8.1 If you receive a safeguarding concern, you must:
complete the Safeguarding Incident Report Form, attached, to share with the Art House safeguarding lead;
report the matter to the Art House safeguarding lead without delay.
8.2 If the Art House safeguarding lead is not available, you must report the matter to either The Parish Nurses Project or Art House Trustee. A decision then needs to be made whether a referral to an external agency should be made and then acted upon immediately.
8.3 You must also refer to the actions below in handling the safeguarding concern:
Safety
Make sure you and the person concerned are safe (this may require contacting the emergency services.
Recording
Record everything you have been told accurately using the person’s own words, including: the allegation or concerns, the date and time of the incident(s), what the child or vulnerable adult has said about the abuse and how it occurred or what has been reported; the appearance and behaviour of the victim; any injuries observed.
Preserving
Preserve any evidence.
Data Protection
It is good practice to inform the person that you have a duty to share your concerns and will do so. Personal information held by the Art House regarding an individual attending our activities would normally be subject to a duty of confidence and not normally disclosed without consent from that individual.
However, the Data Protection Act 1998 allows for disclosure of confidential information necessary to safeguard the welfare of an individual or others.
8.4 Disclosure from a vulnerable person
If any individuals at the Art House including team members, customers and wellbeing participants disclose information to you that they are thinking about hurting themselves or others, this must be immediately acted upon, reported to the safeguarding lead and reported as a safeguarding incident.
8.5 If adults who access our services disclose information to you that they are being abused you have a duty to report this information to the safeguarding lead and report this as a safeguarding incident.
8.6 Duty of care
If you have a safeguarding concern about someone at the Art House you have a duty of care to report this to the safeguarding lead.
NEXT STEPS FOR THE SAFEGUARDING LEAD
9.1 The safeguarding lead must act on the information provided by you and make a referral to the relevant external agency below. If the vulnerable person is deemed to be in immediate risk of harm, the safeguarding lead must contact the police straight away.
For vulnerable adults: contact Sheffield Adult Safeguarding Partnership – First Contact Team on 0114 273 4980 (24 hours).
For vulnerable children: contact Children’s Social Care – Sheffield Safeguarding hub on 0114 273 4855 (24 hours) to speak to a social worker.
9.2 If another safeguarding lead other than the Art House safeguarding lead makes a referral to an external agency (for example during holiday periods, outside normal office hours etc) then they must notify the Chair of the Board immediately and the Art House safeguarding lead as soon as reasonably practical.
9.3 All information shared with an external agency must be included on the Safeguarding Incident Report form.
9.4 If, after contacting an external agency, the safeguarding lead is told that the incident does not require further action, they will record this decision and ensure the person who reported the incident is made aware. They may also be told that the concern is being forwarded to another team for actioning and this should also be recorded.
9.5 Following the referral, the safeguarding lead must ensure that a written record of the issue and the action taken is stored safely and securely. If a telephone referral is made, the referral must be followed by written information to the agency within 48 hours.
9.6 The strategic Director must report any safeguarding issues to the Chair of the Board and to the next meeting of the HR sub-committee or email directly to the committee if it is appropriate to share this earlier.
9.7 Information required by authorities when making a referral:
Name of person making referral and contact details,
Full name and address, telephone number of family, date of birth of child or vulnerable adult,
Any relevant information e.g. family circumstances and any information relating to health or social care needs,
Names of any professionals known to be involved with the child /family or vulnerable adult, e.g. support worker etc.,
The nature of the concern,
Opinion on whether the child or vulnerable adult may require urgent action to make them safe.
WHAT TO DO IF THE SAFEGUARDING CONCERN IS ABOUT A TEAM MEMBER
10.1 If a safeguarding concern is against a team member or volunteer then this must be referred to the Strategic Director to ensure it is properly managed through the Art House disciplinary procedures.
10.2 If a safeguarding concern is against the Strategic Director, then this must be referred to the Art House safeguarding Trustee to ensure it is managed through the correct procedure.
IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING
11.1 This document will be presented as part of the induction material for all new staff, volunteers, tutors and new Trustees to the Board,
11.2 The Strategic Director will be responsible for the implementation of this policy and procedure.
11.3 If a safeguarding incident occurs this policy will be reviewed as part of the
After Action Review process to understand how effective the procedure was in dealing with the situation. Any necessary amendments will be made and the agreed updated document will be shared with team members, tutors and volunteers.
11.4 This policy is approved by the Board of Trustees and will be reviewed annually.
11.5 This policy and procedures were last reviewed and approved by the Board in: December 2023.