SAFEGUARDING
1. Establish a clear safeguarding policy Ensure your safeguarding policy is up to date, accessible, and clearly outlines roles, responsibilities, and procedures. Make sure that this is embedded within the organisation.
2. Train staff to recognise safeguarding concerns Equip your team with the knowledge to identify what constitutes a safeguarding issue – early recognition is key to prevention and protection. Have different reporting mechanisms and make sure that safeguarding is a standing agenda item in handovers, supervision, and team meetings. Ensure compulsory training is up to date.
3. Educate staff on the reporting process Make sure all staff understand how to report a concern and to whom, with clear guidance on what information should be shared. If they are called as a witness, they can be asked this question directly. Regardless of how good your policies are, if staff don’t speak to them, they are seen as ‘token’.
4. Ensure management understands their duties Leadership must be well-versed in safeguarding responsibilities and lead by example in responding to concerns appropriately. There needs to be a recognition that this will place pressure on resources and additional support may be required.
nature of the investigation, interviews may be requested with staff, equipment/medication seized, records and polices requested, and urgent inspections carried out. The ability to engage in these processes and the quality of your investigation (when permitted to do so) is very much dictated by the information available to you.
It is critical for providers to develop a toolkit that equips the manager, who has regulatory accountability to investigate properly. If action is not taken in the immediate aſtermath, critical information and evidence can be lost. Effective operators ensure that there are two senior staff dealing with a serious untoward incident – one focused on the service user response and the other on evidence gathering at an early stage. This includes making sure that staff are provided with the time and support to write comprehensive statements and any evidence is secured; templates prompting them what to include usually result in higher quality outputs.
If original documentation and/or equipment is seized or requested, it is best practice to obtain copies of records and take photographs, so the organisation has its own information. This ensures that if there are concerns there is a wider systemic issue and ongoing risk, you can make informed representations to the local authority and/or the CQC about how you will address it. This helps avoid embargoes being put on new admissions if your assessment is that the concern was an isolated incident.
On the next column, we’ve set out our 10 top tips to assist providers based on the issues we have identified in criminal, regulatory, and inquest proceedings:
5. Capture First accounts promptly Obtain clear, timely statements from everyone involved. Early accounts are often the most accurate and can significantly support investigations. There is a high staff turnover in the sector and people change roles. It is much harder to obtain information if the person is no longer in your employment.
6. Keep detailed, signed, and dated records All documentation – whether by witnesses or the person investigating – should be thorough, signed, and dated to ensure accountability and traceability. Ensure paper and electronic records are preserved.
7. Record every action taken Maintain a clear audit trail by documenting all steps taken during the investigation, from initial reports to final outcomes. If you are concerned, seek support and professional advice.
8. Use a safeguarding tracker Implement a central system or tracker to monitor the progress of each safeguarding notification and ensure timely follow-up.
9. Share lessons learned with the team Communicate key findings and insights with staff to embed learning and improve future safeguarding practices – make sure this is recorded too.
10. Foster a culture of openness and transparency Create an environment where staff feel confident and supported in raising safeguarding concerns – without fear of blame or reprisal. Encourage open dialogue, reassure staff that concerns will be taken seriously, and reinforce that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. A transparent culture strengthens trust within your organisation and ensures that potential issues are addressed early and effectively.
https://uk.markel.com/law 31
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