Safeguarding and Welfare

Safeguarding is the term used to define the actions we take to promote the welfare of individuals and protect them from harm, abuse, and exploitation. We are committed to providing a safe, supportive, and inclusive learning environment for everyone. Every member of staff has a responsibility to help ensure your safety and wellbeing.

A safeguarding concern is: “Anything that may cause worry about another person or contributes to a person feeling uncomfortable or unsure about the safety or welfare of someone else or themselves (including indications of potential radicalisation and expression of extremist views)”

Safeguarding concerns can include:

• Abuse—including physical, psychological, emotional, sexual, financial and neglect
• Discrimination
• Homelessness
• Mental health issues
• Physical health issues
• Substance use
• Radicalisation
• Concerns about welfare of friends, family or neighbours

As part of our duty of care to you, it is important for you to understand the following:

• If you have a safeguarding concern about yourself or someone else, it is important you tell someone you trust or you may chose to contact one of the organisations on the Safeguarding Contacts List below.
• We have robust safeguarding arrangements in place and more details on this can be found in our Safeguarding and Prevent Policy and Procedures here and on our Safeguarding Poster here
• We have a duty of care to all of our learners, where there is risk of harm we will need to take action. We will treat any safeguarding suspicions or disclosures with professionalism and care.
• We have to work on the assumption that sexual harassment and online sexual abuse is happening, so we will check for this even when no reports are made
• Depending on the nature of the safeguarding concern, information may have to be shared with your Tutor/Assessor, their manager, or the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL). It may also be appropriate for information to be shared with external organisations in order to get appropriate help

The Prevent Strategy is part of the Government’s Counter Terrorism Strategy (CONTEST). Prevent is a multi-agency approach to safeguarding people at risk of radicalisation (e.g. being drawn into extremist groups, including terrorist groups).

As part of the strategy, we have a legal duty to “pay due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism.”

The radicalisation process is very similar to a grooming process for abuse. Often individuals can be made to change their behaviour and can end up supporting extremist groups when they maybe wouldn’t have chosen to do so before.

Prevent is about helping the individual to change before it’s too late. If we become concerned about you or someone else, and believe radicalisation may be happening, it may be appropriate for us to involve Channel. This is a process designed to support the individual and reverse the radicalisation process through input from different agencies.

The internet is an amazing tool for learning, gathering information, meeting people, sharing experiences, shopping and more.

Your wellbeing is our top priority, so keep these tips in mind to ensure your online experience is both enjoyable and safe.

1) Keep private information private

Sharing personal information can make you vulnerable to identify theft, cyberstalking, and other issues. Think twice before you put anything on the web, and make sure the information is suitable for all eyes.

Before you make any internet purchases, check the company’s privacy policy. If they don’t guarantee to safeguard your personal data, shop elsewhere. If you shop online keep a close eye on your bank or payment activity. If you notice purchases that you have not made, contact them immediately.

Phishing involves creating sites or sending e-mails that appear to be from a legitimate company asking you to confirm personal information. Most reputable sites will not contact you in this way so be wary of any messages asking you for information such as bank account numbers and passwords. If in doubt do not share.

2) Keep your accounts secure

It’s tempting to choose a password that is really easy to remember, such as your birth date or favourite sports team, but these kind of passwords leave you open to identify theft and fraud. Create a password that contains:

	Eight or more characters
	Numbers as well as letters
	Upper and lower case letters
	Special characters e.g. % @
	No personal information

3) Keep yourself safe

Many people online are not who they say they are. If you use an online platform such as social media or a dating site to arrange a personal meeting with someone, always meet them in a public place. Before you go your meeting, tell a trusted friend or colleague where you’re going and be sure to ask them to check up on you at an agreed time later in the day.