Safeguarding Policy

Dalchi Healthcare is there to protect our customer's right to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect.

 To set out the key arrangements and systems Dalchi Healthcare has in place for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of adults at risk, and to ensure compliance with local policies and procedures.

To have a clear, well-publicised policy of zero-tolerance of abuse within Dalchi Healthcare.

 To support Dalchi Healthcare in meeting the following Key Lines of Enquiry:     

Key Question

Key Line of Enquiry (KLOE)

SAFE

: How do systems, processes and practices keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse?

SAFE

: How are risks to people assessed and their safety monitored and managed so they are supported to stay safe and their freedom is respected?

EFFECTIVE

: How does the service make sure that staff have the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and support?

EFFECTIVE

: Is consent to care and treatment always sought in line with legislation and guidance?

To meet the legal requirements of the regulated activities that Dalchi Healthcare is registered to provide:

• Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (Disclosure and Barring Service Transfer of Functions) Order 2012

• Serious Crime Act 2015 Section 76

• Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004

• The Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015

• The Modern Slavery Act 2015

• Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014

• The Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 Section 20-25

• Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998

• The Care Act 2014

• Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009

• Equality Act 2010

• The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) Regulations 2015

• Human Rights Act 1998

• Mental Capacity Act 2005

• Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006

To ensure that all staff working for, or on behalf of Dalchi Healthcare, understand their responsibilities in relation to safeguarding adults at risk and know who to escalate concerns to within Dalchi Healthcare.

To manage the safety and well-being of adults in line with the six principles of safeguarding.

To identify lessons to be learned from cases where adults have experienced abuse or neglect.

Dalchi Healthcare aims to support and empower each adult to make choices, to have control over how they want to live their own lives, and to prevent abuse and neglect occurring in the future which is a key underpinning principle of Making Safeguarding Personal (MSP). Dalchi Healthcare intends to take this approach with all safeguarding concerns.

 Everybody has the right to live a life that is free from harm and abuse. Dalchi Healthcare recognises that safeguarding adults at risk of abuse or neglect is everybody's business. Dalchi Healthcare aims to ensure that all adults at risk of abuse or neglect are enabled to live and work, be cared for and supported in an environment free from abuse, harassment, violence, or aggression. The organisation's safeguarding policies and procedures will dovetail with the local multi-agency policy and procedures, which we

understand take precedence over the organisation's policy and procedures. Dalchi Healthcare will ensure that local policies and procedures are reflected within our own policy and procedure and that this is shared with all staff.

We aim to provide services that will be appropriate to the adult at risk and not discriminate because of disability, age, gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, culture, or lifestyle. We will make every effort to enable Customers to express their wishes and make their own decisions to the best of their ability, recognizing that such self-determination may well involve risk.

We will work with Customers and others involved in their care, to ensure they receive the support and protection they may require; that they are listened to and treated with respect (including their property, possessions and personal information) and that they are treated with compassion and dignity.

Dalchi Healthcare will follow the six principles as set out in guidance to the Care Act 2014 and this will inform practice with all Customer's:

• Empowerment – People being supported and encouraged to make their own decisions and informed consent

• Prevention – It is better to take action before harm occurs

• Proportionality – The least intrusive response appropriate to the risk presented

• Protection – Support and representation for those in greatest need

• Partnership – Local solutions through services working with their communities. Communities have a part to play in preventing, detecting and reporting neglect and abuse

• Accountability – Accountability and transparency in delivering safeguarding

 Dalchi Healthcare understands the importance of working collaboratively to ensure that:

• The needs and interests of adults at risk are always respected and upheld

• The human rights of adults at risk are respected and upheld

• A proportionate, timely, professional and ethical response is made to any adult at risk who may be experiencing abuse

• All decisions and actions are taken in line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005

• Each adult at risk maintains:

◦ Choice and control

◦ Safety

◦ Health

◦ Quality of life

◦ Dignity and respect

 Our robust governance processes will make sure that staff working for and on behalf of Dalchi Healthcare recognise and respond to the main forms of abuse which are set out in the Care Act 2014 Statutory Guidance Chapter 14, which is not an exhaustive list but an illustration as to the sort of behaviour that could give rise to a safeguarding concern:

• Physical abuse

• Domestic violence

• Sexual abuse

• Psychological abuse

• Financial or material abuse

• Modern slavery

• Discriminatory abuse

• Organisational abuse

• Neglect and acts of omission

• Self-neglect