What is Safeguarding?
Safeguarding is defined by the Children Act 1989 and Joint Chief Inspectors Report on Arrangements to Safeguarding Children (2002) as meaning that:
- Agencies (and organisations) working with children and young people take all reasonable measures to ensure that the risks of harm to the individual’s welfare are minimised.
- Where there are concerns about children and young people’s welfare, all agencies (and organisations) take all appropriate actions to address those concerns, working to agreed local policies and procedures, working in partnership with other local agencies.
- Safeguarding practices are most commonly applied to children and young people under the age of eighteen. Throughout various pieces of legislation and guidance, the two terms are sometimes differentiated, where ‘children’ refers to those under the age of eighteen who are still in full-time education, and ‘young people’ refers to those under the age of eighteen who have left full-time education.
- Key aspects of legislation have recently been extended to include similar standards of protection to ‘vulnerable adults’. A vulnerable adult is defined as a person aged eighteen or over, who has either a dependency upon others in the performance of, or a requirement for assistance in the performance of basic functions; a severe impairment in the ability to communicate with others; or has a reduced ability to protect themselves from assault, abuse or neglect. This can be as a result of a learning or physical disability (not normally to include dyslexia); a physical or mental illness chronic or otherwise (including an addiction to alcohol or drugs); or a reduction in physical or mental capacity.
You will find more information about local safeguarding practices and policies on the following pages Leisure Services Safeguarding and Local Safeguarding Board