Safeguarding Policy

The Samworth Foundation recognises the right of every individual to stay safe. We are committed to conducting our grantmaking in a manner that recognises our responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children, young people, and adults at risk with whom the Foundation and its grantholders are in contact. 

All grantholders are expected to have in place high quality safeguarding policies and procedures, which are reviewed regularly. They should also be able to demonstrate that good safeguarding practice is embedded across their organisations. We will carry out checks as part of the due diligence process to ensure that safeguarding policies exist and are followed. 

The Samworth Foundation aims to meet its commitment to support grantholders and their programmes to ensure that they are safe for the children, young people, and adults at risk through the following means: 

• Awareness: Ensuring that all Foundation representatives and grantholders are notified of and made aware that they are expected to comply with the policy. 
• Prevention: Striving, through awareness and good practice, to minimise the risks to children, young people, and adults at risk. 
• Reporting: Ensuring that all Foundation representatives and grantholders know what steps to take when concerns arise regarding the safety of children, young people, and adults at risk. 
• Responding: Engaging in action that supports and protects children, young people, and adults at risk when concerns arise regarding their safety; supporting those who raise concerns; investigating or cooperating with any investigation; and taking appropriate responsive steps. 

The Foundation is a member of the Funder Safeguarding Collaborative.

The following principles underpin the Foundation’s approach to safeguarding: 

• Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. 
• The welfare, protection and safeguarding of children and adults at risk must always be paramount and should be based on prevention and best practice.  
• Everyone has the right to live their lives free from all forms of abuse, irrespective of age, ability or disability, gender, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation, or socio-economic background. 
• Allegations of abuse will be treated sensitively and seriously, and be responded to swiftly and appropriately.  
• Confidentiality will be appropriately maintained, but the safety and welfare of the individual/s will be the overriding consideration when making decisions on whether to share information. 

All Trustees and staff (inc. consultants) have duties in relation to safeguarding and to know what action to take if an individual is at risk as a result of issues arising in the course of the Foundation’s work.  

In order to support this, there will be a named person for safeguarding – Designated Safeguarding Officer – who will be responsible for dealing with any concerns about the safeguarding of children and adults at risk.  

The role of the designated person is to: 

• Ensure that the Foundation’s Safeguarding Policy and associated Procedures (Appendix 1) are understood and followed. 
• Ensure they, and other staff members know what steps to take when a safeguarding concern is raised. 
• Act as a source of information on safeguarding matters within the Foundation, and seek further advice and guidance as appropriate. 
• Ensure that a record is kept of any concerns about a child or adult, and of any conversation or referrals to statutory agencies. 
• Ensure that any such record is kept safely and securely. 

Child: anyone aged under 18-years. 

Adult at Risk: any person aged 18 years or over who has needs for care and support, who is experiencing, or at risk of, abuse or neglect and as a result of their care needs – is unable to protect themselves. 

Safeguarding: protecting vulnerable people from abuse and maltreatment. 

Child abuse: all forms of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment or commercial or other exploitation, resulting in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity. 

Abuse: any action that causes harm to another person. 

Grant holder: any organisation or group that receives funding from the Foundation. 

A safeguarding concern may arise in several ways. For example:  

• A Trustee or staff member may witness abuse taking place, or may notice behaviour or circumstances which gives rise to a suspicion that a child or adult at risk has been harmed or is at risk of harm. 
• A child or adult at risk may tell a Foundation representative that they have suffered harm. 

It is essential that Trustees and/or staff immediately report any concerns, suspicions, allegations and incidents that indicate actual or potential abuse or issues regarding the safety or welfare of a child or adult at risk to the Designated Safeguarding Officer (DSO). 

Through proportionate and reasonable due diligence, the Foundation seeks to ensure that all grantholders take their safeguarding responsibilities seriously and have robust measures in place to protect from harm people who come into contact with them. 

To be considered for a grant, all organisations must have policies and procedures that: 

1. Commit to protecting people from harm. 
2. Ensure everyone in the organisation is aware of safeguarding. 
3. Are publicly available, regularly reviewed and put into practice. 
4. Enable people to raise safeguarding concerns. 
5. Set out how to handle allegations and incidents, and report to relevant authorities. 

For organisations working directly with children and/or adults at risk, there also needs to be a safeguarding lead, evidence of regular safeguarding training and appropriate checks on Trustees, staff and volunteers in eligible roles. 

We require organisations to report safeguarding concerns to us if they involve allegations of harm, abuse, or exploitation in relation to their trustees, staff (inc. consultants), volunteers, or operations, and this is included in our Grant Terms and Conditions. Through this reporting, our aim is to work with our grantholders to ensure lessons are learned and practice is improved. 

It is the responsibility of the grantholder to respond to the safeguarding concern, including notifying relevant authorities and the regulator, and to manage the safeguarding process in line with their own safeguarding procedures.  

If we have reason to believe that an issue has not been dealt with appropriately and/or if the investigation uncovers serious issues relating to the governance or management of the organisation, the Samworth Foundation may cease its funding to that organisation. 

All documentation relating to safeguarding incidents or allegations will be kept and treated confidentially and in accordance with UK GDPR the Data Protection Act 2018. Only those who need to know about the incident will be informed.  

In order to keep people safe, information may need to be shared with others, both within the Foundation and with external agencies. Where appropriate, we will seek consent to share such information (which may include special category personal data or other personal data, as defined under applicable data protection legislation). However, if we need to share this information and it is not possible to get consent; requesting such consent would put the individual at risk at further risk; or it would not be considered reasonable for us to seek consent in the circumstances, we may share this information without the consent of the individual concerned. 

Grant Terms and Conditions.

This policy will be reviewed by our Trustees every 12-months, or following any relevant legislative change, whichever comes first.