Safeguarding
All SABE employees have completed safeguarding training
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What are the Principles of Safeguarding?
There are 6 main principles of safeguarding as outlined in the Care Act; empowerment, prevention, protection, proportionality, partnerships and accountability.
Empowerment
One of the most important elements of safeguarding is empowerment, which was traditionally missing from legislation and guidelines around protecting vulnerable people in the past. Empowerment in safeguarding is all about giving individuals as much freedom and power over decisions made about themselves as is reasonably possible. Even those who are vulnerable can have an influence on how they are treated, which ranges from ensuring that they have given consent to giving them choices about how they might want to deal with a situation or approach their safeguarding needs in the future. Upholding the principle of empowerment isn’t always easy depending on the care environment, but those who regularly ensure that they’re keeping people they care for informed, and consult them wherever possible, are appropriately following this principle. As care pathways develop, empowerment will likely become increasingly important, with more options given to vulnerable adults. t’s also important to remember that empowerment isn’t just about giving people a choice; it’s also about giving them the confidence to make those decisions. This comes about by providing strong support and reassurance and ensuring that they have all of the information that they need to come to a decision.
Prevention
Preventing neglect, harm and abuse is the core function of safeguarding, which makes prevention the most important element of safeguarding. It is far better to take steps to prevent safeguarding issues from occurring rather than dealing with the situation when they do. Just as with healthcare and medicine in particular, the outcomes are far better when safeguarding issues are prevented altogether. Prevention can be achieved through numerous methods, but excellent foresight and planning are essential. We have a sound safeguarding policy in place and will be able to do a lot when it comes to identifying risks before they become an issue and notifying appropriate services so that situations can be dealt with before they cause anyone major harm.
Protection
​Protection refers to the core act of giving vulnerable people care and support when they need it. From physical to psychological abuse, the Care Act insists that those who deal with safeguarding be fully ready to give people protection through a range of different services and interventions.. Protection is one of the more serious elements of safeguarding because it sometimes requires significant action - even prosecution of those at fault in some cases. Often, the people that need protection in safeguarding are the ones that are unable to protect themselves or seek out appropriate protection, so our safeguarding professionals are prepared to intervene.
Proportionally
​There is no one-size-fits-all approach to safeguarding, particularly as many elements of it are hugely sensitive in nature. As a result, proportionality is considered an element of safeguarding, meaning that it’s important that every case is dealt with individually and with all the facts considered, without excessive intrusion. Proportionality in safeguarding means that intervention, support or even just investigation should be done with the least amount of intrusion as possible. This is true when planning preventative safeguarding measures that involve a particular person or when dealing with problems or dangers that may have arisen.
Partnerships
Safeguarding should be a communal process rather than the sole responsibility of certain individuals. There are many reasons for this, with the most important being that safeguarding is simply more effective where partnerships are created and incorporated into practice. Where the whole community is more involved, it’s more likely that those who deal with safeguarding will be effective in their roles and that neglect, abuse and harm are less likely to happen and more likely to be discovered. This is why a multi-agency approach is used so often when dealing with a safeguarding complaint. Safeguarding doesn’t always involve people who spend most of their time in care. Vulnerable children's may only have limited contact with those who are mindful of safeguarding, which means that it’s really important for safeguarding staff to build partnerships and relationships with other people that the individual does come into contact with. The better-linked everyone is, the more effective the service. Partnerships should form between safeguarding services in order to uphold this safeguarding principle.
Accountability
Following on from the communal aspect of safeguarding is accountability. Accountability in safeguarding means that while named employees are most responsible for safeguarding, it’s up to everyone to do their part. Anyone relevant should be accountable for the role they play in safeguarding, and responsibility should not be shirked.
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