Safeguarding Policy Children and adults at risk | England

OUR COMMITMENT Everyone has the right to be safe from abuse, neglect and exploitation. Safeguarding is the responsibility of every person working for or on behalf of ADHD Lancashire Limited.

1. Purpose

This policy explains how ADHD Lancashire Limited prevents harm, recognises and responds to safeguarding concerns, records decisions, shares information and refers concerns to statutory agencies. It is intended to support prompt, proportionate and person-centred action.

ADHD Lancashire Limited will recognise concerns, listen, record, assess immediate safety, refer where appropriate and cooperate with statutory agencies. It will not undertake a child-protection, adult-safeguarding or criminal investigation. Internal employment or disciplinary enquiries will be managed separately and only in a way that does not prejudice statutory enquiries.

2. Scope

This policy applies to all directors, employees, coaches, contractors, sessional workers, volunteers, students and anyone working for or on behalf of ADHD Lancashire Limited. It applies to in-person, telephone and online services, events, groups, coaching, training, communications and social media interactions.

Although ADHD Lancashire Limited primarily supports adults, a safeguarding concern may relate to a service user's child, another child, an adult at risk, a worker's conduct or information shared during a service. Such concerns remain within the scope of this policy.

This policy follows the legal and safeguarding framework for England. Where the person lives outside Lancashire, the concern will normally be referred to the local authority where they live. Where another UK nation or country is involved, the relevant local safeguarding and legal framework must be followed.

3. Principles

The welfare and immediate safety of the child or adult is the first consideration.
Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility; concerns must never be assumed to be someone else's problem.
People will be listened to, treated with dignity and supported to communicate in ways that work for them.
The wishes, feelings, identity, communication needs and desired outcomes of an adult will be considered wherever possible.
Action will be timely, proportionate, non-discriminatory and informed by professional advice.
ADHD, disability or neurodivergence alone does not make an adult an 'adult at risk'. Individual circumstances and the Care Act criteria must be considered.
No person will be disadvantaged for raising a genuine concern in good faith, even if it is not substantiated.

4. Legal and practice framework

This policy is informed by the following legislation and guidance, as amended or replaced:

Children Act 1989 and Children Act 2004.
Care Act 2014 and Care and Support Statutory Guidance.
Mental Capacity Act 2005 and its Code of Practice.
Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 and Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.
Equality Act 2010.
Domestic Abuse Act 2021.
Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR, as amended.
Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026.
Current Lancashire Safeguarding Partnership policies, procedures and referral routes.

Keeping Children Safe in Education is not listed as a general governing document because it is directed at schools and colleges. Where ADHD Lancashire Limited is commissioned by or works within an education setting, it will also follow the current version of that setting's safeguarding and child-protection procedures and applicable education guidance.

5. Definitions

Child

A child is anyone under 18.

Adult at risk

For this policy, adult safeguarding concerns are considered within the Care Act framework. This concerns an adult aged 18 or over who:

has needs for care and support, whether or not the local authority is meeting those needs;
is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect; and
because of those care and support needs, they are unable to protect themselves from abuse or neglect or the risk of it.

The term 'adult at risk' is preferred to the general expression 'vulnerable adult'. The term 'vulnerable adult' may still appear where it is the wording used in specific legislation or DBS guidance.

6. Recognising abuse, neglect and exploitation

Safeguarding concerns may be current, historical, suspected, disclosed directly, observed, reported by another person or identified through a pattern of behaviour. They may occur in a family, community, institution, workplace, care setting or online.

Types of harm may include:

physical abuse; sexual abuse; emotional or psychological abuse;
domestic abuse, including coercive or controlling behaviour;
financial or material abuse; discriminatory abuse and hate crime;
neglect and acts of omission; self-neglect and hoarding;
organisational abuse; modern slavery and trafficking;
grooming, stalking, harassment and abuse facilitated through technology;
criminal, sexual, financial or other exploitation; and
for children, abuse between children, exposure to domestic abuse, neglect, online harm and harm occurring outside the family or home.

The presence of one indicator does not necessarily prove abuse. Concerns should be considered in context and patterns, changes in presentation, unexplained injuries, fear, withdrawal, controlling relationships, missing money, unsafe living conditions or unusual online contact should not be dismissed.

7. Roles and responsibilities

All workers and volunteers

complete required safeguarding induction and refresher learning;
maintain professional boundaries and follow this policy;
Respond promptly to concerns and disclosures;
make a clear factual record and report without delay;
preserve possible evidence and avoid confronting the person alleged to have caused harm; and
Challenge unsafe practice and use the alternative reporting route if necessary.

Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)

The Designated Safeguarding Lead is Bernadette Ashton, Director. The DSL will:

receive and securely record concerns;
consider immediate safety, the person's wishes and capacity where relevant, and the need for urgent action;
seek safeguarding advice and make referrals to the appropriate local authority, police, LADO, PiPoT route, regulator or other agency;
record the information considered, decisions, reasons, referrals, advice received and follow-up action;
ensure safeguarding records are kept separately, and access is restricted;
support workers without compromising confidentiality; and
Review safeguarding practice, training and this policy at least annually.

ALTERNATIVE REPORTING ROUTE If the DSL is unavailable, implicated in the concern, has a conflict of interest or does not act, the person receiving the concern must contact the appropriate statutory service directly. Urgent action must never wait for the DSL.

8. Responding to a disclosure or concern

Anyone who becomes aware of a safeguarding concern must act promptly.

Make the situation safe. If a child or adult is in immediate danger, needs urgent medical attention, or a crime is in progress, call 999. Do not place yourself or others at additional risk.
Listen calmly and take the person seriously. Allow them to speak at their own pace. Use open prompts only where clarification is essential, such as 'Tell me what happened'.
Do not promise secrecy. Explain that information may need to be shared with people who can help keep them or someone else safe.
Do not ask leading or repeated questions, press for detail, confront the person alleged to have caused harm, mediate between parties or try to establish proof.
Report the concern to the DSL immediately. An urgent verbal report must not be delayed while a written record is prepared.
Make a factual written record as soon as possible. Include the date, time, method or location, people present, what was observed, the person's exact words wherever possible, actions already taken and your name and signature or secure electronic authentication.
Preserve relevant evidence, such as messages or emails, without searching devices, forwarding intimate material or creating unnecessary copies. Seek police or safeguarding advice where evidence may be at risk.

9. Decision-making and referral

The DSL will consider the immediate risk, whether a child or an adult at risk may be affected, the person's wishes and capacity, where relevant, whether a crime may have occurred, whether the concern involves a worker, and which authority is responsible. The DSL may seek advice without disclosing identity initially when appropriate.

Where the threshold for a statutory safeguarding enquiry is uncertain, this must not prevent a referral or request for advice. The receiving authority determines whether its statutory threshold is met.

The DSL will record the decision to refer or not, along with the reasons. If a referral is made verbally, it will be confirmed through the required local process. The DSL will follow up if acknowledgement is not received or the risk remains.

ADHD Lancashire Limited will cooperate with statutory enquiries and provide relevant records lawfully. It will not undertake its own safeguarding or criminal investigation. Any necessary internal management or disciplinary process will be coordinated with the police, the local authority, the LADO, or the PiPoT process to ensure that evidence and statutory enquiries are not compromised.

10. Adults: wishes, consent and mental capacity

Adult safeguarding should be person-centred. Where an adult has capacity, their wishes and desired outcomes will normally guide the response, and consent will usually be sought before sharing information. The adult will be given accessible information about options and possible consequences.

Information may be shared or action taken without consent when there is a lawful and proportionate reason, including serious risk to the adult or another person, risk to a child, coercion or undue influence, suspected serious crime, a legal duty, risk to others or concern that a person in a position of trust may pose a wider risk. The decision and reasons will be recorded.

Capacity is decision-specific and time-specific. A person must not be treated as lacking capacity merely because they make an unwise decision. Where there is reason to doubt capacity for the relevant decision, the Mental Capacity Act principles will be followed, and appropriate statutory advice sought. ADHD or another diagnosis does not in itself establish a lack of capacity.

11. Concerns or allegations about a worker

Any concern about a director, employee, coach, contractor, volunteer or other person working for or on behalf of ADHD Lancashire Limited must be reported immediately. The person receiving the concern must not alert the worker concerned, question witnesses or begin an internal fact-finding exercise before obtaining safeguarding advice, except for essential action to protect someone from immediate harm.

Where the concern relates to children

The Lancashire Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) must be consulted when the relevant criteria are met, including where a person who works with children may have harmed a child, committed a related criminal offence, behaved in a way indicating a risk of harm, or behaved in a way indicating they may be unsuitable to work with children. Lancashire accepts referrals and advice requests via its online form; its published email address is for administrative use and is not a referral route.

Where the concern relates to adults at risk

Concerns about a person working with adults with care and support needs will be managed under the relevant Lancashire People in Positions of Trust (PiPoT) framework and adult-safeguarding referral arrangements. Risk to other adults or children, current employment and other organisations involved will be considered.

Managing the worker

Protective management action may include changing duties, increasing supervision or suspension where appropriate. Suspension is a neutral act and is not automatic. Employment, contractual and data-protection obligations will be followed, with specialist advice obtained where needed.

Where ADHD Lancashire Limited is a regulated activity provider, it will make a referral to the Disclosure and Barring Service when the legal referral conditions are met, including where a person is removed from regulated activity, or would have been removed had they not left, and the relevant conduct, harm-test or offence condition is met. A DBS referral may still be required even when another agency has been notified.

12. Safer recruitment and conduct

Each role will be assessed, and only the level of DBS check for which the role is legally eligible will be requested.
DBS checks will not be treated as a substitute for identity checks, appropriate interviews, employment or activity history, references, role-specific risk assessment, training, supervision and professional boundaries.
Recruitment decisions will be fair, proportionate and compliant with equality, rehabilitation of offenders, and data protection requirements.
Safeguarding expectations, codes of conduct, online boundaries and routes for raising concerns will be included in induction.
Workers must declare relevant changes, investigations or restrictions where required by their contract, professional code or law.

13. Online working and digital safeguarding

Use approved organisational accounts, platforms and contact methods wherever possible.
State the purpose, participants and confidentiality expectations for online groups and sessions. Make clear that group confidentiality is expected but cannot be absolutely guaranteed by ADHD Lancashire Limited.
Do not record meetings, take screenshots, or capture chat messages without a clear lawful purpose and the informed agreement of participants, except where necessary and lawful to preserve evidence of a safeguarding concern.
Do not share participant contact details, images, recordings or personal information without a lawful basis and appropriate permission.
Maintain professional boundaries in direct messages and on social media. Do not move conversations to personal accounts unless expressly authorised and risk-assessed.
For planned work with a child, follow the agreed consent, parental responsibility, platform, visibility, and contact arrangements, and the commissioning organisation's procedures, where applicable.
At the start of remote one-to-one work, know enough about the person's location and emergency contact arrangements to respond proportionately if an urgent safety issue arises, while collecting only as much information as necessary.
Report online grooming, threats, coercion, image-based abuse or other technology-facilitated harm through the same safeguarding process.

14. Confidentiality and information sharing

Safeguarding information will be shared where it is relevant, necessary, proportionate and lawful. Access will be limited to people who need the information for a legitimate safeguarding, legal or management purpose, but fear about data protection must not prevent appropriate sharing to protect someone from harm.

Consent will normally be sought where safe and appropriate, particularly when working with an adult who has capacity. Information may be shared without consent where this is necessary to protect a child or adult from harm, prevent or detect crime, comply with a legal obligation or protect another person. The lawful basis, information shared, recipient, time and reason will be recorded.

The person will normally be told what will be shared and why, unless doing so would increase risk, prejudice an investigation, place another person at risk or be otherwise unsafe or unlawful. Decisions not to share will also be recorded.

15. Safeguarding records and retention

Safeguarding records will be factual, contemporaneous where possible, dated and attributable. They will include the original concern, any disclosure in the person's own words, risk assessment, consent and capacity considerations, decisions and reasons, advice received, referrals, communications, outcomes known to the organisation and review actions.

Records will be held securely in a restricted safeguarding file or system under the control of the DSL and kept separately from ordinary coaching or service notes, with a cross-reference in the main record only where necessary. Access and disclosures will be logged. Electronic records will use appropriate access controls and secure transfer methods; paper records, if any, will be locked securely.

Retention will follow ADHD Lancashire Limited's documented retention schedule, taking account of the nature of the concern, the age of the person, limitation periods, employment and insurance requirements, contractual duties and any advice or direction from statutory agencies. The DSL will record the retention decision for each safeguarding file.

Records will not be kept indefinitely without a documented reason and will be securely destroyed when the retention period expires, and no hold applies.

16. Training, supervision and support

All workers and volunteers will receive safeguarding information appropriate to their role before unsupervised contact, and will receive refresher learning at intervals determined by role and risk. Training will cover recognising harm, disclosures, reporting, recording, information sharing, professional boundaries, online work and allegations against workers.

The DSL will maintain suitable safeguarding knowledge and know how to obtain local advice. Safeguarding will be included in supervision and service review where relevant. Workers affected by a safeguarding situation will be offered appropriate support without disclosing information they do not need to know.

17. Whistleblowing, complaints and escalation

Anyone who believes unsafe practice is being ignored, concealed or mishandled must use the alternative reporting route and may contact the relevant local authority, police, regulator, commissioner or professional body directly. No person will be penalised for raising a genuine concern in good faith.

A complaint about service quality does not replace safeguarding action. Where a complaint contains a safeguarding concern, this policy takes priority for the safeguarding aspects. If a person disagrees with a safeguarding decision, their concerns and reasons will be recorded, and the escalation options will be explained.

18. Review, learning and governance

The Director is responsible for approving this policy and assuring that it is implemented. The policy will be reviewed at least annually and sooner after a safeguarding incident, complaint, near miss, organisational change, change in services, change in law or guidance, or learning from a statutory safeguarding review.

Reviews will consider referral quality, timeliness, recording, information sharing, online practice, recruitment, training, equality and accessibility. Personal information will be anonymised when learning can be shared without identifying individuals.

19. Key contacts and referral routes

Immediate danger, urgent medical need or crime in progress

Emergency services 999

Non-emergency police matter Police 101

Concern about a child in Lancashire

Lancashire Children's Social Care

0300 123 6720; online request/referral route

Urgent social-care concern outside office hours

Lancashire Emergency Duty Team

0300 123 6722

Concern about an adult in Lancashire

Lancashire Adult Social Care / Safeguarding

Online safeguarding form; 0300 123 6720; dedicated safeguarding-adults contact 0300 123 6721

Allegation about a person working with children

Lancashire LADO

Use the online LADO form. The published email is administrative, not a referral route.

Concern about a person in a position of trust working with adults

Lancashire PiPoT / Adult Safeguarding

Follow the current Lancashire PiPoT framework and the adult safeguarding referral route.

Advice about child safeguarding

NSPCC Helpline

0808 800 5000

A person lives outside Lancashire

Relevant local authority

Report to the local authority where the child or adult lives; use 999 for immediate danger.

Contact details and online routes must be checked at each annual review and before publication following a known local change.

20. Approval

Approved by

Bernadette Ashton, Director

Signature B.Ashton

Date approved 04/08/2026

Next review date 04/08/2026

Contact Information Designated Safeguarding Lead:

Bernadette Ashton - bernadette@adhdlancashire.com

Local Safeguarding Board (Children): www.safeguardingpartnership.org.uk

Local Safeguarding Board (Adults): https://lancashiresafeguardingpartnership.org.uk/safeguarding-adults

NSPCC Helpline: 0808 800 5000