Safeguarding policy

YoungMinds is the UK’s leading charity dedicated to improving the emotional wellbeing and mental health of young people. We are committed to promoting the safety and wellbeing of young people and all those who work for and come into contact with YoungMinds.

This policy sets out the key legislation, principles, values, definitions and responsibilities relating to safeguarding that YoungMinds adheres to in all of our practice and activities in order to prevent, reduce and respond to risks of harm.

This policy and the accompanying procedures provide clear standards and processes for all our staff, volunteers (including trustees and young people) and partners. This ensures that everyone is clear about their individual roles and organisational responsibilities, and the procedures to follow in order to protect everyone who works for and comes in contact with YoungMinds.

We understand that where abuse, neglect and harm do occur, they can have devastating effects on individuals, families and wider society. Our commitment to safeguarding in its widest sense is therefore vital.

This policy applies to all employees, volunteers, trustees, independent advisors, contracted associates and unpaid staff working on behalf of YoungMinds in any capacity and any setting.

YoungMinds requires that our partners, current or in future, share our commitment to safeguarding, demonstrated through their adherence to this policy, and (where relevant) by their own policies and procedures. YoungMinds commits to working collaboratively with partners to ensure safeguarding processes are robust, proportionate and in keeping with our values and principles.

The key legislative framework supporting YoungMinds’ Safeguarding Policy includes:

• Care Act 2014
• Children Act 1989 and 2004
• Data Protection Act 2018
• Domestic Abuse Act 2021
• Equality Act 2010
• Human Rights Act 1998
• Mental Capacity Act 2005
• United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
• Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023

As a charity, YoungMinds is not a specified authority as stated in Schedule 6 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015. This means that the Prevent Duty does not apply to YoungMinds. We are therefore free to define our own approach to the risks associated with radicalisation, taking into account the principles set out in section 7.2 of this document.

• Code of Conduct
• Harassment and Bullying Policy and Procedures
• Safeguarding Standards
• Safe Spaces Policy
• Whistleblowing Policy

Legally, “a child” is defined as a person under the age of 18. From their 18th birthday, an individual is defined as “an adult”. YoungMinds works for and directly with “young people” up to the age of 25.

We recognise that the legal distinction between a 17-year-old and an 18-year-old may feel arbitrary in some respects, and very significant in others. For example:

• an 18-year-old may not feel equipped to make decisions about their lives despite no longer legally requiring the consent of a parent or carer
• young people may experience a gap in or ending of service provision at this age, for instance between CAMHS and AMHS, or leaving care

In addition, in our society, the period between ages 16 and 19 may include significant changes to a young person’s life including leaving school or college, starting work or going to University, and leaving the family home. These changes may present new or increased risks to a young person.

When we consider safeguarding risks and responses, we must take care to ensure that we are clear about the legal definition of children and adults and guard against scenarios such as:

• adultification of under-18s when referring to them as “young people” without due consideration of their status as children
• not giving an adult appropriate control or influence over their care due to a perception of them as a “young person”.

In considering appropriate and proportionate measures that YoungMinds may take in the event of a safeguarding concern being identified, it is important to understand what is considered abuse; related both to children and to adults.

Abuse is defined as a violation of an individual’s human and civil rights by any other person or persons. It includes acts of commission (such as an assault) and acts of omission (situations where the environment fails to prevent harm). Abuse may be a single act or a series of acts.

There are four broad categories of abuse of children:

• Physical abuse; Physical abuse happens when a child is deliberately hurt, causing injuries.
• Emotional abuse; Emotional abuse is the continual emotional mistreatment of a child, and over time it severely damages a child’s emotional health and development. Emotional abuse can involve deliberately trying to scare, humiliate or threaten a child.
• Sexual abuse; Sexual abuse is forcing or enticing a child to take part in sexual activities. Child sexual abuse can involve contact abuse and/or non-contact abuse. Sexual abuse of a child also can include child sexual exploitation.
• Neglect; Neglect is persistently failing to meet a child’s basic physical and/or psychological needs usually resulting in serious damage to their health and development.

The Care Act 2014 recognises ten categories of abuse of adults: physical abuse, emotional or psychological abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, self-neglect, domestic abuse, discriminatory abuse, organisational abuse, financial abuse and modern slavery.   

The Care Act defines an “adult at risk” as: 

• A person aged 18 or over who has needs for care and support (whether or not the local authority is meeting any of those needs); and
• is experiencing, or at risk of, abuse or neglect; and
• as a result of those care and support needs is unable to protect themselves from either the risk of, or the experience of abuse or neglect. 

YoungMinds understands that not all adults with care and support needs will be at risk of harm. This will depend on the individual and their current situation. An individual’s likelihood of experiencing harm may vary over time depending on the circumstances they are in and their needs at that time.  

Grooming is an abuse of power and trust. It involves the offender building a relationship with an individual in preparation for sexual abuse, radicalisation or criminal exploitation. Offenders often seek out individuals whose experiences and identities make them more susceptible to harm and less likely to receive appropriate safeguarding support from systems and services.

Many of YoungMinds’ staff have the opportunity to build trusting relationships with children and young people through the course of their work - and in particular, minoritised and marginalised young people, and those with lived experience of poor mental health. It is therefore critical that our processes are designed to limit the risk of grooming.

Safeguarding legislation and associated systems such as the education and health systems use the terms ‘vulnerable’ and ‘at risk’ to describe both children and adults. This language is as ubiquitous as it is problematic. These labels imply that the individuals are incompetent and dependent on others; it is a term used frequently by professionals but very rarely by individuals about themselves.

YoungMinds understands that vulnerabilities and risks occur within systems and services, rather than within individuals. We believe that it is important for us to be explicit about the experiences of individuals and communities; we must not hide behind indeterminate words or phrases such as ‘vulnerable’. In keeping with our person-centred and trauma-informed safeguarding approach, we undertake to be unambiguous about individuals’ experiences of marginalisation, discrimination and oppression.

Everybody has the right to be safe and to thrive no matter who they are or what their circumstances. The YoungMinds’ approach to safeguarding embraces a ‘culture of care’ which supports and promotes wellbeing, and encourages resilience and the prevention of harm. We believe that our staff, volunteers and consultants have both an individual and organisational responsibility for safeguarding. We aim to embed a safeguarding ethos and practice which is both proactive and responsive towards issues of safety and wellbeing.

YoungMinds believes that:

• Safeguarding must be embedded throughout our governance, leadership and culture with specific consideration given to AJEDI principles.
• Young people must be valued, empowered and supported to inform and shape our activities, including decision-making, risk-identification and review of our safeguarding practices. YoungMinds must be responsive to issues raised by our young people in relation to cultural differences and how these can shape our safeguarding & AJEDI work.
• All individuals have an equal right to protection from harm and this is best achieved by safeguarding practice that is actively anti-oppressive, anti-discriminatory and anti-racist. We recognise that differences in young people’s lived experiences can make them more likely to experience harm, or more reluctant to talk about it.
• Our recruitment, induction, training, supervision and appraisal procedures must ensure that staff and volunteers are suitable and supported to implement safeguarding best practice.
• Our physical and online environments should be safe, inclusive and promote enjoyable and positive experiences.
• We must have clear policies and procedures for reporting, acting-upon and following-up safeguarding concerns, which are monitored and regularly reviewed to identify learning and/or implications for policy and practice.
• It is right to insist upon high standards in safeguarding practice from all of our partners.
• We must proactively care for our staff and volunteers. Individuals should be encouraged to be authentically themselves and take personal responsibility for their own wellbeing as well as feeling able to seek support when necessary.
• Learning, sharing and creating networks to champion best practice is beneficial for everyone.
• Our safeguarding policy and related documents should be publicly available.

In addition to these values that underpin safeguarding, YoungMinds’ approach is founded on three key principles:

We adhere to the underpinning principle of the Children Act that the welfare of the child is paramount. We aim to centre the lived experience and needs of young people in our safeguarding practice. This involves creating open, non-judgemental spaces for listening, offering choice and making decisions collaboratively. We also adhere to the values that underpin the safeguarding of adults; empowerment, prevention, proportionality, protection, partnership and accountability. (See Appendix section 11.1 for more details).

YoungMinds believes that all individuals have a right to be protected from abuse and harm regardless of their age, gender, disability, culture, language, racial origin, religious beliefs, or sexual orientation, or any other identity such as neurodivergence, mental health, caring responsibilities, educational background, wealth or class.

YoungMinds believes that safeguarding is a social justice issue, and we strive to support and protect everyone who comes into contact with YoungMinds according to their individual needs, circumstances and experiences. We understand that traditional safeguarding systems and frameworks are not equitable and can cause harm.

YoungMinds understands that all of us as individuals have our own biases as a result of our life experiences. Affinity bias*, confirmation bias*, stereotyping and prejudices impact our ability to recognise and respond appropriately to risk or instances of harm and abuse. (Please see Appendix section 11.2 for examples of this). We recognise that some individuals and communities are more likely to experience both poor mental health and barriers to accessing support due to their identities. YoungMinds seeks to learn about, understand and dismantle such barriers both internally within our organisation and externally.

YoungMinds strives to work in a trauma-informed way. We recognise that individuals who we seek to safeguard may have experienced psychological trauma and we wish to avoid retraumatising them in their contact with us. We are aware that the topic of safeguarding may be a difficult one for many. This might be because someone has personal experience of not being adequately safeguarded from harm by institutions or people who had a duty of care to them, or because they are fearful or mistrustful of services and systems like the police, health system and social services. When acting on a safeguarding concern, we will try to minimise anxiety and distress. We will do this by:  

• Obtaining informed consent to take safeguarding action wherever possible;
• Putting the values and principles described in this policy into action, for example, being transparent and communicating clearly about what safeguarding action we need to take and why;
• Ensuring that anyone who works with YoungMinds understands how people might feel if safeguarding action needs to be taken and how they can work sensitively to reduce distress.

At the core of YoungMinds’ approach to responding to safeguarding concerns is the principle that information should be shared if this helps to protect children or adults. Where possible, and in line with the values and principles underpinning our safeguarding policy and practice, YoungMinds’ employees will always attempt to seek consent to share information about a safeguarding concern. However, this may not always be possible and/or may increase the risk of harm, and therefore there may be occasions where YoungMinds will need to make an onward referral to a relevant authority without the consent of the individual.

YoungMinds has adopted the threshold of significant harm in relation to onward reporting of safeguarding concerns relating to a child. The threshold for significant harm is generally considered met if the information is indicative of the abuse of a child, as noted in section 6.2.1, i.e. physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and/or neglect. All safeguarding concerns where a child is considered to be at risk of significant harm will be referred to the police, Local Authority Children’s Services and/or the NSPCC.

In relation to an adult who has not given consent to share information, YoungMinds has adopted the threshold of serious harm for onward reporting of a safeguarding concern. The definition of serious harm adopted by YoungMinds refers to actions that are potentially life threatening or are likely to lead to long term impairment of physical or mental health. Where there is a concern and the threshold of serious harm has been met, YoungMinds will make an onward referral to a relevant authority, such as the police, the Local Authority and/or the local Mental Health Crisis Team.

The 6 Rs describe the sequence of actions that anyone working with or for YoungMinds must take:

1. Recognise concerns that a child or adult is being harmed or might be at risk of harm.
2. Respond appropriately to a child or adult who is telling you what is happening to them
3. Report/refer the concerns according to YoungMinds’ safeguarding procedures (to an LSO, the Safeguarding Team, Social Care, NSPCC or emergency services)
4. Record the concerns appropriately and any subsequent action taken; ensure there is no delay in passing on concerns.
5. Resolve – take responsibility to ensure that reports and referrals made are followed up in a timely way and take further action if not satisfied with the response.
6. Reflect on your learnings from the safeguarding process and on how to support the wellbeing of yourself and others involved.

Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. YoungMinds staff, volunteers and trustees should understand that safeguarding affects all aspects of the organisation and they must be aware of this policy and the procedures to follow. However, in order to ensure all concerns or allegations are handled appropriately, YoungMinds has a number of designated positions and specific job roles.  These are outlined below:

The Charity Commission expects that safeguarding should be a key governance priority for trustees.

It is part of their duty of care to ensure YoungMinds:

• acts in the best interests of the children, young people and adults at risk
• takes all reasonable steps to prevent any harm to them
• assesses and manages risk
• puts safeguarding policies and procedures in place
• undertakes ongoing monitoring and reviewing to ensure that safeguards are being implemented and are effective
• responds appropriately to allegations of abuse and whistleblowing cases.

In addition, at least one Designated Trustee for Safeguarding (DTS) is identified who will:

• Be suitably experienced and trained in safeguarding
• Meet with the Senior Safeguarding Manager monthly to maintain an overview of all safeguarding measures across YoungMinds
• Be informed of and contribute to decisions on high risk cases and maintain oversight of any follow up to help ensure that all risks are appropriately managed
• In conjunction with the Senior Leadership Team and Safeguarding Team, ensure that Trustees are fully informed of safeguarding issues across the organisation and contribute to maintaining safe practice across all our operations.

An experienced member of the SLT is appointed the SLT Safeguarding Lead, who is responsible for:

• Ensuring that safeguarding is considered in strategic decision-making
• Providing line management support, coaching and debriefing to the Safeguarding Team
• Ensuring that the board of trustees is provided with reports on safeguarding activity as agreed
• Commissioning an external audit of safeguarding practice every 3 years, and planning and monitor resulting actions alongside the Safeguarding Team
• Leading complex investigations relating to safeguarding where there is significant risk of reputational damage to the organisation.

The Safeguarding Team comprises the Senior Safeguarding Manager (Designated Safeguarding Officer/DSO) and the Senior Safeguarding Officer. 

The team is responsible for:

• Ensuring staff have access to appropriate safeguarding advice and support
• Checking that safeguarding referrals, incident reports and actions taken are recorded, fully reviewed, and logged in a restricted file
• Ensuring that external referrals are of high quality and are followed up
• Providing oversight and supporting YoungMinds to:
• enable young people, adults and their families to be aware of YoungMinds’ safeguarding procedures
• assess that the partner organisations working with YoungMinds have appropriate safeguarding policies and procedures in place
• Appraising the training needs of all teams and LSOs on a regular basis
• Developing guidance and deliver training to increase the level of understanding and expertise on safeguarding across all teams, including induction, refresher and safer recruitment training
• Ensuring that there is a clear and fair system of high-quality supervision for all staff who may benefit from it
• Managing safeguarding allegations against staff or volunteers, delegating actions to the Head of People & Culture as appropriate
• Supporting recruiting managers to identify the appropriate level of DBS check for vacancies
• Planning and undertaking regular internal and external audits of safeguarding practice, and support staff to respond to recommendations
• Working with teams to respond to recommendations from regular external safeguarding audits
• Reporting quarterly to the People and Governance Committee on how YoungMinds has discharged its safeguarding duties
• Providing an annual report to the Board of Trustees regarding our safeguarding activity
• Alerting the CEO of any significant safeguarding concern, contributing to decision-making and ensuring appropriate follow-up to manage and reduce risk
• Giving feedback to Heads of Teams/SLT/DTS about safeguarding trends, concerns and emerging issues
• Keeping up to date with relevant law, guidance and case examples
• Proactively engaging with other agencies and external experts to ensure that YoungMinds’ approach is informed by and contributes to best practice within the sector.

YoungMinds is a unique and varied organisation.  Each area of operation carries very specific safeguarding risks.  LSOs represent teams which respond to and manage the highest frequency and complexity of safeguarding concerns. 

LSOs support the Safeguarding Team to ensure that strategic safeguarding issues are managed effectively and that proactive measures to prevent harm are in place across all areas of operation. They:

• provide safeguarding advice, support and debriefing to staff and volunteers
• undertake out of hours on-call responsibilities
• ensure all concerns are recorded and logged as necessary
• highlight immediately any serious concerns to the DSO
• ensure that external referrals are of high quality and are followed up
• keep up to date with safeguarding training
• act as advocates for safeguarding and increase awareness of safeguarding measures within their specific areas of operation in conjunction with their team/line manager(s)
• help disseminate guidance, procedures and signpost teams to relevant resources 
• advocate for the needs of their teams to ensure that relevant guidance and support is provided by the Safeguarding Team
• contribute to safeguarding audits

Line Managers are responsible for:

• Supporting and encouraging their teams to follow all appropriate safeguarding procedures
• Providing additional support and advice for a member of staff with any safeguarding concern
• Taking ownership of concerns raised by volunteers, and raising them with an LSO or the Safeguarding Team
• Abiding by safer recruitment practices
• Ensuring that all new staff and volunteers are fully inducted/trained to the appropriate level in safeguarding practices, including annual safeguarding refresher training.

The Head of People & Culture is responsible for:

• Ensuring that all members of recruitment panels have received appropriate Safer Recruitment training
• Providing advice and guidance on safer recruitment to those recruiting staff or volunteers
• Ensuring up to date DBS checks are in place at the appropriate level in line with the YoungMinds DBS policy
• Ensuring references are taken up in accordance with the YoungMinds safer recruitment policy
• Carrying out actions as delegated by the Senior Safeguarding Manager throughout the management of allegations process.

Staff are responsible for:

• Ensuring they know and adhere to the safeguarding procedures as outlined in this policy and other related policies and procedures including when working with external partners
• Completing the safeguarding training required for their role
• Raising with an LSO or the Safeguarding Team immediately, any safeguarding concerns they identify
• Contacting appropriate services immediately in an emergency.

Volunteers (including trustees and members of the Youth Panel) are responsible for:

• Raising any concerns immediately with their supervisor, an LSO or the Safeguarding Team
• Completing training appropriate to their role.

• Affinity bias is the tendency to favour people who share similar interests, backgrounds, and experiences with us. Because of affinity bias, we tend to feel more comfortable around people who are like us. We also tend to unconsciously reject those who act or look different to us.
• Confirmation bias is the tendency of people to favour information that confirms or strengthens their beliefs or values.

The Care Act 2014 sets out values that underpin the safeguarding of adults and provide a foundation of best practice:

Empowerment: People are encouraged and supported 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: Working with individuals to prevent, identify and report neglect and abuse. 

Accountability: Accountability and transparency in delivering safeguarding.  

Examples of how bias, stereotyping and prejudices impact our ability to recognise and respond appropriately to risk or instances of harm and abuse include: 

• the phenomenon of the adultification of young Black women and girls, where professionals attribute a greater level of maturity, and a lower need for support and care, to these individuals than their white peers
• misogynistic and racist beliefs that Muslim women are often oppressed, quiet and don’t like speaking up leading to professionals missing signs of domestic abuse
• adults with high support need learning disabilities not being given access to appropriate sexual health care including consent information
• biases leading us to make assumptions about the likelihood of an individual being a perpetrator of harm.