Safeguarding means protecting people's health, wellbeing and human rights, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse and neglect. It is fundamental to high quality health and social care.
Our commitment to safeguarding:
- To protect adults, children and young people who engage with the Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigation (MNSI) programme from harm. This includes the children of adults who engage with our programme.
- MNSI considers that safeguarding is a collective responsibility. Every member of the programme whether they provide direct family contact or not and irrespective of seniority receives safeguarding training and is required to consider this in every interaction with the public and staff. This requires safeguarding governance and practices to be embedded across the programme and services provided by MNSI, and in every aspect of MNSI’s work.
This applies to anyone working on behalf of MNSI, including senior managers, contributors, and healthcare staff.
Legislation
Legislation and mandatory reporting responsibilities for safeguarding are enshrined in international and national legislation. Safeguarding for both children and adults has transformed in recent years, with recent legislation creating duties and responsibilities which need to be incorporated into the widening scope of NHS safeguarding practice.
All health organisations are required to adhere to the following arrangements and legislation:
- Crime and Disorder Act 1998
- The Children Act 1989
- Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003
- The Children Act 2004
- Mental Capacity Act 2005
- Convention on the Rights of a Person with Disabilities 2006
- Mental Health Act 2007
- Children and Families Act 2014
- Modern Slavery Act 2015
- Serious Crime Act 2015.
Prevent strategy
MNSI is not a specified authority under the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015. This means we have no statutory duty to respond or take action. MNSI provides awareness through mandatory NHS England Prevent training for staff.
Safeguarding approach
MNSI believes that:
- Adults, children and young people should never experience abuse of any kind.
- We have a responsibility to promote the welfare of all children and young people.
- We have a responsibility to promote the health and wellbeing of adults with vulnerabilities, to keep them safe and to practise in a way that protects them.
We recognise that:
- The welfare of children and adults is paramount in all the work we do and in all the decisions we take.
- All people, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation have an equal right to protection from all types of harm or abuse.
- Some people are additionally vulnerable because of the impact of previous experiences, their level of dependency, communication needs or other issues.
- Working in partnership with adults, children, young people, families, carers and other agencies is essential in promoting adults, children and young people’s welfare.
We will seek to keep vulnerable people safe by:
- Valuing, listening to and respecting them.
- Adopting safeguarding best practice through our policies, procedures and code of conduct for internal and external staff.
- Providing effective management for staff through supervision, support, training and quality assurance measures so that all staff know about and follow our policies, procedures and behaviour codes confidently and competently.
- Recruiting and selecting staff and partners safely, ensuring all necessary checks are made.
- Recording, storing and using information professionally and securely, in line with the legal framework governing the use of personal confidential data in healthcare. It includes the NHS Act 2006, the Health and Social Care Act 2012, the Data Protection Act and the Human Rights Act.
- Making sure that adults, children, young people and their families know where to go for help if they have a concern.
Safeguarding procedures
We use our safeguarding procedures to share concerns and relevant information with agencies who need to know, and involve children, young people, parents, families and carers appropriately.
We use our procedures to manage any allegations against staff and contributors appropriately.
Creating and maintaining an anti-bullying environment and ensuring that we have a policy and procedure to help us deal effectively with any bullying that does arise.
Ensuring that we have effective complaints and whistleblowing measures in place.
Building a safeguarding culture where MNSI staff and the families treat each other with respect and are comfortable about sharing concerns.
Further information
If you require further information about safeguarding, or need to raise a concern, please refer to the NHS England website.