Hand-outs
All Wales Basic Safeguarding
Awareness Training
All Wales Basic Safeguarding
Key Policy, Guidance and
Legislation Summary
Adults
In Safe Hands 2000:
Implementing Adult Protection
Procedures in Wales
This guidance placed a duty on Local authorities
in Wales to coordinate adult protection
procedures in their areas. The document defined
terms such as abuse and was the Welsh
Government’s initial step toward developing a
comprehensive and consistent approach toward
adult protection.
Wales Interim Policy and
Procedures for the Protection of
Vulnerable Adults from Abuse
2010 (updated Jan 2013)
This practice manual is intended to provide a
consistent approach to adult protection across
Wales. It is used by the following agencies:
Welsh local authorities
Welsh police forces
Welsh health boards and trusts
Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales
(CSSIW)
The Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust
The Wales Fire and Rescue Service
The National Probation Trust
The Health and Safety Executive
The manual contains detailed policy and
procedure and is the required handbook for adult
protection practitioners in Wales. A ten stage
process provides a standardised approach to the
management of all abuse referrals.
The principles underlying the document are based
on the European Convention of Human Rights
and the Human Rights Act 1998.These principles
imply the following:
Protecting a vulnerable adult should be
everyone’s paramount concern.
All staff have an ethical and professional duty
of care to act if they:
Witness abuse;
Receive information about abuse, suspected
abuse or concerns about the care or
treatment of a vulnerable adult;
Or
Have concerns or suspicions about possible
abuse or inappropriate care.
Vulnerable adults have the right to be fully
involved throughout the adult protection
process and to make decisions about their
safety and welfare, unless it has been
assessed that they do not have the mental
capacity to make any particular decision.
The sharing of information by professionals
must be with due regard to confidentiality
and information security, for example using
secure e-mail and password-protected
documents.
Hand-outs
The Wales Adult Protection Policy and
Procedures, including criminal investigations,
override other organisational procedures,
such as disciplinary and complaints
investigations.
Vulnerable adult is defined in Wales Interim Policy
and Procedures for the Protection of Vulnerable
Adults from Abuse 2010 as:
A vulnerable adult is a person over 18 years of
age who is or may be in need of community care
services by reason of mental or other disability,
age or illness and who is or may be unable to
take care of himself or herself, or unable to
protect himself or herself against significant harm
or serious exploitation. This definition may include
a person who:
has learning disabilities; has mental health
problems, including dementia; is an older person
with support / care needs; is physically frail or has
a chronic illness; has a physical or sensory
disability; misuses drugs or alcohol; has an autistic
spectrum disorder.
The document is described as Interim in
recognition of future legislation that will update
policies and procedures.
Children and
young people
United Nations Convention on
the Rights of the Child 1989
The Convention says that every child has:
The right to a childhood (including protection
from harm);
The right to be educated (including all girls
and boys completing primary school);
The right to be healthy (including having
clean water, nutritious food and medical
care);
The right to be treated fairly (including
changing laws and practices that are unfair
on children);
The right to be heard (including considering
children's views).
(UNICEF)
The Convention has been accepted by the United
Kingdom and is used to inform legislation, policy
and procedure. The right to a childhood and the
right to be heard are both directly relevant to
child protection legislation.
All Wales Basic Safeguarding
Awareness Training
Children Act 1989 and 2004
Under the Children Act 1989, local authorities,
have a general duty to safeguard and promote the
welfare of children within their area who are in
need. (Sec.17 Children Act 1989). This Act
introduces the concept of ‘significant harm‘.
A child is defined as being subject of significant
harm where there is ill treatment or impairment of
health or development:
'Ill treatment' includes sexual and emotional
abuse as well as physical abuse
'Health' includes physical and mental health
'Development' includes physical, intellectual,
emotional, social and behavioural
development
'Significant Harm' turns on the question of
the harm suffered by a child in respect of its
health and development compared with the
health and development reasonably expected
of another child.
(Sec. 31(10) Child Act 1989)
The Children’s Act 2004 introduces a duty to
safeguard and promote the welfare of
children (Section 11). This duty requires all
agencies with responsibilities towards children to
discharge their functions with regard to the need
to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
They must also ensure that anybody providing
services on their behalf must do the same. The
purpose of this duty is that agencies give
appropriate priority to safeguarding children and
share concerns at an early stage to encourage
preventative action.
Local Safeguarding Children
Boards (Sections 13-16)
Children’s services authorities must establish Local
Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCB) to replace
area child protection committees with statutory
membership from ‘Board partners’.
Partners are those identified above, plus the
Children and Family Court Advisory and Support
Service and the governors of any secure training
centre or prison which ordinarily detains children.
There is a duty of co-operation between the
children’s services authority and Board partners.
The purpose of LSCBs is to co-ordinate the work
of Board partners for the purpose of safeguarding
and promoting the welfare of children and to
ensure effectiveness.
Working Together under the
Children Act 2004
This guidance covers the work of local
safeguarding boards in Wales and can be
summarised thus:
Describes how actions to safeguard children
fit within the wider context of support to
children and families;
Summarises some of the lessons learned from
research and experience to date on the
nature and impact of abuse and neglect, and
how best to operate child protection
processes;
Sets out the role and responsibilities of
different agencies and practitioners;
Outlines the way in which joint working
arrangements should be agreed,
implemented and reviewed through the
mechanism of LSCBs;
Hand-outs
Sets out the processes which should be
followed when there are concerns about a
child, and the action which should be taken
to safeguard and promote the welfare of
children who are suffering, or at risk of
suffering, significant harm;
Provides guidance on child protection in
specific circumstances, including children
living away from home;
Outlines some important principles which
should be followed in work with children and
families;
Sets out the processes which should be
followed if a tragedy occurs, in order to learn
lessons and make any necessary
improvements in practice to safeguard
children;
Discusses the importance of multi-agency
training, and considers training requirements.
All Wales Child Protection Policy
and procedures 2008
This guidance circulated revised procedures for all
LSCBs in Wales and was produced to cover
emerging areas of concern for safeguarding
children in special circumstances such as:
Handling complaints from families about the
functioning of the child protection conference
Safeguarding children in whom illness is fabricated
or induced;
Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of
sexually active young people; and
The protection of children from abuse via
information technology.
All Wales Basic Safeguarding
Awareness Training