About Safeguarding Policies

Learn more about making your Safeguarding Policy

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 How to make a Safeguarding Policy

Making your Safeguarding Policy online is simple. Just answer a few

questions and Rocket Lawyer will build your document for you. When you
have all of the information about your organisation’s practices and
procedures prepared in advance, creating your document is a quick and
easy process.

You’ll need the following information:

The organisation

o What is your organisation’s name?

o Is your organisation based in England, Scotland, or Wales? If you
operate in multiple constituent countries you can make a separate
Safeguarding Policy for each country or Ask a lawyer for help
making a combined policy
o Is your organisation a charity?

 If so, what is its Charity Commission registration number (in

England or Wales) or Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR)
registration number (in Scotland)?

o Is your organisation a childcare provider?

  If so, what is its Ofsted (in England), Care Inspectorate (in
Scotland), or CIW (in Wales) registration number? This may
not apply to all childcare providers.

The organisation’s activities

o Does your organisation work with children, adults at risk, or both?

o Which of your organisation’s activities involve working with children
and/or adults at risk?

Key contacts and assignment of responsibility

o Who holds overall responsibility for safeguarding within your

organisation?
o Who is your organisation’s key contact for questions related to
safeguarding? For example, questions about training or
procedures.

 What are this person’s or department’s phone number and

email address?

o Who is your organisation’s key contact for data protection matters?

 What are this person’s phone number and email address?

Training and procedures

o Will you set out additional types of safeguarding training that your
organisation will provide? This Policy will always state that you will
provide certain training - see the FAQ ‘What safeguarding training
should organisations provide?’ for more information.
  If so, which other (or more specific) types of training will your
organisation provide?

o How should staff members report safeguarding concerns?

o Will you set out within this Safeguarding Policy your organisation’s
procedures for handling reported safeguarding concerns?

 If so, how will reported safeguarding concerns be dealt with?

Other documents and policies

o Which of these categories of documents does your organisation

have in place that support your Safeguarding Policy:

 Detailed safeguarding investigation and response

procedures?
 Safeguarding training plans and schedules?
 Safeguarding training materials for reference purposes?
 Documents setting out safeguarding considerations for use
during recruitment?
 Other relevant documents? If so, which?

o Which other employment or business policies does your

organisation have in place that help to protect its beneficiaries, staff
members, or others:

 An Anti-harassment and bullying policy?

 A Whistleblowing policy?
 A Health and safety policy?
 An Equal opportunities policy?
 A Recruitment policy?
 A Data protection and data security policy?
  A Disciplinary policy or procedure?
 Other policies? If so, which?

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 Common terms in a Safeguarding Policy

Safeguarding Policies set out organisations’ commitments to and

procedures for protecting their beneficiaries. To do this, this Safeguarding
Policy includes the following sections:

Statement of purpose

The Safeguarding Policy starts by setting out your organisation’s

commitment to safeguarding its beneficiaries (ie the children and/or
adults at risk that it works with). It identifies the body of law on which this
commitment is based and provides the organisation’s relevant
registration numbers (eg Care Inspectorate and OSCR registration
numbers) and the safeguarding key contact’s details.

Scope of this Safeguarding Policy

Next, the Policy makes clarifications about when it is applicable. For

example, it sets out which activities the organisation carries out that are
covered by the Policy and clarifies that the Policy applies to all of the
organisation’s staff members (including volunteers) but does not form
part of anybody’s Employment contract (or similar), so it can be changed
by the organisation at any time.

Defining safeguarding

This section provides detailed definitions of ‘safeguarding’ and

‘safeguarding concerns’ for the purposes of the Policy. It also clarifies that
the Policy applies to threats to beneficiaries’ safety or wellbeing that are
caused by the organisation’s own activities or personnel and to threats
caused by people or situations outside of the organisation’s control but of
which personnel are aware or ought to be aware.

Key measures that the organisation is committed to implementing

and maintaining to safeguard its beneficiaries

This section sets out the key commitments that the organisation is making
in the Policy, which are intended to help it meet its safeguarding
obligations. These include:

o following leadership and guidance provided by local safeguarding

bodies (eg regional Safeguarding Boards and the National
Independent Safeguarding Board Wales if your organisation is
located in Wales)
o complying with specific safeguarding requirements for childcare
providers, for example, compliance with specific relevant statutory
regulations and meeting the ‘Prevent’ duty
o ensuring staff members are correctly trained on safeguarding
matters
o implementing safe and fair procedures for reporting safeguarding
concerns and ensuring these are followed
o appointing somebody to hold overall responsibility for safeguarding
within the organisation
o setting out safeguarding-related rules for recruitment processes
o ensuring safeguarding concerns are handled in accordance with
data protection law
o regularly reviewing the organisation’s safeguarding policies and
procedures and updating them where necessary

Staff members’ responsibilities

Here the Policy explains staff members’ safeguarding responsibilities
under the Policy. These include:

o following the organisation’s safeguarding procedures and rules

o taking part in training
o reporting all safeguarding concerns
o not doing anything to actively risk a beneficiary’s wellbeing (eg by
subjecting them to or facilitating any sort of abuse)

Procedures: Reporting

This section sets out how staff members should report safeguarding
concerns. It also explains when it’s appropriate for staff members to
deviate from the specified procedure (eg if an issue is time sensitive or it
implicates someone who is usually involved in the safeguarding concern
investigation process).

Procedures: Investigation and response

This section starts either by setting out how your organisation deals with
reported safeguarding concerns or by referring to an external document
for this information. It then makes additional provisions about how
concerns will be handled, for example, specifying that staff members will
be kept informed about the progress of concerns they’ve reported to an
appropriate degree and that external referrals will be made when, and
only when, appropriate.

Safeguarding documents and other protections

If your organisation has any employment or business policies or other

documents in place that support this Safeguarding Policy, these will be
specified here. Staff members will be referred to their line managers or
the person responsible for the organisation’s HR matters for copies of
these.
 If you want your Safeguarding Policy to include further or more detailed
provisions, you can edit your document. However, if you do this, you may
want a lawyer to review the document for you (or to make the changes for
you) to make sure that your modified Policy complies with all relevant
laws. Use Rocket Lawyer’s Ask a lawyer service for assistance.

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 Legal tips for organisations

Make sure you comply with all of your organisation’s safeguarding

obligations

Safeguarding law is in place to protect individuals who deserve a high

level of protection from harm. This is, consequently, a large and complex
area of compliance. Making and implementing a Safeguarding Policy is a
great starting step towards compliance, but more must almost always be
done. For example, different types of organisations have different
requirements in place. If you’re not sure whether you should do
something (eg provide a certain type of training) to protect people, it’s
best to err on the side of caution.

For more information, read the FAQs above and Ask a lawyer if you have
questions about safeguarding compliance.

Understand when to seek advice from a lawyer

In some circumstances, it’s good practice to Ask a lawyer for advice to

ensure that you’re complying with the law and that you are well protected
from risks. You should consider asking for advice if:
o you need a Safeguarding Policy that covers protecting your
organisation’s own staff members (including volunteers)
o you need a Safeguarding Policy for an organisation operating in a
highly regulated sector (eg health or social care or education)
o you need a Safeguarding Policy for an organisation that’s
performing services for a public body
o you need a Safeguarding Policy that covers external (eg local
authority) referrals in more depth
o this Safeguarding Policy doesn’t meet your needs