Safeguarding
The Trust is committed to the well being of all people using their services and takes the abuse of vulnerable adults and children very seriously; it is committed to dealing with this effectively. The Trust has a dedicated Children Protection Team and Adult Safeguarding Team who provide training, advice and support to all services.
The Trust works in partnership with Local Authorities to safeguard vulnerable adults and children. Each Local Authority has its own Safeguarding Adult Board and Safeguarding Childrens Board made up of nominated Lead Officers from key organisations within each Local Authority. The role of the Safeguarding Boards is to maintain and develop inter-agency frameworks to safeguard adults and children and to co-ordinate what is done by each Board Lead Officer to achieve this.
Safeguarding Children
The Trust has a statutory duty under Section 11 of the Childrens Act 2004 to protect children from harm as part of the wider work of safeguarding and promoting their welfare.
This means working in partnership with other agencies to:
- Protecting children from maltreatment
- Preventing impairment of children’s health or development
- Ensuring children grow up in circumstances consistent with provision of safe and effective care
- Processes are in place to learn from events
We aim to fulfill our commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children by:
- Ensuring there is Senior Management commitment
- Having clear lines of accountability and structures
- Supporting a culture that enables safeguarding issues and promotion of children’s welfare to be addressed and ensuring that accurate records with regard to actions and decisions are made
- Ensuring staff receive adequate training to identify and protect people from abuse
The Trust works hard to ensure that all patients, children and adults, are cared for in a safe, secure and caring environment.
For further information please see the Trusts Safeguarding Childrens Compliance Statement
Safeguarding Children Compliance Statement
Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults
The Trust works hard to ensure that all patients are cared for in a safe, secure and caring environment. To achieve this for adults, we are working in partnership with other agencies in line with the No Secrets Guidance (Department of Health 2000) to:
- Ensure processes are in place to prevent harm
- Processes are in place for effectively responding where there is a high risk of harm or harm may have been experienced
- Processes are in place to learn from events.
We aim to fulfil our commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable adults by:
- Ensuring there is Senior Management commitment
- Having clear lines of accountability and structures
- Supporting a culture that enables safeguarding issues to be identified and addressed and ensuring that accurate records with regard to actions and decisions are made
- Ensuring staff receive adequate training to identify and protect people from abuse
Each county has a Safeguarding Adult Board which is working to ensure consistency and robustness of approach.
Cases involving disclosure of historical or non-recent child sexual abuse
Guidance for professionals and service users
Following high profile cases where sexual abuse only came to light years after its occurrence, the Oxford Health Safeguarding Teams have developed specific guidance for professionals encountering such situations.
Non-recent disclosure guidance April 2019
In addition, two advice leaflets, one for professionals and one for service users, are also available. These documents, attached below, provide helpful practical advice and support.
OH 015.19 non-recent child sexual abuse leaflet
OH 016.19 – non-recent child sexual abuse client leaflet
Page last reviewed: 16 October, 2019