4 Principles of Safeguarding and Duty of Care in Health and Social Care

This report discusses the principles of safeguarding and duty of care in health and social care, including identification of legislation and national policies related to safeguarding, roles of different agencies, types of abuse, signs and symptoms, and more. It emphasizes the importance of accessible complaints procedure to minimize abuse likelihood.

4 PRINCIPLES OF
SAFEGUARDING AND
DUTY OF CARE IN
HEALTH AND SOCIAL
CARE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Safeguarding and its means for adults and children..............................................................4
1.2 Identification of legislation and national policies related to safeguarding............................4
1.3 Explanation over association between local procedures and guidelines for safeguarding
and legislative frameworks..........................................................................................................5
1.4 Roles of different agencies who are working in protecting service users from abuse...........5
1.5 Own role in safeguarding and protecting the service users from abuse................................5
2.1 Type of abuse.........................................................................................................................5
2.2 Signs and symptoms linked with abuse.................................................................................6
Factors that contributes in making individual to be more vulnerable to abuse...........................7
3.1 To support service user to gain understanding in living healthy and prosperous life...........7
3.2 To make service user responsible about their duties in keeping themselves safe.................8
3.3 Explanation of reason for balancing service user rights, duties and associated risks............8
3.4 The way to challenge behaviours which leads to harm.........................................................8
4.1 Purpose of disclosure and barring service (DBS) checks......................................................8
4.2Description of unsafe practices which affects the wellbeing of service user.........................8
4.3 Actions to be implemented when unsafe practices are identified..........................................9
4.4 Explanation of likelihood of abuse can be minimised when acting in a person centred
manner.........................................................................................................................................9
4.5 Working of multidisciplinary in reducing abuse risk............................................................9
4.6 Importance of accessible complaints procedure to minimise abuse likelihood.....................9
5.1 Purpose of whistleblowing...................................................................................................10
5.2 The actions that are taken if service user is being abused...................................................10
5.3 The actions which are made if service user alleges that they are being abused..................10
5.4 Requirements for recording and reporting suspected abuse................................................10
5.5 Ways to ensure that evidence of abuse is preserved............................................................10
5.6 The actions that are implemented if reported consent are not acted appropriately.............11
5.7 Explanation of ways to access the safeguarding support services.......................................11
6.1 Duty of care in own work role.............................................................................................11
6.2 Purpose of identity checks for anyone requesting access to premises.................................11

6.3 Duty of care that contributes in safeguarding the service users..........................................11
7.1 Potential conflicts that arise among duty of care and service user rights............................11
7.2 To manage the risks associated with conflicts between service user rights and duty of care
...................................................................................................................................................12
7.3 To get additional cooperation and advice about conflicts...................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12
3

INTRODUCTION
Duty of care is legal obligation to secure others, it is the responsibility of care providers to
ensure safeguarding of their client and helps them to prevent abuse (Johansson and Rosell,
2021). Following report is based on principles of safeguarding and duties of care provider within
health and social care context.
MAIN BODY
1.1 Safeguarding and its means for adults and children
Safeguarding refers to protecting person’s health and their human rights, where service
care provider enables the people to live freely from harm, neglect and abuse. Safeguarding
children, young people is the collective responsibility. For the children it is important to protect
them from maltreatment and prevent them from impairment. Safeguards always ensures that
child is growing in conditions consistent with safe provisions and efficient care. Adult
safeguarding means protecting their rights and enable them to live in safety free from abuse and
neglect.
1.2 Identification of legislation and national policies related to safeguarding
Safeguarding policies are made in order to response to allegations of abuse that are made
against the child, such policies helps in protection the one from any abuse or risk situations
(Henriksen, 2022). Government’s role in safeguarding comes first they implements the laws that
protect the one from any vulnerability. In UK some of the laws and national policies related to
safeguarding is as follows:
The children act 1989: This allows the child to be healthy and enable them to live in safer
environment, in such disabled children are also safeguarded by local authorities.
Children and families act 2014: This act aims to protect the child who have been classified as
vulnerable where it ensures that good health, education and care plan is developed for the
children who is acknowledged as having other requirements.
Safeguard policies are ofsted safeguarding policy that is underpinned by main standards
which says that children and students are first, as well as independence matters and there should
be accountability and transparency. This UK policy also ensures that children should be
protected from maltreatment and to take specific actions that let all child to have best outcomes.

Other laws and policies as well there which are care act 2014, human rights act 1998,
equality act 2010.
1.3 Explanation over association between local procedures and guidelines for safeguarding and
legislative frameworks
Local procedures are developed to make sure that governmental standards are able to meet
requirements (O’hara, 2019). While guideline policies consist of detailed instructions which
cooperate with overarching the safeguarding policy statements. Relationship between them is
that legislation sets the laws and procedures are those which the organisations must follow. Thus
laws are used to enforce the actions that are set out in policy, but policies are also enforced as
way of completing the legislative commitments.
1.4 Roles of different agencies who are working in protecting service users from abuse
Several agencies work collaboratively in providing protection to individual from abuse.
Local authorities are requiring to set up the safeguarding adults boards (SAB) that particularly
have the nominee from clinical commissioning and police, there are some other partners as well
who sit in board meetings. SAB is responsible for protection within local areas and they work in
partnership to restrict abuse and neglect event that arise locally, they also raise awareness and
responsible for safeguarding adults. Health and social organisations are also there where service
providers ensure to provide better health and care to their client and protect them from any abuse
and neglect event, such care plan involves safeguarding policy as well as risk assessments.
1.5 Own role in safeguarding and protecting the service users from abuse
Being a service provider it is important to ensure that client is protected from any harmful
event, when any abuse occur it is the duty of care provider to promptly report such events to
relevant agency. Every service provider is trained to work within a person central way so that it
helps in identifying the sign of abuse. Where safeguarding procedure also involves to measure
health outcomes of individual for their wellbeing.
2.1 Type of abuse
Abuse can be understood in different ways like physical and emotional abuse, verbal
maltreatment, violation, assault, injury. Some of them are discussed below-
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Physical abuse: It is an intentional act that cause trauma and injury to individual, in most of the
cases children are major victim, adult are also victim in such cases like domestic violence,
workplace aggression.
Sexual abuse: It refers to sexual behaviour that is forced upon women, child without their
consent.
Emotional: It concern with manipulating and dominating the other with emotional abusive
ways, in this one toxically behave with other one (Dehaghani, 2019).
Financial: This is a type of family violence where it entails about withholding the money and
supervising the household spending, in which one partner controls the other partner.
Material: It is like misusing the person’s property or their asset, it involves financial deception
and fraudulent access.
Institutional: This refers to maltreatment of person, where individual is neglected and likely to
face poor conditions within institution.
Self-abuse: It is a kind of action which one can do to harm themselves.
Act of omission: It is like emotionally and physically neglected when one is ignored by
authority to provide access to better care and educational services.
Neglect by others: When person is neglected by others, like in institution they are avoided by
their seniors and colleagues.
2.2 Signs and symptoms linked with abuse
Abuse Signs and symptoms
Physical abuse Chocking, shoving, pinching while person
have bruises, cuts, bumps over body.
Sexual abuse Emotional and physical changes while
behavioural change is also noted
Emotional Hyper critical. People started avoiding
boundaries, they become manipulative
Financial Considered as domestic violence, emotional
distress
Material Missing personal possessions, inability to
maintain lifestyle

Institutional Lack of flexibility, poor standards for care,
absenteeism of adequate procedures
Self-abuse Injuries and damages over body, deep
emotional feelings
Act of omission Refusal to access to visitors, failure in
monitoring medication
Neglect by others Depression and excessive crying, poor
hygiene, fear of parents.
Factors that contributes in making individual to be more vulnerable to abuse
Individuals who are subjected to receive service care are more prone to abuse because of
some factors that are-
Bounded independence: Some families don’t give independence to their child as well as people
who reliant on others results in abusive event.
Fear of not being believed: Most of the people do not report abuse because they are scared of
something.
Care home: Institutional abuse can occur within residential care arrangements.
Ambiguity: Dementia and other illness makes the person to not acknowledged that they are
suffering from abuse.
3.1 To support service user to gain understanding in living healthy and prosperous life
It is the responsibility of care provider to encourage their client to make their own decision
and to make them understood what is right for them and what is inappropriate and intolerable
(Everley, 2020). In most of the cases individual remain silent about their conditions because of
fear, but it is important to make them understood about such things and to enable them to come
forward and report such cases.
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3.2 To make service user responsible about their duties in keeping themselves safe
In such staff need to make client understood about safety measures first so that they will be
aware of and acknowledge the policies and guidance. Service provider must need to treat their
client with transparency and there should be no prejudice and discrimination. To teach children
and adults to feel satisfied and caring enough in order to outline the attitude a certain behaviour
which they don’t like, and also make them to report all allegations and abuse suspicious.
3.3 Explanation of reason for balancing service user rights, duties and associated risks
It is essential to keep balance between service user rights, responsibilities and risk, it helps
them in dealing with any situation efficiently and to self-protect themselves from any harmful
situation. Balancing in it also ensures that person have complete control over their decisions so
that they should be accountable for their actions.
3.4 The way to challenge behaviours which leads to harm
Some actions, situation leads to harm and increase the risk for children and other people
who are being victim of abuse. Those actions indicate situations like adverse childhood
experiences, domestic abuse, homelessness, human trafficking, some of these events leads to
harmful situation.
4.1 Purpose of disclosure and barring service (DBS) checks
DBS can be termed as non-departmental public structure for the home office of United
Kingdom (Sims-Schouten, Skinner and Rivett, 2019). Main purpose of this to assists employers
in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, it helps in making safer recruitment decision and prevent
people from working within a vulnerable group. Therefore, DBS decides that whether it is
appropriate for the individual to be positioned and detached from the barred list.
4.2Description of unsafe practices which affects the wellbeing of service user
There are range of unsafe practices that have greater negative influence over the well-being
of service user like unsanitary conditions that leads to infections and other illness. In abusive
case people generally avoids marks on their skins that may lead to danger and place them in an
abusive situation. Mostly people avoids bullying, discrimination and unfair practice but
eventually these factors negatively impact the mental as well as physical wellbeing of person.

4.3 Actions to be implemented when unsafe practices are identified
One of the important action that can be taken against any unsafe practice is prompt
reporting to responsible person or agency. Remaining silent over any unsafe situation will also
make victim completely responsible because they have not reported immediately instead they
remain silent over it. while if service provider has identified the abusive situation and have
reported the incident, now it’s their duty to provide better care to patient.
4.4 Explanation of likelihood of abuse can be minimised when acting in a person centred
manner.
People centred approach helps in minimising the abuse situation, where such approach
involves the values like rights, client choices, respect (Preston-Shoot, 2018). If such approaches
have been followed, then there is least probability of abuse as all staffs are working in same
manner. Service users can easily acknowledge what better and efficient care looks like and they
become more careful when their care falls below the set principles. In such they are more likely
to defiance poor practice.
4.5 Working of multidisciplinary in reducing abuse risk
Multidisciplinary working actually helps in minimising the risk of abuse, where
professionals from different agencies works together to solve the case of particular client and
ensures their better health outcomes. Because of the complex essence of child abuse and neglect,
it is somehow difficult to manage the case of client, but multidisciplinary team are often come
into the picture and helps in improvising the methods of investigation and responses for the
victims. Major benefit of this work is that it offers less strain over the individual practitioner by
sharing the work and responsibilities to protect the vulnerable client from abuse.
4.6 Importance of accessible complaints procedure to minimise abuse likelihood
An accessible complaint process helps in minimising the possibility of abuse because
person who are undertaking the care will easily understand that they can dare the things which
they do not supposed to agree easily (Lloyd-Smith and et.al, 2021). It also stated that institute is
actually happy for listening views from others, it further assists them in finding the failures in a
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system and possible loopholes in the policies so that they work on it and help in prevention from
escalation.
5.1 Purpose of whistleblowing
Whistleblowing generally a term which is used when a worker reveals the information that
usually deals with wrongdoing. Where main purpose of the whistleblower is to make other aware
about certain events that cause harms to other. They reveal the information within an
organisation that is immoral and fraudulent.
5.2 The actions that are taken if service user is being abused
Firstly, care provider need to follow their safeguarding procedure and immediately respond
to designated person mainly manager and also to write down the record related to their concern.
If in case concerns are not appropriately deal by the manager, then the service provider can have
escalated the particular situation by their own like to use their whistleblowing policy as
guidelines.
5.3 The actions which are made if service user alleges that they are being abused
In such scenario it is important for the care provider to follow the actions that are
suggested by their managers. In such it is essential for them to provide overall information about
client’s allegation related to abuse, such data can be in verbal and written form. Care provider
need to respond to person who are specifically subjected to abuse and immediately respond to
their higher authority so specific actions can be taken against it.
5.4 Requirements for recording and reporting suspected abuse
If care provider has listened to victim allegation as well as suspected the abuse, then they
need to complete the form, where requirement can be seen in write down all the exact words
which victim is communicating, in such it is important to not add other own information like to
not alter it remain it in actual form so that better decisions can be carried out (Hodges and
Northway, 2019). And also to ensure that report should be written in permanent ink not in pencil
and foe recording it is essential to fill the consent form that prevents from any legal actions.
5.5 Ways to ensure that evidence of abuse is preserved
The ways that ensure abuse is preserved is to record the evidences while taking consent of
victim as well as keeping the written records in a safe place so that data cannot be mishandled. If
necessary, then takes photographs that can be presented as evidences.

5.6 The actions that are implemented if reported consent are not acted appropriately
If actions are not being addressed, then in such situation care provider can go for escalating
their concerns and speak to someone who is at higher position so that proper actions can be taken
out, also they can raise the concern in formal manner. If in case care provider is worrying about
that particular concern might impact their employment then they can proceed to take advice from
advisory, conciliation and arbitration services.
5.7 Explanation of ways to access the safeguarding support services
There is list of approaches are available to access the safeguarding services where
directories are available that actually have different feature that are designed and enforced by
organisations. Therefore, by using such directories one can easily access the services.
6.1 Duty of care in own work role
Duty of care specifically a legal duty of organisation to manage their workforce, it helps
providing better care management of client as well as it is one’s responsibility to concern with
dignity, privacy and as well as follow the effective communication so that care can be provided.
6.2 Purpose of identity checks for anyone requesting access to premises
If someone wants to access the information then in such it is essential that organisation
should follow the agreed standards to check the identity, such helps in preventing from any risk
(Shwartz, 2018). As well as identity check helps in identifying fraudulent.
6.3 Duty of care that contributes in safeguarding the service users
The duty of care is owed to safeguard others from foreseeable harm, it helps in involving
the interest and welfare of person in decision making process so that proper care plan can come
out.
7.1 Potential conflicts that arise among duty of care and service user rights
The potential conflicts which may lead to arise between duty of care and service user is
related to making of own choices by the service user. However, patient has the right in terms of
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getting involved in decision making but, most of the times the choices of service user can lead to
create negative impact on their health that often lead to create conflicts with the duty of care.
7.2 To manage the risks associated with conflicts between service user rights and duty of care
The risk associated with conflicts between the service user’s rights and duty of care can be
managed within making clear communication with the service user (Wyllie and Batley, 2019).
This helps in understanding the issues of the patient and on the basis of the analysation, proper
action can be taken by the duty of care that lead to manage the risk.
7.3 To get additional cooperation and advice about conflicts
The additional support and advice related to the conflicts and dilemmas can be taken
from the manager as they are experienced in this field (Firmin, and Knowles, 2020). The
professional service user and social workers can also provide effective advice in this context.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from above that follow up of legal policies helps in safeguarding
the child from abusive situations. above have highlighted the range of discussion over the type of
abuse and actions that can be taken against it.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Dehaghani, R., 2019. Vulnerability in police custody: police decision-making and the
appropriate adult safeguard. Routledge.
Everley, S., 2020. The Child Protection in Sport Unit–Supporting national governing bodies in
hearing the voices of children: an evaluation of current practice. Child abuse
review. 29(2). pp.114-129.
Firmin, C. and Knowles, R., 2020. The Legal and Policy Framework for Contextual
Safeguarding Approaches.
Henriksen, A.K., 2022. “It’s my life they are talking about”–On children’s participation in
decision-making for secure placement. Qualitative Social Work. 21(4). pp.783-799.
Hodges, Z. and Northway, R., 2019. Exploring professional decision making in relation to
safeguarding: A grounded theory study of social workers and community nurses in
community learning (intellectual) disability teams in Wales. Journal of applied research
in intellectual disabilities. 32(2). pp.435-445.
Johansson, E. and Rosell, Y., 2021. Social sustainability through children’s expressions of
belonging in peer communities. Sustainability. 13(7). p.3839.
Lloyd-Smith, W. and et.al, 2021. COVID-19: A shock to the system-reflections from practice by
safeguarding adults board managers. The Journal of Adult Protection.
O’hara, M., 2019. Making pimps and sex buyers visible: Recognising the commercial nexus in
‘child sexual exploitation’. Critical social policy. 39(1). pp.108-126.
Preston-Shoot, M., 2018. Learning from safeguarding adult reviews on self-neglect: addressing
the challenge of change. The Journal of Adult Protection.
Shwartz, A., 2018. Designing nature in cities to safeguard meaningful experiences of
biodiversity in an urbanizing world. Urban Biodiversity, Routledge in association with
GSE Research. 200(215). pp.200-215.
Sims-Schouten, W., Skinner, A. and Rivett, K., 2019. Child safeguarding practices in light of the
Deserving/Undeserving paradigm: A historical & contemporary analysis. Child abuse &
neglect. 94. p.104025.
Wyllie, E. and Batley, K., 2019. Skills for safe practice–A qualitative study to evaluate the use of
simulation in safeguarding children teaching for pre-registration children’s nurses. Nurse
education in practice. 34. pp.85-89.
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