The safeguarding procedures were reviewed by the Safeguarding Committee in May 2026.

• Over-protection – preventing someone accessing educational and social opportunities and seeing friends
• Intimidation, coercion, harassment, use of threats, humiliation, bullying, swearing or verbal abuse
• Conveying feeling of worthlessness, inadequacy or that a child is unloved
• Threats of harm or abandonment
• Placing inappropriate expectations on children
• Witnessing or hearing the abuse or ill-treatment of others

• Forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities, which may or may not involve violence
• Penetrative acts
• Non-penetrative acts (kissing, masturbation, rubbing or inappropriate touching)
• Sexual photography or forced use of pornography or witnessing of sexual acts
• Non-contact (looking at or producing pornography or sexual images, watching sexual activities, grooming in preparation for abuse)

• Excessive hunger
• Inadequate or insufficient clothing
• Poor personal or dental hygiene
• Untreated medical issues
• Changes in weight or being excessively under or overweight
• Low self-esteem, attachment issues, depression or self-harm
• Poor relationships with peers
• Self-soothing behaviours that may not be age-appropriate (e.g. rocking, hair-twisting, thumb-sucking)
• Changes to school performance or attendance

Adults and Children can both be affected by domestic abuse as a single incident or pattern of incidents perpetrated by an intimate or ex-partner, parent, child or other family member.

• Can include any and all acts of physical abuse
• Can include any and all acts of emotional/psychological abuse
• Can include any and all acts of financial and material abuse
• Can include any and all acts of sexual abuse
• Can include any and acts of neglect
• Can include coercive control

• Bullying and cyber-bullying
• Child sexual exploitation
• Criminal exploitation and gangs
• Female genital mutilation (FGM)
• Grooming
• Harmful sexual behaviour
• Radicalisation prevent duty 2011
• Online abuse
• Historic abuse

Further information can be found at nspcc.org.uk

In adult abuse, signs of abuse can often be difficult to detect. Below is a list of possible types of adult abuse:

• Physical abuse
• Domestic violence or abuse and coercive control
• Sexual abuse
• Psychological or emotional abuse
• Financial or material abuse
• Modern slavery
• Discriminatory abuse
• Organisational or institutional abuse
• Neglect or acts of omission.
• Self-neglect
• Historic abuse

Further information at scie.org.uk

All employees and volunteers who have any contact with children and adults at risk have a responsibility to protect them. If you suspect that an individual is at risk of abuse/harm then your duty is to report this concern.

If someone has been harmed or is at an immediate risk then in the first instance you should call the police on 999 and then inform the Safeguarding team and your line manager of your concerns and the actions taken.

If the risk is not immediate you should contact your line manager and the Safeguarding team for guidance.

Concerns can be submitted to the Safeguarding team via the new web form here, or via telephone on 02045587891.

We will continue to accept email referrals, whilst we transition to a fully IMP system, if there are ever any concerns about how to raise concerns then please contact the safeguarding team on [email protected].

For SSAFA Community Healthcare staff please follow your local procedures

The Personal Support and Social Work Service (PS&SWS) have their own Safeguarding Policy which should be followed in the first instance. PS&SWS staff should follow their own reporting structure and seek advice and guidance from their Social Work Team Lead (SWTL)or Regional Service Manager (RSM) regarding matters involving a safeguarding concern. However, all staff must also ensure their practice remains aligned with overarching organisational safeguarding policies and procedures.

1. Listen carefully to what they're saying
2. Give them the tools to talk
3. Let them know they've done the right thing by telling you
4. Tell them it's not their fault
5. Say you'll take them seriously
6. Don't confront the alleged abuser
7. Explain what you'll do next
8. Do not promise not to tell anybody
9. Write down exactly what the child says

Notify the SSAFA Safeguarding team of any safeguarding concerns as soon as possible.

SSAFA Community Healthcare staff (Overseas) follow local procedures.

1. Listen to what the person says
2. Write down the exact words the person used when they disclosed it to you
3. Do not bombard them with questions: listen to what they say. If you need to ask a question, make sure it’s an open one e.g. what happened? Closed questions usually have a one-word answer such as yes or no
4. Make sure your record distinguishes between fact and opinion
5. Record should be written in permanent ink and not pencil
6. Do not promise confidentiality

Discuss next steps with your line manager and the SSAFA Safeguarding team.

SSAFA Healthcare staff (Overseas) follow local procedures

While safeguarding is everybody’s business there are key people within SSAFA, who have specific responsibilities to respond to ensure our safeguarding procedures are effective.

1. Trustees:With guidance from SSAFA’s safeguarding trustee, they set the strategic direction for safeguarding and ensure that appropriate resources are in place to implement our approach across both the employee and volunteer network.
2. SSAFA Safeguarding Board:The Safeguarding Board (see ToR at Annex A), chaired by the safeguarding trustee, is the body that will set, review and evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding for the whole organisation.
3. The CEO:delivered through the designated Director, as safeguarding lead: leadership, accountability, policy and direction, governance and the sharing of information across the organisation to coordinate an appropriate response to any given situation.
4. The Designated Director for Safeguarding: is the Director of Social Care Operations: Is responsible for ensuring that safeguarding across the organisation is in line with SSAFA’s established policy and procedures and leads the development and delivery of safeguarding for volunteers and staff and is the key point of contact with the MoD safeguarding partnership board.
5. The Principal Safeguarding Officer (PSO):Works in conjunction with the Designated Director for Safeguarding and safeguarding board responsible to deliver the organisations safeguarding strategic aims and objectives. The PSO has organisational responsibility for monitoring safeguarding issues, ensuring compliance with this policy and acts as a main point of contact for volunteers/employees who want to discuss safeguarding. The Principal Safeguarding Officer provides advice and support and direction around safeguarding issues within office hours.
6. The Domestic Abuse and Safeguarding Social Worker:Works with the PSO within the safeguarding team. They have the overall responsibility for day-to-day functioning of the SPOC email address and telephone number. They provide advice, support and direction around safeguarding issues within office hours.
7. SSAFA Named Nurse for Safeguarding:Each NHS health provider in UK must have a named nurse for safeguarding children SSAFA mirrors this requirement for Community Healthcare services to ensure that the organisation meets its responsibilities to safeguard and protect children named professionals have a key role in promoting good professional practice within their organisation, providing advice and expertise, and ensuring safeguarding training is in place.
8. Directors of: Welfare Operations, Director of Social Care Operations and Community Health Operations:are responsible for leadership, policy compliance, implementation and accountability across their operational areas.
9. Directors of: People and Welfare Operations:are responsible for training, safe recruitment and accreditation (including DBS and PVG checking, appropriate background and police checks and the checking and confirmation of relevant professional registrations) of employees and volunteers and the development of appropriate people polices.

SSAFA will meet its obligations to keep beneficiaries safe from harm and its employees, volunteers and trustees safe by ensuring they have the right people in place with the right skills this will be done through recruitment, vetting, induction, and training.

SSAFA has employees and volunteers who work directly with children and adults at risk of abuse. As such, SSAFA undertakes its recruitment procedures and practices in accordance with current legislation and guidance.

SSAFA’s Criminal Records Policy will be used to ensure the relevant checks are done for all employees who come into contact with children and adults at risk of abuse. Volunteers are subject to checks as detailed in Training Annex C

Every volunteer/employee/recruit who comes into contact with children or adults at risk must attend the appropriate level of safeguarding training for their post during induction and then subsequently refreshed in accordance with mandated timelines.

All professional medical and social work employees must be in date to the level of safeguarding training deemed commensurate with their professional role and as detailed in their current job description.

Details are published in “What Safeguarding Training Do I Need?”

This should be reviewed by the Safeguarding Board on an Annual Basis.

Staff operating above level 1 could consider alternative training and learning opportunities appropriate to their working environment which would be an acceptable method of updating, as opposed to re-attending routine safeguarding training provided, unless they are aware of specific changes to legislation or training materials.

Where, through no fault of their own, an employee DBS/ PVG/ Access check has lapsed or they have not been able to access appropriate training in line with our policy, that individual’s line manager may elect to continue to employ the individual in their current role pending checks or training. This decision will be based on the line manager’s personal knowledge of the individual, and the line manager will then accept the liability for the individual’s safeguarding clearance.

However, each instance must always be discussed with SSAFA’s safeguarding lead prior to any definitive decision being taken and HR notified.

Where an individual fails to engage with the DBS/ PVG/ Access checking process (for example by failing to produce necessary documentation), the individual’s line manager must suspend that individual from direct contact with beneficiaries until the DBS/ PVG/ Access process has been completed.

If the individual continues to fail to engage, then, for employees, disciplinary action should be considered. Volunteers should remain suspended from client contact and the Volunteer Tenure Policy consulted.

The management of those employees/volunteers whose DBS/ PVG check raises concerns: This is an organisational decision and will be based on the nature of the concern raised by the DBS/ PVG/ Access check. This will be decided in line with safer recruitment procedures for employees and volunteers.

The management of those employees/volunteers who have a complaint/incident pending which is pertinent to safeguarding, the Principal Safeguarding Officer and the People team should be contacted for specialist advice/discussion regarding any safeguarding element and mitigation of risk.

Complaints should be investigated in accordance with SSAFA’s Complaints Policy or under handling complaints.

If the complaint is submitted that expresses or suggests any concern relating to safeguarding, this will be directed to the Principal Safeguarding Officer.

Any such complaint will be dealt with, and in accordance with theComplaints Policy.

Such complaints and incidents will then be reviewed and investigated, as appropriate. SSAFA’s Designated Director for Safeguarding will be notified and kept appraised of progress. They will in turn update the CEO and other relevant directors.

All complaints must be registered centrally via the Group mailbox -[email protected].

The findings of any such investigations will be reported to the Chief Executive Officer, The Safeguarding Board and Risk Committee via the chair who will report and update Council and, where necessary, partner organisations. Learning points from any such investigation will be cascaded across the organisation, and the original complainant or employee/volunteer who raised the incident will be kept fully informed of the findings and recommendations.

The Safeguarding Board has the authority to request any safeguarding complaints or incident investigations to be audited by subject matter experts (SMEs) external to SSAFA or an internal review.

Safeguarding complaints can be a reputational risk, at the discretion of the Principal Safeguarding Officer/Designated Safeguarding Lead the PR Team may be alerted at the beginning of the process to facilitate monitoring and a public response if necessary.

Anyone who delivers any outputs or services for SSAFA needs to have a full understanding of how to escalate any concerns they may have regarding the safeguarding of children or vulnerable adults.

The safeguarding flowchart Annex B should be used in the first instance.

Procedures for volunteers are laid out in Annex C.

SSAFA will adhere to this policy to provide guidance on how SSAFA will manage employees and volunteers about whom concerns have been raised relating to their behaviour towards children, young people or vulnerable adults.

All employees and volunteers who are either required to undertake supervision under the terms of their job descriptions or it is felt necessary due to the nature of their role are to ensure that safeguarding issues are discussed and, where necessary, appropriate actions taken, as part of their supervision process.

For all health practitioners there is a mandatory requirement to access safeguarding supervision, as a minimum, every three months.

Safeguarding supervision is available, at anytime, for SSAFA Community Healthcare staff who have safeguarding concerns about an adult or child or when a situation has had an emotional on their own wellbeing.

All employees and volunteers are to know, through training and development of local policies, that they need to contact the Safeguarding team to discuss any and all concerns. Advice and support will be provided to anyone who contacts the team which will also include a debrief of the situation.

Any employee wishing to ‘make a disclosure in the public interest’ that has occurred when an employee raises a concern about dangerous or illegal actions of other employees that in turn affects patients/clients/beneficiaries or members of the public should do so in accordance with SSAFA’s Whistleblowing Policy.

The following is how SSAFA will assure that it is meeting its safeguarding obligations:

1. Mandatory safeguarding training including levels, frequency, and subject matter (adults /children) and as agreed by Learning and Development (L&D), service safeguarding leads and signed off by SSAFA’s safeguarding lead.
2. An annual report to the Safeguarding Board demonstrating compliance to training requirements will be completed by Learning & Development.
3. Levels of DBS, PVG or Access checks for staff and volunteers will be done in accordance with statutory eligibility guidance by HR and/or Director of Welfare Operations.
4. Frequency of re-checking is detailed in Criminal Records Policy and monitored by the People and Volunteer Development Teams, regular reporting to evidence this will be annually to the Safeguarding Board.
5. Annual reporting to SSAFA’s Safeguarding Board of allegations against employees or volunteers by SSAFA’s safeguarding lead.

Safeguarding concerns can be submitted to the Safeguarding team:

• Via the new web form here: Safeguarding referral
• By telephone on Annex C - Safeguarding Procedures for Volunteers0204 558 7891

We will continue to accept email referrals during we transition to a fully IMP system. If there are ever any concerns about how to raise concerns, please contact the Safeguarding team at [email protected].

1. When a volunteer has a safeguarding concern, and unless the volunteer is worried that by so doing, they may cause the situation to deteriorate or a child or adult is in immediate danger as per ii, the volunteer should advise the client that they have a concern and that they will be taking internal advice in respect of the issue raised.
2. If a volunteer has a concern about a child or adult’s immediate safety, then they must immediately contact the with the police or local authority in line with local procedures. They should then notify the Principal Safeguarding Officer that they have done so at the earliest opportunity via email/SPOC.
3. The volunteer is to discuss any safeguarding concerns using the Central Office single point of contact (SPOC) 020 4558 7891,which will be directed to the Principal Safeguarding Officer. The SPOC is available between 0900 -1700 Monday to Friday. If appropriate, volunteers should inform their manager of their concern. All parties consulted as to the concerns must respect SSAFA’s rules on confidentiality and in line with GDPR. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility, and although we should be aware of confidentiality and GDPR regulations this should not stop us from sharing information if there is a safeguarding concern.
4. If a volunteer has a safeguarding concern within a prison establishment, the volunteer must inform a member of the Safer Custody Team immediately. Where a volunteer has a safeguarding concern regarding an offender who is on a community sentence, the offender’s supervisor/offender manager/ responsible officer must be informed immediately. They should then inform the Principal Safeguarding Officer via SPOC of their concern and the action taken at the earliest opportunity.
5. Out of hours, the volunteer should call their local authority (or local or national equivalent) out of hours team to report their concern. They should then inform their Chairman/Chair or Head of Service and the SSAFA Principal Safeguarding officer using the SPOC line of their concern and the action taken at the earliest opportunity.

(If you are worried let us talk about it.)

1. The Safeguarding team will respond to your call within the hours of 0900-1700 All submitted webforms and emails will be responded to on the same day if they come in before 1630, any webforms and emails received after that time may be responded to the next day.

The Safeguarding team will agree with the volunteer or employee, any next steps or immediate action to be taken and will record this discussion and decisions made on an internal safeguarding proforma/email. The volunteer will receive this on the same day.

1. The volunteer will be expected to carry forward the actions agreed with support from the Safeguarding team if needed/requested. Where an agreement of next steps cannot be reached between the volunteer and the Safeguarding team, it is the responsibly of the Principal Safeguarding Officer to ensure that a decision is made based on the information given at the time, in the best interest of the child/adult at risk.
2. If a situation occurs where an agreement cannot be reached between the volunteer and Principal Safeguarding Officer, the matter will be escalated by the Principal Safeguarding Officer to the Designated Safeguarding Director and the volunteer's line manager for a further discussion between all parties and address any lessons to be learned. (The child/adult in question will be safeguarded prior to this discussion taking place.)
3. The volunteer should inform the Safeguarding team via SPOC/email when the advised action has been taken. The Principal Safeguarding Officer also has a responsibility to ensure that the agreed actions have been fulfilled. This will require a follow up discussion that ensures the safeguarding of the client, volunteer and outcome or any further action.
4. The Principal Safeguarding Officer will share all referrals that require intervention or referral to the local authority with the Director of Welfare Operations and the Designated Safeguarding Director for oversight, no matter at what level the issue is resolved once each quarter.
5. If there is a view that concerns could escalate and be a reputational risk, the Principal Safeguarding Officer will consult with the PR team at the earliest opportunity.