Safeguarding Children & Young People Policy

Section 01

Purpose

We Are Care works in care. Some of the people our care staff support are children and young people — whether placed in a regulated children’s setting, an education setting, or a household supporting a disabled child or care leaver. This policy sets out how we identify safeguarding concerns about children, how we respond to them, and how we work with statutory partners to keep them safe.

The welfare of the child is paramount. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. This policy applies regardless of role, seniority or contract type.

Section 02

Scope & definitions

This policy applies to all We Are Care directors, employees, bank and temporary carers, and contractors — and to anyone we recruit, employ or place into a setting where they may have contact with children or young people. It applies UK-wide. Statutory frameworks differ by nation; Sections 01–11 set out shared principles, and Section 14 sets out the national reporting routes for England and Wales.

Child / young person

Anyone who has not yet reached their 18th birthday. Includes disabled children and care leavers.

Regulated activity with children

Caring for, supervising or being in sole charge of children on a frequent or overnight basis. Triggers specific vetting and barring duties (see Section 12).

Safeguarding children

Protecting children from maltreatment; preventing impairment of their health or development; ensuring they grow up in safe and effective care; taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.

Child protection

The activity undertaken to protect a specific child who is suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm.

Categories of abuse

Physical abuse · emotional abuse · sexual abuse · neglect · harm arising outside the home (extra-familial / contextual safeguarding, including criminal exploitation, sexual exploitation, peer-on-peer abuse and online harm).

Section 03

Our safeguarding principles

1. The welfare of the child is paramount.
2. All children have an equal right to protection — regardless of background, disability, communication need, identity or circumstance.
3. We listen to children and take what they tell us seriously.
4. We act on concerns promptly. We do not delay on the assumption that someone else will act.
5. We work openly with statutory partners and share information lawfully and proportionately.
6. We apply anti-racist and anti-discriminatory practice. We recognise that systemic bias affects how concerns about children are identified, escalated and responded to — and we operate to counter that. (Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026, strengthened expectation.)

Section 04

Roles & responsibilities

Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)

Vicky Welfare. Holds responsibility for the safeguarding response for both adults and children, holds the children’s safeguarding remit, and reports directly to the board. Holds children’s-tier safeguarding training appropriate to the role; refreshers and any additional training identified post-live are completed in line with Section 08.

Deputy DSL (director level)

Toby Gavin. Covers the DSL when unavailable. Holds director-level cover on safeguarding response. Holds children’s-tier safeguarding training appropriate to the Deputy DSL role, or undertakes it before role assumption.

Lead safeguarding director (board-level)

Vicky Welfare. Holds board-level accountability for safeguarding, ensures resourcing, and receives safeguarding assurance. Reports a summary of safeguarding activity to the board quarterly.

Out-of-hours on-call director

Director-level cover for safeguarding response out of hours, per the current rota maintained in Baton. Current named contact in the Key contacts table at the end of this policy.

Every We Are Care worker and director

• Is responsible for recognising and reporting safeguarding concerns about children.
• Must complete children-appropriate safeguarding training (see Section 08).
• Must follow this policy and the procedures of the setting they are working in.
• Must not investigate alleged abuse themselves — the role is to recognise, record and report.

We Are Care as personnel supplier

Operates safer recruitment (Section 12), provides written confirmation of vetting to client settings as required of personnel suppliers, maintains training and records, and meets the statutory DBS referral duty (Section 13).

Section 05

How to raise a concern

If you suspect or witness abuse or neglect of a child, or a child discloses to you:

1. Make sure the child is safe. If a child is in immediate danger, call 999.
2. Listen and reassure. Do not promise confidentiality — tell them you have to share what they’ve said with people who can help.
3. Do not investigate. Do not interview, contradict or challenge the alleged abuser. Do not ask leading questions. Do not contaminate evidence.
4. Record what you saw or were told. Date, time, place, the child’s exact words where possible, your observations — in factual language, separating fact from interpretation.
5. Report immediately. Contact the DSL by phone or email. Out of hours, contact the on-call director. Do not delay until your next shift.

Section 06

Our response

Stage	What happens	Timescale
Receipt	DSL acknowledges and records the concern in the children’s safeguarding log.	Same working day
Immediate safety	DSL confirms the child is safe and that any required emergency steps have been taken.	Same working day
Statutory referral	Where indicated, refer to the relevant local authority children’s social care team via the national route in Section 14. Notify police, Care Inspectorate Wales, Ofsted or other regulators as required.	Within 24 hours (sooner where the child is at immediate risk)
Internal action	Identify any We Are Care-side action: suspension of an individual, removal from a setting, additional supervision, training, statutory DBS referral.	Within 5 working days
Review	Reflect on the concern, share learning, update procedures as needed.	Within 30 days of resolution

Section 07

Confidentiality & information sharing

Information about a child safeguarding concern is shared on a strict need-to-know basis with the people who need it to keep the child safe. Concern for a child’s safety overrides a duty of confidentiality. We follow the Caldicott principles and the Data Protection Act 2018 / UK GDPR. Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026 confirms that data protection law does not prevent the sharing of information for the purpose of keeping a child safe.

Special category personal data (including health, ethnicity and information about sex life) and personal data relating to criminal allegations or convictions — where processed for safeguarding purposes — is governed by our Appropriate Policy Document (APD) under Schedule 1, Part 2, paragraph 18 of the Data Protection Act 2018 (safeguarding of children and individuals at risk).

We do not promise confidentiality to a child who discloses abuse — we explain that we have to share the information with those who can act on it, and we tell them who we are sharing with where appropriate.

Section 08

Training & competence

• All We Are Care workers complete safeguarding induction covering both adults and children before any deployment. Workers being placed into roles with contact with children complete additional child-safeguarding induction content as part of that induction.
• Refresher training every two years, or sooner where role or regulation requires.
• The DSL and Deputy DSL complete higher-level children’s safeguarding training and stay current with sector practice. Where additional training is identified as required post-live, it is completed within a reasonable period of identification and recorded in the training register.
• The DSL and Deputy DSL also complete training on managing allegations about a person who works with children, aligned to LADO / DOS expectations.
• Training records are held in We Are Care’s care operating systems and surfaced to providers and inspectors on request.

Section 09

External reporting

The following external bodies may need to be involved in a children’s safeguarding response. The right route depends on which nation the child is in; full reporting routes are at Section 14.

• Local authority children’s social care — the lead statutory body for child protection in England and Wales. Contact varies by area; details held in Baton.
• Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) (England) — for allegations about a person who works with children. See Section 13.
• Designated Officer for Safeguarding (DOS) (Wales) — for allegations about a practitioner or person in a position of trust. See Section 13.
• Police — 999 for immediate danger, 101 otherwise.
• Care Quality Commission (CQC) — for matters affecting CQC-registered providers caring for children.
• Ofsted — for matters affecting children’s social care settings in England.
• Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) — for matters affecting regulated children’s services in Wales.
• Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) — for statutory referrals where a worker may pose a risk to children (see Section 13). It is a criminal offence to fail to refer without good reason.
• NSPCC helpline — 0808 800 5000. Free, confidential, available to anyone with a concern about a child.

Section 10

Review & ownership

This policy is owned by the We Are Care board of directors. The Designated Safeguarding Lead leads on operational implementation: it’s embedded in worker induction, reinforced in refresher training, surfaced in the day-to-day workflow, and refreshed continually as statute, statutory guidance or sector practice calls for it. A summary of children’s safeguarding activity is reported to the board quarterly, separately from adults’ safeguarding activity.

Published at wearecare.co.uk/policies/safeguarding-children-young-people.

Section 11

Use of Baton

Baton may help capture, route or remind — including holding the children’s safeguarding log, surfacing vetting status to client settings, evidencing training completion, maintaining the operational contact list of local authorities and Designated Officers per active placement area, and reminding on review and refresher cadence. Safeguarding judgement, escalation and referral remain human-owned.

Section 12

Safer recruitment & vetting for children’s settings

For any role that is regulated activity with children, or that may bring a worker into contact with children, we:

• Obtain an enhanced DBS check including children’s barred-list information before the worker is placed into regulated activity with children. Barred-list information is only requested where the role legally qualifies.
• Verify identity and right to work to Home Office standards, with full employment history and explanation of any gaps.
• Use an application process (not a CV alone) that states our safeguarding commitment and whether the role is subject to DBS and barred-list checks.
• Obtain and verify references — including a reference from any employer where the applicant previously worked with children, with safeguarding-specific questions answered.
• Provide the client setting with written confirmation that the required checks (enhanced DBS with barred-list information, where relevant) have been completed, as required of personnel suppliers.
• Apply probationary review and appropriate supervision during the early period of placement.
• Require workers to self-disclose any new cautions, convictions, or relevant concerns arising during employment.
• Use the DBS Update Service with the worker’s consent to monitor ongoing status. Consent is captured at onboarding.

No one barred from working with children may be offered, accept or carry out regulated activity with children. Doing so is a criminal offence under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006.

DBS evidence — what we keep

• The DBS certificate image is destroyed within six months of the engagement decision, in line with the DBS Code of Practice.
• We retain a DBS metadata record of the check (certificate number, issue date, level, workforce, outcome, name of verifier).
• We retain a DBS Update Service status-check log for the duration of engagement.
• Right to Work evidence is retained for the duration of employment plus the Home Office-specified period.
• Retention period for vetting metadata where a worker has been engaged in children’s regulated activity (including children’s residential placements): 25 years from the end of engagement, or until the worker reaches age 75, whichever is sooner. Aligned to extended limitation periods in historical abuse claims and to sector practice for children’s residential providers.
• All retention periods are confirmed against the central Retention Schedule (RoPA companion sheet).

Information security controls on all vetting records are governed by our Information Security Policy (BTN-WAC-IS-2026). Security lead: Joel Dawson.

Section 13

Managing allegations against a worker or person in a position of trust

Where an allegation is made that a We Are Care worker or director has harmed a child, may have committed a criminal offence against a child, or behaved in a way that indicates they may be unsuitable to work with children, the DSL is informed immediately and the following applies:

• The relevant national route is followed — England: LADO; Wales: practitioner-concerns route via the DOS. (Full national routes at Section 14.)
• The DSL contacts the LADO / DOS normally within one working day.
• We do not investigate independently in a way that could prejudice a statutory or criminal process.
• We consider interim measures — suspension, redeployment away from children, or other proportionate restriction — based on risk, with appropriate support for the person who is the subject of the allegation. Suspension is not a sanction; it is a precaution.
• Where a worker is dismissed, removed from regulated activity, or would have been removed had they not resigned, because they harmed or posed a risk of harm to a child, We Are Care makes the statutory referral to the DBS. Failure to refer without good reason is a criminal offence.
• The lead safeguarding director (Vicky Welfare) ensures board oversight of any case meeting the LADO / DOS threshold.

Section 14

Reporting routes — national annexes

Annex A — England

• Refer concerns about a child to local authority children’s social care (the local MASH / front door). Contact varies by placement area; held in Baton per active placement.
• Allegations about a person who works with children — refer to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) in the placement area, normally within one working day. Contact held in Baton per active placement area.
• NSPCC helpline: 0808 800 5000.
• Police: 101, or 999 in an emergency.
• Statutory framework: Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026; Children Act 1989; Children Act 2004 (s.11); Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006; Keeping Children Safe in Education (where applicable).

Annex B — Wales

• Duty to report a child at risk to the local authority under the Wales Safeguarding Procedures, and to the police where a crime may have been committed. Contact varies by placement area; held in Baton per active placement.
• Allegations about a practitioner or person in a position of trust — follow Safeguarding Allegations and Concerns about Practitioners and Those in a Position of Trust (Wales), via the Designated Officer for Safeguarding (DOS). Contact held in Baton per active placement area.
• Consider notifying Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) where relevant.
• Police: 101, or 999 in an emergency.
• Statutory framework: Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014; Wales Safeguarding Procedures; Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006.

Key contacts

Role	Name	Contact
Designated Safeguarding Lead	Vicky Welfare	vicky@wearecare.co.uk
Deputy DSL (director level)	Toby Gavin	toby@wearecare.co.uk
Lead safeguarding director (board-level)	Vicky Welfare	vicky@wearecare.co.uk
Out-of-hours on-call director	Julian Humphreys	jude@wearecare.co.uk
Local authority children’s social care	Held in Baton per active placement	—
Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) — England	Held in Baton per active placement	—
Designated Officer for Safeguarding (DOS) — Wales	Held in Baton per active placement	—