The purpose of this document is to provide procedures for dealing with reports of breach of GraceSimba Safeguarding Policy, where the safeguarding violation is:

• Against staff or members of the public,
• Perpetrated by staff, partners or associated personnel

Procedures

1. Report is received

Reports can reach the organisation through various routes. This may be in a structured format such as a letter, e-mail, text or message on social media. It may also be in the form of informal discussion or rumour. If a staff member hears something in an informal discussion or chat that they think is a safeguarding concern, they should report this to the appropriate staff member in their organisation.

a. If a safeguarding concern is disclosed directly to a member of staff, the person receiving the re- port should bear the following in mind:

• Listen
• Empathies with the person
• Ask who, when, where, what but not why
• Repeat/ check your understanding of the situation
• Report to the appropriate staff member (see below)

b. The person receiving the report should then document the following information, using an Incident Report Form if there is one:

• Name of person making report
• Name(s) of alleged survivor(s) of safeguarding incident(s) if different from above
• Name(s) of alleged perpetrator(s)
• Description of incident(s)
• Dates(s), times(s) and location(s) of incident.

c. The person receiving the report should then forward this information to the Safeguarding Focal Point or appropriate staff member within 24 hours. 

d. Due to the sensitive nature of safeguarding concerns, confidentiality must be maintained during all stages of the reporting process, and information shared on a limited ‘need to know’ basis only. This includes senior management who might otherwise be appraised of a serious incident.

e. If the reporting staff member is not satisfied that the organisation is appropriately addressing the report, they have a right to escalate the report, either up the management line, to the Board (or other governance structure), or to an external statutory body. The staff member will be protected against any negative repercussions as a result of this report. See GraceSimba Complaints Policy and Disclosure of Malpractice in the Workplace Policy.

2. Assess how to proceed with the report

a. Appoint a Decision Maker for handling this report.

b. Determine whether it is possible to take this report forward

• Does the reported incident(s) represent a breach of safeguarding policy?
• Is there sufficient information to follow up this report?

c. If the reported incident does not represent a breach of GraceSimba Safeguarding Policy but represents a safeguarding risk to others (such as a child safeguarding incident), the report should be referred through the appropriate channels (e.g., local authorities) if it is safe to do so.

d. If there is insufficient information to follow up the report, and no way to ascertain this informa tion (for example if the person making the report did not leave contact details), the report should be filed in case it can be of use in the future and look at any wider lesson learning we can take forward.

e. If the report raises any concerns relating to children under the age of 18, seek expert advice im- mediately. If at any point in the process of responding to the report (for example during an investig ation) it becomes apparent that anyone involved is a child under the age of 18, the Decision Maker should be immediately informed and should seek expert advice before proceeding.

f. If the decision is made to take the report forward, ensure that you have the relevant expertise and capacity to manage a safeguarding case. If you do not have this expertise in-house, seek immediate assistance, through external capacity if necessary.

g. Clarify what, how and with whom information will be shared relating to this case. Confidential ity should be maintained at all times, and information shared on a need-to-know basis only. Decide which information needs to be shared with which stakeholder information needs may be different.

h. You may have separate policies depending on the type of concern the report relates to. For example, workplace sexual harassment is dealt with through the GraceSimba’s Anti Bullying and Harassment policy.

If there isn’t a policy for the type of report that has been made, follow these procedures.

i. Check your obligations on informing relevant bodies when you receive a safeguarding report. These include (but are not limited to):

• Funding organisations
• Umbrella bodies/networks
• The Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies

Some of these may require you to inform them when you receive a report, others may require information on completion of the case, or annual top-line information on cases. When submitting information to any of these bodies, think through the confidentiality implications very carefully.