Safeguarding

Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to protect people, particularly children, at risk adults and beneficiaries of assistance, from any harm that may be caused due to their coming into contact with Shephard & Moyes Ltd.  This includes harm arising from:

  • The conduct of staff or personnel associated with Shephard & Moyes Ltd
  • The design and implementation of Shephard & Moyes Ltd’s evaluations

The policy lays out the commitments made by Shephard & Moyes Ltd, and informs staff and associated personnel of their responsibilities in relation to safeguarding.

This policy does not cover Safeguarding concerns in the wider community not perpetrated by Shephard & Moyes Ltd or associated personnel.

What is safeguarding?

In the UK, safeguarding means protecting peoples’ health, wellbeing and human rights, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse and neglect. In our sector, we understand it to mean protecting people, including children and at-risk adults, from harm that arises from coming into contact with our staff or evaluations.

 Further definitions relating to safeguarding are provided in the glossary below.

Scope

  • All staff contracted by Shephard & Moyes Ltd
  • Associated personnel whilst engaged with work or visits related to Shephard & Moyes Ltd, including but not limited to the following: consultants; volunteers; contractors; programme visitors including journalists, celebrities and politicians

Policy Statement

Shephard & Moyes Ltd believes that everyone we come into contact with, regardless of age, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation or ethnic origin has the right to be protected from all forms of harm, abuse, neglect and exploitation.  Shephard & Moyes Ltd will not tolerate abuse and exploitation by staff or associated personnel.

This policy will address the following areas of safeguarding:  child safeguarding, adult safeguarding, and protection from sexual exploitation and abuse.  These key areas of safeguarding may have different policies and procedures associated with them.

Shephard & Moyes Ltd commits to addressing safeguarding throughout its work, through the three pillars of prevention, reporting and response.

Prevention

Shephard & Moyes Ltd responsibilities

Shephard & Moyes Ltd will:

  • Ensure all staff have access to, are familiar with, and know their responsibilities within this policy.
  • Design and undertake all its evaluations in a way that protects people from any risk of harm that may arise from their coming into contact with Shephard & Moyes Ltd.  This includes the way in which information about individuals in our evaluations is gathered and communicated.
  • Implement stringent safeguarding procedures when recruiting, managing and deploying staff and associated personnel.
  • Ensure staff receive training on safeguarding at a level commensurate with their role in the organisation.
  • Follow up on reports of safeguarding concerns promptly and according to due process.

Staff responsibilities

Shephard & Moyes Ltd staff and associated personnel must not engage in any activities that could be seen to exploit children or at risk adults. This includes engaging in any kind of relationship with project beneficiaries or that in any way take advantage of the power dynamics associated with any kind of evaluation work.

Additionally, Shephard & Moyes Ltd staff and associated personnel are obliged to:

  • Contribute to creating and maintaining an environment that prevents safeguarding violations and promotes the implementation of the Safeguarding Policy
  • Report any concerns or suspicions regarding safeguarding violations by a Shephard & Moyes Ltd staff member or associated personnel to the appropriate staff member

Enabling reports

Shephard & Moyes Ltd will ensure that safe, appropriate, accessible means of reporting safeguarding concerns are made available to staff and the communities we work with.

Shephard & Moyes Ltd will also accept complaints from external sources such as members of the public, partners and official bodies. 

How to report a safeguarding concern

Staff members who have a complaint or concern relating to safeguarding should report it immediately to a Director of Shephard & Moyes Ltd.  If the staff member does not feel comfortable reporting to a Director we will ensure they have contact details of the appropriate client contact for each project.

Shephard & Moyes Ltd will follow up safeguarding reports and concerns according to policy and procedure, and legal and statutory obligations. We will also follow the appropriate safeguarding policies of the organisations we are contracted to.

Shephard & Moyes Ltd will apply appropriate disciplinary measures to staff found in breach of policy.

Confidentiality

It is essential that confidentiality is maintained at all stages of the process when dealing with safeguarding concerns.  Information relating to the concern and subsequent case management should be shared on a need to know basis only, and should be kept secure at all times.

The person responsible for Safeguarding is: Claire Moyes, Director.

Last reviewed: 1st May 2023

THIS POLICY IS REVIEWED ANNUALLY BY THE COMPANY DIRECTORS