Vitruvia’s Safeguarding Policy
Introductory notes:
What is safeguarding?
Safeguarding is the action that is taken to promote the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and protect them from harm.
Safeguarding means:
● protecting vulnerable adults or children from abuse of neglect
● means making sure people are supported to get good access to health care and stay well and preventing impairment of children’s health and development
● ensures vulnerable people are treated by professionals with the same respect as other people
● is making sure that people are supported to have full and happy lives
● is making sure that people get safe and empowering care
● means ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care and making sure that people get the support they need to make the most of their lives and get their full equal rights.
Child protection is part of the safeguarding process. It focuses on protecting individual children identified as suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. This includes child protection procedures which detail how to respond to concerns about a child. What are safeguarding and child protection procedures?
Safeguarding and child and vulnerable adults protection procedures are detailed guidelines and instructions that support your overarching safeguarding policy statement. They explain the steps that your organisation will take to keep children and young people safe and what to do when there are concerns about a child's or vulnerable adult's safety or wellbeing.
Policy Document
Purpose and Aim of this Policy Statement
To ensure that the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults is a central consideration in all of the engagement of Vitruvia’s consultants. To provide a clear set of guidelines for Vitruvia consultants to refer to, should they have concerns about the safety of any clients. Vitruvia is determined to ensure that all of our engagement with children under the age of 18 and vulnerable adults follows the principles of best practices and ensures that they are protected and feel safe.
Vitruvia consultants, when working directly with children, either virtually or face to face, require the presence of either a DBS checked adult who has responsibility for that child in their education setting, or an adult who has parental responsibility for that child, or is acting in loco parentis in that situation. In a virtual setting, that adult must be within earshot of the conversation. In a face to face setting, that adult must be in the room. The purpose of this condition is to ensure the safeguarding of both the child and the consultant.
It is the responsibility of Vitruvia to inform the client of this condition; it is the responsibility of the client to ensure that this condition is met.
Key Actions Taken
All Vitruvia consultants will be asked to provide a current DBS form before working for us with children, young people or vulnerable adults.
All Vitruvia consultants will be asked to read and sign this policy before engaging in work for Vitruvia.
All Vitruvia consultants will be asked to read and sign the Code of Conduct (Appendix 1) before engaging in work for Vitruvia.
Vitruvia have appointed Tina Harrigan-James, Co-founder of Vitruvia, as Safeguarding Lead.
The Vitruvia Safeguarding Lead will maintain a level of training appropriate to the work that we undertake as an organisation, completing the CPD-certified courses for Safeguarding and Child Protection and Online Safety provided by the NSPCC.
Vitruvia will include a statement on Safeguarding on our website.
Vitruvia will include safeguarding conditions on our Confirmation of Booking documents.
National Legislation
The Department for Education (DfE) is responsible for child protection in England. It sets out policy, legislation and statutory guidance on how the child protection system should work.
Local safeguarding partners are responsible for child protection policy, procedure and guidance at a local level.
The local safeguarding arrangements are led by three statutory safeguarding partners:
● The local authority
● The clinical commissioning group
● The police.
Working together with other relevant agencies, they must co-ordinate and ensure the effectiveness of work to protect and promote the welfare of children, including making arrangements to identify and support children at risk of harm.
Duty to protect children
The key guidance for child protection is Working together to safeguard children (Department for Education, 2018). This states:
● Everyone who works with children has a responsibility for keeping them safe
● Everyone who comes into contact with children and families has a role to play in sharing information and identifying concerns.
In addition, section 11 of the Children Act 2004 places a statutory duty on certain agencies to co-operate to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. This includes:
● Local authorities
● NHS services and trusts
● Police
● Probation services and young offenders institutions.
People who work in these agencies and who do not report suspected cases of abuse or neglect may be subject to disciplinary proceedings but do not currently face criminal penalties.
Mandatory reporting
It is mandatory for all regulated health and social care professionals and teachers in England to report 'known cases' of female genital mutilation (FGM) in under 18s to the police (Home Office, 2016).
Definition of a Vulnerable Adult
A vulnerable adult is an individual aged 18 years and above who is or may be unable to take care of themselves or is unable to protect themselves against harm or exploitation by reason of age, illness, trauma or disability, or any other reason. This includes prisoners, in-patients receiving health care treatment, and able-bodied people who may be incapacitated or impaired for a temporary period of time.
This statement of intent demonstrates Vitruvia's commitment to safeguarding vulnerable adults involved with our organisation:
● the welfare of the vulnerable adult is paramount
● no vulnerable adult or group of vulnerable adults must be treated any less favourably than others in being able to access services which meet their particular needs
● all vulnerable adults without exception, have the right to protection from abuse regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability, sexuality or beliefs
● the policy applies to all board members, partners, staff and volunteers
● vulnerable adults, carers and parents are informed of the policy and procedures as appropriate.
Duty to protect vulnerable adults
All providers of services to vulnerable adults have a duty to report any behaviour that may be considered extremist to the authorities, “Extremism” is vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. We also include in our definition of extremism calls for the death of members of our armed forces, whether in this country or overseas. Terrorist groups very often draw on extremist ideas developed by extremist organisations.
The general risks affecting children and vulnerable adults may vary from area to area, and according to their age. Consultants may be in an important position to identify risks within a given local context. It is important that consultants understand these risks so that they can respond in an appropriate and proportionate way. At the same time consultants should be aware of the increased risk of online radicalisation, as terrorist organisations such as ISIL seek to radicalise young people through the use of social media and the internet. There is no single way of identifying an individual who is likely to be susceptible to a terrorist ideology. As with managing other safeguarding risks, staff
should be alert to changes in behaviour which could indicate that they may be in need of help or protection.
Definitions of Abuse for children includes:
Physical abuse: may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating, or otherwise causing physical harm to a child or failing to protect a child from that harm. Physical harm may also be caused when a parent or carer fabricates the symptoms of, or deliberately induces illness in a child.
Neglect: is the persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical and/or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s health or development. Neglect may involve failure to provide adequate food and clothing or shelter; failure to ensure adequate supervision; or the failure to ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment.
Sexual abuse: is forcing or enticing a child to take part in sexual activities, including prostitution. It doesn’t necessarily involve violence and the child may not be aware that what is happening is abuse. The activities may involve physical contact and/or non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at pornographic material.
Emotional abuse: is the persistent emotional maltreatment of a child such as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child’s emotional development. It may involve conveying to children that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate, or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person. It may feature overprotection or preventing the child participating in normal social interaction.
Child Sexual Exploitation: is a type of sexual abuse. Young people in exploitative situations and relationships receive things such as gifts, money, drugs, alcohol, status or affection in exchange for taking part in sexual activities. Young people may be tricked into believing they're in a loving, consensual relationship. They often trust their abuser and don't understand that they're being abused. They can be groomed and exploited online.
Bullying and Cyberbullying: usually happens over a lengthy period of time and can harm a child both physically and emotionally. Bullying includes verbal and non-verbal abuse; threatening, intimidating or humiliating someone or ignoring or isolating someone; racial, sexual or homophobic bullying; physical assaults. Cyberbullying can involve social networks, games and mobile devices. It includes sending threatening or abusive text messages; creating and sharing embarrassing images or videos; 'trolling' - sending menacing or upsetting messages.
Child trafficking: involves recruiting and moving children who are then exploited. Many children are trafficked into the UK from overseas, but children can also be trafficked from one part of the UK to another.
Female genital mutilation (FGM): is the partial or total removal of external female genitalia for non-medical reasons. The age at which FGM is carried out varies. Religious, social or cultural reasons are sometimes given for FGM. However, FGM is child abuse. It's dangerous and a criminal offence.
For vulnerable adults’ abuse can mean:
Physical: This includes assault, hitting, slapping, pushing, giving the wrong (or no) medication, restraining someone or only letting them do certain things at certain times.
Domestic: This includes psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional abuse. It also covers so-called ‘honour’ based violence.
Sexual: This includes rape, indecent exposure, sexual harassment, inappropriate looking or touching, sexual teasing or innuendo, taking sexual photographs, making someone look at pornography or watch sexual acts, sexual assault or sexual acts the adult didn’t consent to or was pressured into consenting.
Psychological: This includes emotional abuse, threats of harm or abandonment, depriving someone of contact with someone else, humiliation, blaming, controlling, intimidation, putting pressure on someone to do something, harassment, verbal abuse, cyber bullying, isolation or unreasonable and unjustified withdrawal of services or support networks.
Financial or material: This includes theft, fraud, internet scamming, putting pressure on someone about their financial arrangements (including wills, property, inheritance or financial transactions) or the misuse or stealing of property, possessions or benefits.
Modern slavery: This covers slavery (including domestic slavery), human trafficking and forced labour. Traffickers and slave masters use whatever they can to pressurise, deceive and force individuals into a life of abuse and inhumane treatment. Also, see Vitruvias’ anti-slavery and trafficking policy
Discriminatory: This includes types of harassment or insults because of someone’s race, gender or gender identity, age, disability, sexual orientation or religion.
Organisational: This includes neglect and poor care in an institution or care setting such as a hospital or care home, or if an organisation provides care in someone’s home. The abuse can be a one-off incident or repeated, ongoing ill treatment. The abuse can be through neglect or poor professional practice, which might be because of structure, policies, processes and practices within an organisation.
Neglect and acts of omission: This includes ignoring medical, emotional or physical care needs, failure to provide access to appropriate health, care and support or educational services, or not giving someone what they need to help them live, such as medication, enough nutrition and heating.
Self-neglect: This covers a wide range of behaviour which shows that someone isn’t caring for their own personal hygiene, health or surroundings. It includes behaviour such as hoarding.
The six safeguarding principles
These were originally produced for the safeguarding of adults, but are also applied to the safeguarding of children.
Safeguarding both adults and children is about preventing the risk of harm from abuse or exploitation or having the ability to reduce it through supporting people and awareness in making informed decisions.
Empowerment: people being supported and encouraged to make their own decisions and give informed consent.
Prevention: it is better to take action before harm occurs.
Protection: support and representation for those in greatest need.
Partnership: local solutions through services working with their communities – communities have a part to play in preventing, detecting and reporting neglect and abuse.
Proportionality: the least intrusive response appropriate to the risk presented.
Accountability: accountability and transparency in safeguarding practice.
Recognise All consultants and partners have a responsibility to actively make the working environment safe and secure for all. To do so they should consider and act on the ‘5 Rs’ - Recognise, Respond, Record, Report, Refer.
How to report concerns about a child’s welfare as a Vitruvia consultant:
● If it is considered that the child or vulnerable adult is in immediate danger, call the police on 999
● Immediately complete a child protection disclosure form (Appendix 1) to act as a record of the incident or concern
● Make the completed disclosure form immediately available to the Vitruvia Safeguarding Lead Tina Harrigan-James
● The Vitruvia Safeguarding Lead will report the concern to the Safeguarding Lead at the education establishment attended by the child or vulnerable adult
● Other useful sources of advice and support are the NSPCC helpline 08088005000 and child protection services.
Identifying Concerns
Disclosure
Disclosure is the process by which children, young people or vulnerable adults start to share their experiences of abuse with others. This can take place over a long period of time – it is a journey, not one act or action.
Children or vulnerable adults may disclose directly or indirectly and sometimes they may start sharing details of abuse before they are ready to put their thoughts and feelings in order.
Not all disclosures will lead to a formal report of abuse or a case being made or a case being taken to court, but all disclosures should be taken seriously.
It takes extraordinary courage for a child or a vulnerable adult to go through the journey of disclosing abuse.
It's vital that anyone who works with children, young people or vulnerable adults undertaking this journey is able to provide them with the support they need.
How disclosure happens
Children, young people or vulnerable adults may disclose abuse in a variety of ways, including
● Directly– making specific verbal statements about what’s happened to them
● Indirectly – making ambiguous verbal statements which suggest something is wrong
● Behaviourally – displaying behaviour that signals something is wrong (this may or may not be deliberate)
● Non-verbally – writing letters, drawing pictures or trying to communicate in other ways.
Children, young people or vulnerable adults may not always be aware that they are disclosing abuse through their actions and behaviour.
Sometimes children, young people or vulnerable adults may make partial disclosures of abuse. This means they give some details about what they’ve experienced, but not the whole picture. They may withhold some information because they:
● Are afraid they will get in trouble with or upset their family
● Want to deflect blame in case of family difficulties as a result of the disclosure
● Feel ashamed and/or guilty
● Need to protect themselves from having to relive traumatic events.
When children do speak out it is often many years after the abuse has taken place (McElvaney, 2015).
Barriers to disclosure
Some children, young people or vulnerable adults are reluctant to seek help because they feel they don’t have anyone to turn to for support.
They may have sought help in the past and had a negative experience, which makes them unlikely to do so again.
They may also:
● Feel that they will not be taken seriously
● Feel too embarrassed to talk to an adult about a private or personal problem
● Worry about confidentiality
● Lack trust in the people around them (including parents) and in the
services provided to help them
● Fear the consequences of asking for help
● Worry they will be causing trouble and making the situation worse
● Find formal procedures overwhelming.
(Mental Health Foundation and Camelot Foundation, 2006).
Not all children, young people or vulnerable adults realise they have experienced abuse, for example, if they have been groomed.
Spotting the signs of abuse
Children, young people or vulnerable adults who have been abused may want to tell someone, but not have the exact words to do so. They may attempt to disclose abuse by giving adults clues, through their actions and by using indirect words (Allnock and Miller, 2013; Cossar et al, 2013).
Adults need to be able to notice the signs that a child or young person might be distressed and ask them appropriate questions about what might have caused this.
Child abuse happens when a person – adult or child – harms a child or vulnerable adult. It can be physical, sexual or emotional, but can also involve a lack of love, care and attention. Children and vulnerable adults who suffer abuse may struggle to find the words to speak out, so it’s vital that anyone working with children, young people or vulnerable adults is vigilant for the signs of abuse.
You should never wait until a child, young person or vulnerable adult tells you directly that they are being abused before taking action. Instead, ask the child if everything is OK or discuss your concerns with your organisation’s designated safeguarding lead, or the NSPCC helpline.
Waiting for a child or vulnerable adult to be ready to speak about their experiences could mean that the abuse carries on and they, or another child, are put at further risk of significant harm (Cossar et al, 2013).
Not taking appropriate action quickly can also affect the child’s or vulnerable adult's mental health. They may feel despairing and hopeless and wonder why no one is helping them. This may discourage them from seeking help in the future and make them distrust adults.
If a child tells you they are experiencing abuse, it’s important to reassure them that they’ve done the right thing in telling you. Make sure they know that abuse is never their fault.
Never talk to the alleged perpetrator about the child’s or vulnerable adult disclosure. This could make things a lot worse for the child or vulnerable adult
Non-biased approach
It’s vital that any child or vulnerable adult who is trying to disclose abuse feels that they are being listened to and taken seriously.
But there can be a risk that if professionals just believe the child’s account without thoroughly investigating the situation, this can lead to unfair bias against the alleged abuser as formal investigations progress (Child Protection Resource, 2018; Transparency Project, 2018).
This means it’s important to maintain an unbiased approach when responding to disclosures and follow your organisation’s procedures to ensure each case is treated in a fair and transparent manner and that the child gets the protection and support that they need.
Making notes
It is important to keep accurate and detailed notes on any concerns you have about a child, young person or vulnerable adult . You will need to share these with your nominated child protection lead.
Include:
● The child’s, young person or vulnerable adult details (name, age, address)
● What the child, young person or vulnerable adult said or did that gave you cause for concern (if the child made a verbal disclosure, write down their exact words)
● Any information the child, young person or vulnerable adult has given you about the alleged abuser.
Vitruvia consultants have access to a Code of Conduct, which is signed before work is undertaken, as well as a Disclosure Form, should they have any concerns about a child, young person or vulnerable adult. .
This Safeguarding Policy, Behaviour Policy and Disclosure Form will be reviewed on an annual basis.
Updated by Tina Harrigan-James, February 2021
Reviewed by Lynne Walters-Jackson, 9th February 2021
Updated by Sally Everist, 14th July 2022
Updated by Sally Everist, 12th September 2025
Appendix 1
Vitruvia Code of Conduct
Consultants
This document outlines the conduct Vitruvia expects from all of our consultants and anyone who is undertaking duties for the organisation, whether paid or unpaid. The Code of Conduct aims primarily to help us protect all clients, with a particular focus on children, young people or vulnerable adult from abuse and ensure that all of our clients experience a consistently high standard of engagement with any Vitruvia Collaborator. It has been informed by the views of children and young people. Vitruvia is responsible for making sure everyone taking part in our services has seen, understood and agreed to follow this Code of Conduct, and that they understand the consequences of inappropriate behaviour.
The scope of this Code of Conduct includes all clients, whether adults, young people under the age of 18, and young people under the age of 25 who have additional needs.
The role of staff and volunteers
In your role at Vitruvia you are acting in a position of authority and have a duty of care towards the adults, children and young people we work with. You are likely to be seen as a role model and are expected to act appropriately.
Responsibility
As a consultant for Vitruvia you are responsible for:
● Prioritising the welfare of clients
● Providing a safe environment for clients
● Ensuring equipment is used safely and for its intended purpose
● Having good awareness of issues to do with safeguarding child and vulnerable adult protection and taking action when appropriate
● Following our principles, policies and procedures including our policies and procedures for child and vulnerable adult protection/safeguarding and health and safety
● Staying within the law at all times
● Modelling good behaviour for children, young people and vulnerable adults to follow
● Challenging all unacceptable behaviour and reporting any breaches of the Code of Conduct to Sally Everist using this email address:
careerscollectiveconfidential@gmail.com
● Reporting all concerns about abusive behaviour, following our safeguarding and child protection procedures - this includes behaviour being displayed by an adult or child and directed at anybody of any age.
Rights
You should:
● Treat clients fairly and without prejudice or discrimination
● Understand that clients are individuals with individual needs
● Respect differences in gender, sexual orientation, culture, race, ethnicity, disability, and religious belief systems, and appreciate that all participants bring something valuable and different to the group/session
● Challenge discrimination and prejudice
● Encourage clients to speak out about attitudes or behaviour that makes them uncomfortable.
Relationships
You should:
● Promote relationships that are based on openness, honesty, trust and respect
● Avoid favouritism
● Be patient with others and exercise caution when you are discussing sensitive issues with clients
● Ensure your contact with clients is appropriate and relevant to the work of the project you are involved in
● Ensure that whenever possible, there is a responsible adult present during virtual activities with children, young people and vulnerable adult
● If a situation arises where you working virtually one-to-one with a child, young person, or vulnerable adult ensure that you are within sight or hearing of other adults.
Respect You should:
● Listen to and respect children, young people and vulnerable adults at all times
● Value and take children’s, young people and vulnerable adults contributions seriously, actively involving them in planning activities wherever possible
● Respect a young person’s and vulnerable adults right to personal privacy as
far as possible. If you need to break confidentiality in order to follow child or vulnerable adult protection procedures, it is important to explain this to the child, young person or vulnerable adult at the earliest opportunity.
Unacceptable behaviour
When working with children, young people or vulnerable adults, you must not:
● Allow concerns or allegations to go unreported
● Take unnecessary risks
● Smoke, consume alcohol or use illegal substances
● Develop inappropriate relationships with children, young people or vulnerable adults
● Make inappropriate promises to children, young people or vulnerable adults
● Engage in behaviour that is in any way abusive - including having any form of sexual contact with a child or young person or vulnerable adult
● Let child or young person or vulnerable adult have your personal contact details (mobile number, email or postal address) or have contact with them via a personal social media account
● Act in a way that can be perceived as threatening or intrusive
● Patronise or belittle children and young people
● Make sarcastic, insensitive, derogatory or sexually suggestive comments or gestures to or in front of children and young people.
What to do if a child or vulnerable adult accuses you
Contact your the Vitruvia safeguarding lead in the first instance Make and keep a record of the accusation and actions taken.
The Director will take whatever steps are necessary to ensure the child or vulnerable adult is protected. They may contact the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) in the area in which the abuse is alleged to have taken place, or contact the police.
Upholding this Code of Conduct
You should always follow this Code of Conduct and never rely on your reputation or that of our organisation to protect you. If you have behaved inappropriately you will not be asked to work for Vitruvia again. Depending on the seriousness of the situation, we may also make a report to statutory agencies such as the police and/or the local authority child protection services.
If you become aware of any breaches of this Code, you must report them to Sally Everist, Co-founder of Vitruvia. (details above)
Name__________________________________________________________________ Signed__________________________________________Date___________________
Appendix 2
Vitruvia Child Protection Disclosure Form
All allegations, complaints or suspicions of abuse should be recorded as soon as possible after the incident or occurrence. Details should be recorded as accurately and precisely as possible without opinion, interpretation, or prejudice. Any disclosures of abuse made by children should be recorded using their own words as far as is possible.
Date and time of incident or disclosure:
Known details about the child or vulnerable adult, eg: name, age, ethnicity, religion, any disabilities:
Names and details known of those involved in the disclosed information or incident: Details of what happened or disclosure of allegations:
Names and known details of any witnesses:
Please indicate here where physical evidence of abuse has been observed:
Details of any other children or any other vulnerable adults deemed to be at risk: What action has been taken:
Names of parents or carers, responsible members of staff, other agencies involved and contact details:
This form must be sent without delay to the Vitruvia Safeguarding Lead Tina Harrigan-James at tinaharriganjames@gmail.com
Please also telephone Tina on 07881417088 to alert her of the email.
Signed________________________________________Date_____________ Name
____________________________________________________________