Actions to Take when you have a Concern about Suspected or Alleged Abuse

Every worker who comes into contact with children or their families has a duty to safeguard even if they don’t work directly with them. If you are worried about a child.

• Report your concerns to your manager immediately
• Make a record of your concerns that is factual and sign and date it
• Follow Active’s safeguarding policy and procedures. These will set out clearly how staff are to act when abuse is suspected or alleged.
• If you feel that this process is taking too long and you have a serious concern, dial 999 and call the police; they can quickly remove a child to somewhere safe

A child might tell someone that they have been abused or a family member, friend, worker or someone else might make an allegation about abuse happening at the time or in the past. Policies and procedures will give information on signs and symptoms of abuse, how to respond to the victim, lines of reporting and important telephone numbers so that any worker can feel confident when dealing with an incident. Do not hesitate if you have any concerns about a child being abused. It is not your role to judge or investigate situations, that is the responsibility of the designated person for safeguarding, the police and social workers, but if you don’t alert them, they cannot act.

If you report concerns to your line manager and these concerns are not taken seriously and acted upon, you should either report them to a more senior manager or to Karen Pogson, Daisy Hall or Sarah Ellis (the designated people for safeguarding within Active).

Staff should know how to raise their concerns through Active’s whistleblowing policy and procedure.

Use to answer question 11.4 i & ii of the Care Certificate