Safeguarding Policy
This policy sets out how Synergy Safeguarding Ltd safeguards the people we come into contact with through our own work, and what we do if we become aware of a safeguarding concern while delivering training, consultancy, or accreditation services.
It applies to Hazel O'Halloran, and to any delivery partner engaged on our behalf, in the course of any work carried out for or on behalf of Synergy Safeguarding Ltd.
1. Our commitment
Synergy Safeguarding Ltd is committed to the safety and wellbeing of everyone we come into contact with through our work, including client staff, volunteers, and, where relevant, the people our clients support. We take our own safeguarding responsibilities as seriously as the standards we ask our clients to meet.
2. Our safeguarding lead
Hazel O'Halloran is the nominated safeguarding lead for Synergy Safeguarding Ltd, and is the first point of contact for any safeguarding concern relating to our work.
- hazel@synergysafeguarding.co.uk
- Phone
- 07865 057990
3. Recruitment and vetting
Hazel O'Halloran holds a current Basic DBS check, renewed every 3 years. As Hazel's work is training, consultancy, and audit-based rather than unsupervised, direct contact with children or vulnerable adults meeting the statutory definition of regulated activity, she is not eligible to hold an Enhanced DBS check.
Any delivery partner engaged by Synergy Safeguarding to deliver training, supervision, or checks on our behalf is required to hold appropriate vetting and checks for the work they carry out, consistent with the standards we ask our own clients to meet.
4. Site visits
Where our work requires visiting a client's premises, to carry out an audit or deliver training in person for example, Hazel O'Halloran does not attend alone. Visits take place with the client's own staff present throughout, in line with the client's own site safety and lone-working arrangements.
5. What we do if we become aware of a concern
In the course of our work, delivering training, reviewing policies, carrying out an audit, or visiting a site, we may become aware of information that raises a safeguarding concern. If this happens:
- Where someone appears to be at immediate risk of harm, we will contact the emergency services (999) or the relevant local safeguarding team without delay.
- Where the concern is not immediate, we will raise it with the client organisation's own Designated Safeguarding Lead as soon as reasonably possible. Where no Designated Safeguarding Lead is in place, we will raise it with the most senior available contact at the organisation instead.
- We will keep a written record of the concern, what was done, and when, in line with Section 6 below.
- Where we have a legal obligation or an overriding duty to the public to share information further, we will do so, consistent with the information-sharing circumstances set out in our Terms and Conditions.
This policy is a route for us to act on concerns arising from our own work. It does not replace a client organisation's own safeguarding policy and reporting routes, which remain the correct first point of contact for concerns arising within their own service.
6. Record-keeping
We keep a record of any safeguarding concern we act on, identifiable, not anonymised. A record that cannot be traced back to who and what it concerned is not useful if it ever needs to be followed up, handed over, or relied on later.
We keep this to the minimum needed: who the concern related to, what was raised, what we did, and when. Records are stored separately from our general business files, in a restricted location, and are not shared beyond what is necessary to act on the concern.
We retain safeguarding concern records for 7 years, reflecting how long such a record could reasonably need to be relied upon.
7. Confidentiality
Information shared with us in the course of our work is treated in line with the confidentiality commitments in our Terms and Conditions and our Privacy Notice. We share information only where there is a legal obligation to do so, a duty to the public or safeguarding responsibilities, explicit consent, or where it is necessary for the provision of our services with appropriate confidentiality agreed.
8. Training and development
Hazel O'Halloran maintains her own safeguarding knowledge and practice through ongoing continuing professional development, consistent with the professional standards described in our Terms and Conditions.
9. Review
This policy is reviewed annually, or sooner if our ways of working change. Questions about this policy can be sent to hazel@synergysafeguarding.co.uk.