Last updated: September 2023
Policy Purpose
Our Congleton Pride activities may include working with vulnerable people. The purpose of this policy is to protect children and vulnerable adults and provide stakeholders and the public with the overarching principles that guide our approach.
Safeguarding Principles
We believe that:
- Nobody who is involved in Congleton Pride should ever experience abuse, harm, neglect or exploitation.
- We all have a responsibility to promote the welfare of the public, our members and volunteers, to keep them safe and to operate in a way that protects them.
- We all have a collective responsibility for creating a culture in which our people not only feel safe, but also able to speak up, if they have any concerns.
Safeguarding Policy Applicability
This safeguarding policy applies to anyone working on our behalf, including our charity trustees and other volunteers.
Partner organisations will be required to have their own safeguarding procedures that must, as a minimum, meet the standards outlined below, and include any additional legal or regulatory requirements specific to their work. These may, but are not limited to:
- Other UK regulators, if applicable, such as Ofsted or CQC.
- Other authorities, such as the DfES or NHS.
Safeguarding should be appropriately reflected in other relevant policies and procedures.
Disclosure and barring service (DBS) checks
Congleton Pride trustees and team members may work with vulnerable people who have been subjected to hate crime or who may be suffering with trauma due to gender identity or previous abuse. Some of those people may be children i.e. under the age of 18. Therefore, the following members of Congleton Pride will be subjected to an Enhanced DBS Check:
- Trustees
- Members who are trained to support members of the public as part of the Congleton Pride Hate Crime Reporting Centre.
Types of Abuse
Abuse can take many forms, including but not limited to the following:
- sexual harassment, abuse and exploitation
- criminal exploitation
- people abusing a position of trust they hold within a charity
- bullying or harassment
- health and safety
- commercial exploitation
- cyber abuse
- discrimination on any of the grounds in the Equality Act 2010
- data breaches, including those under General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)
- negligent treatment
- domestic abuse
- self-neglect
- physical or emotional abuse
- extremism and radicalisation
- forced marriage
- modern slavery
- human trafficking
- female genital mutilation
Anyone in the Congleton Pride team may identify potential signs of abuse, taking place at a Pride event or in the wider community. If you think abuse is happening, you should report it.
Reporting Safeguarding Concerns
If a crime is in progress, or an individual in immediate danger, call the police, as you would in any other circumstances.
If you are a member of the public, make your concerns known to a member of our team, who will alert a senior member of the charity.
For members of the charity, make your concerns known to the trustees.
The trustees are mindful of their reporting obligations to the Charity Commission in respect of Serious Incident Reporting and, if applicable, other regulator.
Trustee Safeguarding Responsibilities
Responsibilities should be made clear and individuals provided with any necessary training and resources to enable them to carry out their role.
Trustees: This safeguarding policy will be reviewed and approved by the Board annually.
Trustees are aware of and will comply with the Charity Commission guidance on safeguarding and protecting people and also the 10 actions trustee boards need to take to ensure good safeguarding governance.
A lead trustee/committee will be given responsibility for the oversight of all aspects of safety, including whistleblowing and H&SW. This will include:
- Creating a culture of respect, in which everyone feel safe and able to speak up.
- An annual review of safety, with recommendations to the Board.
- Providing oversight of any lapses in safeguarding.
- Ensuring that any issues are properly investigated and dealt with quickly, fairly and sensitively, and any reporting to the Police/statutory authorities is carried out.
- Leading the organisation in way that makes everyone feels safe and able to speak up.
- Ensuring safeguarding risk assessments are carried out and appropriate action taken to minimise these risks, as part of our risk management processes.
- Ensuring that all relevant checks are carried out in recruiting volunteers.
- Planning programmes/activities to take into account potential safeguarding risks, to ensure these are adequately mitigated.
- Ensuring that all appointments that require DBS clearance and safeguarding training are identified, including the level of DBS and any training required.
- Ensuring that a central register is maintained and subject to regular monitoring to ensure that DBS clearances and training are kept up-to-date.
- Listening and engaging, the public, staff, volunteers and others and involving them as appropriate.
- Responding to any concerns sensitively and acting quickly to address these.
- Making staff, volunteers and others aware of:
- Our safeguarding procedures and their specific safeguarding responsibilities on induction, with regular updates/reminders, as necessary.
- The signs of potential abuse and how to report these.
Everyone: To be aware of our procedures, undertake any necessary training, be aware of the risks and signs of potential abuse and, if you have concerns, to report these immediately (see above).
Safeguarding And Fundraising
We will ensure that:
- We comply with the Code of Fundraising Practice, including fundraising that involves children.
- Members and volunteers are made aware of the Institute of Fundraising guidance on keeping fundraising safe and the NCVO Guidance on vulnerable people and fundraising.
- Our fundraising material is accessible, clear and ethical, including not placing any undue pressure on individuals to donate.
- We do not either solicit nor accept donations from anyone whom we know or think may not be competent to make their own decisions.
- We are sensitive to any particular need that a donor may have.
Online Safeguarding Procedures
We will identify and manage online risks by ensuring:
- Volunteers and trustees understand how to keep themselves safe online.
- The services we use and/or provide are safe and in line with our code of conduct.
- We protect people’s personal data and follow GDPR legislation. (see the Congleton Pride Privacy Policy)
- We have permission to display any images on our website or social media accounts, including consent from an individual, parent, etc.
- We clearly explain how users can report online concerns. Concerns may be reported to a trustee or direct to a social media provider using their reporting process. If you are unsure, you can contact one of these organisations, who will help you.