1. Purpose and scope

To protect vulnerable adults with care and support needs who are at risk of or experiencing abuse and/or neglect. In addition, this policy will ensure that legislation and relevant safeguarding guidance is complied with.

The arrangements detailed within this policy and procedure apply to all Lead Housing residents and properties including communal areas, domestic properties, supported housing, and Lead Housing’s offices.

In exceptional circumstances where work is not covered by the regulations, the principles and good practices contained within the regulations should be applied where possible.

Policy details

1. Introduction

Lead Housing provides housing and support services to a wide range of people, some of whom may have a care or support need and are experiencing or at risk of abuse and neglect.

This policy will advise what Lead Housing staff will do if suspected abuse or neglect is reported or identified. It covers all users of our services and tenants in our homes.

Failure to comply with this policy may result in a risk to the health and safety of residents as well as a negative reputational and financial impact to the organisation.

It will be our best intention to treat everyone fairly and will ensure their needs are met should a safeguarding situation arise. This will include those we support who may be potential abusers.

2. Definitions of abuse

Lead Housing will adopt the following definitions:

Vulnerable adults at risk

A vulnerable adult at risk may become at risk of abuse because of their needs for care and support (whether or not the local authority is meeting those needs) and is experiencing or at risk of abuse and neglect. As a result of those needs, they are unable to protect themselves from either the risk of, or the experience of abuse and neglect. This may include their ability to communicate or making known their wishes and needs.

Examples of adults who may become at risk of abuse may be because they have a high degree of dependency on others, in need of community care or specialist services due to mental health problems, physical or learning disability, age or illness and may include their ability to communicate or making known their wishes and needs.

Abuse and neglect

Abuse and neglect take many forms and can be caused by single or repeated acts or a failure to act by any other person or persons, or in the case of self-neglect, the victim themselves. The circumstances of each individual case will be considered as to not limit what constitutes abuse or neglect.

Lead Housing will treat as a safeguarding concern where a vulnerable adult at risk is suspected to be involved in either.

• Physical abuse
• Domestic violence
• Sexual abuse
• Psychological abuse
• Financial or material abuse
• Modern slavery
• Discriminatory abuse
• Organisational abuse
• Neglect and acts of omission or
• Self–neglect

Self-neglect is when someone neglects to attend to their basic needs such as personal hygiene, appropriate clothing, feeding, or tending appropriately to any medical condition they have. Hoarding can also result in self-neglect.

3. Legal framework

The Care Act 2014

Sections 42-47 and 68 of the Care Act defines safeguarding adults, provides a definition of adults at risk, details the roles and responsibilities of a range of organisations and how they must work together to respond to adult safeguarding concerns.

The Act sets out a statutory basis for safeguarding adults and the legal duties that local authorities will have to fulfil in their lead and coordination roles. The supporting statutory guidance on adult safeguarding replaces the previous ‘No Secrets’ official guidance.

Lead Housing is not a statutory partner under this act but is obliged to:

• Have a safeguarding lead
• Attend and provide information for Local Safeguarding Adult Boards if necessary. Housing providers will also be asked to participate in relevant safeguarding adult reviews.
• Cooperate with local authorities in enquiries of suspected adult safeguarding concerns – these may result in us taking action to protect the adult from any actual or risk of abuse or neglect as part of a safeguarding plan.
• Have a safeguarding policy and procedure
• Keep clear and accurate records of adult safeguarding allegations, responses, and actions, then share these with appropriate organisations when in the best interest of the vulnerable adult; and
• Have safe recruitment practices and training relevant to safeguarding.

The statutory guidance requires all housing providers to have ‘clear operational policies and

4. 4. Principles of Safeguarding

Lead Housing will aim to protect and maintain customers’ safety and wellbeing through their approach to safeguarding adults with care and support needs. We will achieve this by working with our partners and apply our policy standards to the five principles as defined in the Care Act 2014 Statutory Guidance (empowerment, prevention, proportionality, protection, partnership, and accountability) which underpin safeguarding work:

1. Empowerment: personalisation and presumptions of person-led decisions and informed consent

• We will ensure our customers are aware of how to report safeguarding concerns, and the support we can provide
• Our response to safeguarding places the adult at risk at its heart, which means listening and understanding what we are told, and respecting their needs and views in how we respond to safeguarding concerns

2. Prevention: better to take action before harm occurs

• We will aim to hold up-to-date information on customers’ support needs and vulnerabilities. We will use this data to inform our approach to safeguarding.
• We will undertake relevant disclosure and barring checks on employees that have access to or work with vulnerable adults.

3. Proportionality: proportionate and least intrusive response appropriate to risk presented

• We will act swiftly upon our safeguarding concerns and treat all reported concerns in good faith.
• We will notify the local authority Safeguarding Team if abuse is identified or suspected.
• We will take appropriate action against perpetrators of abuse. Where a crime has been committed, we will report this to the police.

4. Protection: support and representation for those in greatest need

• We will take reasonable steps, within our power to do so, to ensure the safety and well-being of residents, including re-housing victims if appropriate.
• We recognise that safeguarding is the responsibility of everyone who works for us or on our behalf. We will be vigilant to concerns for our customers’ welfare, and indicators of abuse and neglect.
• We will recognise that mental capacity and consent are key issues in safeguarding cases, and every adult has the right to make their own decisions. A person is assumed to have mental capacity unless it is proved that they do not and will make a referral to the local Adult Social Care Team where we have concerns that a person being abused lacks mental capacity. This will ensure a Mental Capacity Assessment can be made.
• We will ensure that our disclosures are compliant with the need for safeguarding and share information about concerns with agencies that need to know such as multi-agency public protection arrangements.
• We will learn from incidents and case reviews, revising and improving work practices, induction, training, policy, and procedure as appropriate.

5. Accountability: transparency in delivering safeguarding

• We will ensure this policy and our safeguarding procedure is kept up-to-date and disseminated to all staff.
• We will appoint a ‘Safeguarding Lead’ within Lead Housing, who is responsible for ensuring that our safeguarding policies and procedures are up-to-date and delivered in an effective and timely manner.
• We will convene regular (or as required) Safeguarding Panels, which will co-ordinate investigations, and share best practice and improvement.
• We will ensure that all relevant staff and agents receive suitable safeguarding training and understand their roles and responsibilities in safeguarding vulnerable adults at risk.

6. Key responsibilities of all staff

Lead Housing will expect that all their staff

• Are alert to concerns for welfare, and indicators of abuse and neglect
• Report all cases of suspected abuse or neglect to the appropriate individual in the organisation.
• Are vigilant about their actions so they cannot be misinterpreted, and are aware of appropriate behaviour when working with residents (for example, appropriate boundaries of personal contact)
• Attend safeguarding training and refresher training where relevant

8. Specific services within Lead Housing

This policy applies to all staff. The following services are highlighted as they may be potentially more exposed to safeguarding issues and have specific requirements:

Housing management and frontline services will come into contact with adults at risk during their housing management day to day functions, including at sign-up, during a settling in visit, when investigating allegations of anti-social behaviour or when a customer requests a service.

Tenancy support services – the profile of customers receiving specialist support services mat be more susceptible to certain types of abuse or exploitation, such as financial exploitation.

Maintenance and caretaking staff – due to the nature of their role, maintenance staff carry out their duties within Lead Housing’s properties and therefore may witness abuse or spot indicators that abuse may be taking place within the home.

Customer Services Centre – whilst not visiting tenants in their properties, staff will be providing telephone advice and are likely to pick up on areas of concern as a result of the phone conversation. Staff must be vigilant to the indicators of abuse in the context of being on the phone to residents.

9. Contractors and agents

Contractors working on behalf of Lead Housing and visiting homes may encounter evidence of abuse and neglect within the property. Residents may also choose to disclose incidents directly to contractors, so awareness in sensitively preserving or taking evidence and handling reports will be necessary. Contractor organisations will be expected to ensure they comply with Lead Housing’s safeguarding practices by signing up to the sub-contractor or sole trader agreements. This will also require them to:

• Ensure staff are DBS checked
• Ensure staff are suitable for the capacity employed
• Ensure staff receive suitable training on how to deal with residents, including how to report any concerns they have
• Cooperating with Lead Housing regarding any concerns and allegations received
• Having systems in place that enable disciplinary action to be taken where appropriate

Lead Housing will monitor the performance of their contractors, compliance with the policies and procedures shared with them through regular contract meetings.

10. Whistle blowing

If a member of staff suspects that an adult is being abused by another member of Lead Housing staff, they should immediately speak to their Designated Safeguarding Lead. Where there is a failure to respond appropriately to allegations of abuse, or where staff have concerns that a colleague or superior is responsible for the abuse, staff must follow Lead’s whistleblowing policy.

The Public Interest Disclosure Act (1998) protects workers from detrimental treatment or victimisation from their employer if they blow the whistle on wrongdoing, such as the abuse of customers. Staff who whistle blow can remain anonymous, however, this cannot necessarily be guaranteed if it results in a criminal investigation.

11. Confidentiality

We will respect confidentiality at all times and will not share any information given in confidence unless justified by the assessed risk to the vulnerable adult at risk or required by law.

We will discuss our approach to confidentiality with the customer where there are safeguarding concerns. We will be honest and explain that information might need to be shared with other organisations in order the respond or resolve a safeguarding issue.

12. Complaints

Residents that do not feel satisfied with our service in relation to Safeguarding may wish to make a formal complaint. Lead Housing has a complaints policy providing information about how to complain about our services.

13.Training and safe recruitment

Lead Housing will ensure that staff across the organisation receive training to give them an understanding of adult safeguarding and enable them to fulfil the requirements of our policy and relevant procedures.

Training will be appropriate to individual roles and the requirements of these roles in relation to adult safeguarding. Training will be refreshed every three years or earlier if there is a significant change to legislation or good practice which result in changes to Lead’s policy and procedures.

14. Staffing

Lead Housing will ensure that staff are appropriately recruited to roles and will ensure relevant role recruitment procedure include a DBS check. This check will be repeated at three yearly intervals.

Staff will be given guidance around professional boundaries when working with adults with care support needs, and this will be made clear within our safeguarding procedures.

Where we receive an allegation about a member of staff that constitutes an adult safeguarding issue, an investigation will be conducted in accordance with the disciplinary policy and procedure and a safeguarding referral made to the appropriate local authority. When allegations of this nature are received the member of staff may be suspended pending the outcome of the investigation.

15. Consent and sharing

All sensitive and personal information given to us confidentially will be treated in accordance with the Data Protection Act1988 and the GDPR.

Information will only be shared with third parties if we are required by law to do so for:

• Prevention or detection of crime or the apprehension or prosecution of offenders.
• Compliance with an information sharing protocol, contract, or confidentiality agreement in place.
• Situations where the person who has given the information has consented for it to be shared.
• The purpose of reasonable pursuance of our activities.

In some cases, consent will not be needed to pass on information if there is a risk of the following:

• An adult would be at increased risk of significant harm.
• Failure to share will impede the prevention, detection or prosecution of a serious crime, or
• Failure to share may lead to unnecessary delay in making enquiries about allegations of significant harm or serious injury.