Question

Identify and apply legislation used to safeguard vulnerable children, young people and adults, and the different cultural contexts and perceptions of what constitutes risk and safeguarding, and the toolsused to assess and address risk.

Answer 1

Safeguard and promote the interests and well-being of children and vulnerable adults with whom it is working. Take all reasonable practical steps to protect them from harm, discrimination, or degrading treatment. Respect their rights, wishes and feelings.

 

It is widely accepted that it is the responsibility of every adult to safeguard the wellbeing of children and vulnerable adults. Abuse can arouse strong emotions in those facing such a situation and it is important to understand these feelings and not allow them to interfere with your judgement about any action to take.

 

Abuse and poor practice can occur within many situations including the home, school and the sporting environment. Some individuals will actively seek employment or voluntary work with children or vulnerable adults in order to harm them. Everyone working in swimming either in a paid or voluntary capacity, together with those working in affiliated organisations has a role to play in safeguarding the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and promoting good practice.

 

A swimming teacher, lifeguard, lifesaver, or volunteer may have regular contact with children and be a very important link in identifying cases where an individual may be at risk or in need. When establishing guidelines it is important to recognise that the organisation has both a moral and legal duty of care to ensure that when it is given responsibility for children it provides them with the highest possible standard of care.

 

STA recognises that they have a responsibility to:

• Safeguard and promote the interests and well-being of children and vulnerable adults with whom it is working
• Take all reasonable practical steps to protect them from harm, discrimination, or degrading treatment
• Respect their rights, wishes and feelings.

 

Child and vulnerable adults protection procedures can:

• Offer safeguards to the individuals with whom we work, and to our members of staff, volunteers and those in affiliated organisations
• Help to maintain the professionalism and the standards of practice that are associated with the members of STA.

 

We recognise that any procedure is only as effective as the ability and skill of those who operate it. We are committed to:

• Proper recruitment policies
• The provision of support and appropriate training
• Clear processes for recognition and responding to concerns
• Working together with parents/carers and other organisations to ensure that the needs and the welfare of all remains paramount.

 

Principles

• The child’s welfare is paramount, as is that of the vulnerable adult
• All participant whatever their age, culture, disability, gender, language, racial origin, religious belief and/or sexual identity have the right to protection from abuse
• All suspicions and allegations of abuse will be taken seriously; and responded to swiftly and appropriately
• Anyone aged 18 years or under should be considered as a child for the purposes of this document.

 

Working in partnership with children and their parents/carers is essential for the protection of the children.

 

STA recognises the statutory responsibility of the social services department to ensure the welfare of children and vulnerable adult and is committed to working together with the Multi-agency Safeguarding Hubs (MASH).

 

The main piece of legislation governing safeguarding adults is the Care Act 2014 which sets out a clear legal framework for how local authorities and other parts of the system should protect adults at risk of abuse or neglect.

 

This Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act (SVGA) 2006 was passed to help avoid harm, or risk of harm, by preventing people who are deemed unsuitable to work with children and vulnerable adults from gaining access to them through their work. The Independent Safeguarding Authority was established as a result of this Act.

 

The Protection of Vulnerable Adults scheme was introduced by the Care Standards Act 2000. It aims to ensure that no one is allowed to work in the care sector if they have ever abused, neglected or otherwise harmed vulnerable adults in their care or placed them at risk.

 

Background

The term ‘safeguarding’ covers the protection of health, wellbeing and human rights. Effective safeguarding enables people (particularly children, young adults and other vulnerable people) to live free from fear of abuse, harm or neglect. The UK Children Act 2004 required key agencies, including health and social care providers, to consider the need to safeguard children and promote their welfare. Within a larger evidence synthesis project, we sought to identify and map service development interventions (excluding provision of training) aimed at improving awareness of safeguarding and identifying at-risk children and young people in health and social care settings.

 

Methods

We searched fourteen health and social care databases from 2004 (date of Children Act) to October 2019 and updated the review via a citation search in March 2021.

 

Studies of any design were eligible if they described or evaluated an intervention (other than training) aimed at health or social care professionals in the United Kingdom and designed to improve recognition of risk in the context of safeguarding children and young people. Studies with no intervention (e.g. qualitative studies) were included to explain why interventions work or fail to work. Included studies were summarised using narrative synthesis. Risk of bias of included studies and overall strength of evidence were assessed using standard methods. We used a 5-item checklist (“TIDieR-Lite”) to map intervention components.

 

Results

Thirty-nine publications were included, of which 31 dealt with service developments, six with use of data and two with other initiatives. Promising service development initiatives include liaison nurses, assessment clinics, secondment, joint protocols and a ‘hub and spoke’ model. Initiatives involving use of routine data appeared promising and unlikely to generate significant additional costs. However, the quality of the evidence was generally low, with a shortage of controlled and long-term studies.

 

Conclusions

Health and social care services wishing to improve awareness of child safeguarding issues may benefit from looking beyond high-quality training provision. Future research should focus on service-relevant outcomes and ensure the active involvement of young people and their families/carers.