Understanding Safeguarding Policies and Ethical Dilemmas: A Comprehensive Analysis

In this case study we will discuss about safeguarding policies & ethical dilemma and below are the summaries point:- Safeguarding policies aim to protect vulnerable populations from abuse and neglect. The government implements measures to safeguard the rights of seniors and children. The ethical dilemma arises in deciding the best approach to safeguarding vulnerable individuals.

Running head: SAFEGUARDING POLICIES AND ETHICAL DILEMMA
Safeguarding policies and ethical dilemma
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1SAFEGUARDING POLICIES AND ETHICAL DILEMMA
Introduction
Safeguarding is defines as the process of protecting the right of the vulnerable population
from the threat familial or societal abuse and neglect (Braye et al. 2017). Safeguarding the
interest of the senior and the child is the fundamental motive of the government’s safeguarding
agendas and policies (Bailey et al. 2018). It is the protection of the vulnerable people from being
exploited and lives with respect and dignity in the society (Braye et al. 2017). The aims of
safeguarding are multiple, namely, to stop any form of abuse and neglect of the adult and child,
prevent all forma of harm and provide them the required support
(Assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, 2019). Before setting up the safeguarding strategies number
of abuses has also been listed. The aim of this essay to analyze the case study and understand the
ethical dilemma to provide the right approach and strategy for safeguarding the vulnerable
population. The essay is divided into four parts dealing with separate issues and it is analyzed on
the basis of the given scenario.
Safeguarding agenda, policies and procedures
To understand the safeguarding agenda and policies it is important to consider the various
mechanism and measures adopted by the government and the other stakeholders. The office of
the Public Guardian’s policy is dedicated to protect these old people from any kind of neglect
and abuse of the society and their family (Dalphinis 2016). According to the data, it also includes
inspection of the suspected cases of abuse through the deputies who are appointed by the Court
of Protection (gov.uk 2019).

2SAFEGUARDING POLICIES AND ETHICAL DILEMMA
This agenda for protection of the senior is based on the core value of equality and
diversity. It believes in providing equal framework for all sections of the society and includes the
diverse segment of the society (Dalphinis 2016).
Taken the case study where the conditions of Claudia, the grandmother of the two
children are similar to many seniors who face similar kinds of situation. Due to the mishandling
of the situation by the parents, their son, daughter and their mother is in compromising position.
However, neither the children nor the grandparent have the option to take of themselves or take
some measure on their own. Hence, they are the victims of the situation. Keeping such situations
in mind it is to be noted that the care provider is in the state of confusion and dilemma whether
she should report to the police regarding the issue and what would be the possible impact of the
same to the family as well as her.
However, it is advisable that the health framework has been set out to take appropriate
measure towards the need of the people who requires extra care and protection (Dalphinis 2016).
The aim behind the agenda of the government is to clarify different strategic and operational
plans for safeguarding the children with abusive parents like this scenario presented above to the
senior citizens who lack proper and care of the family members (gov.uk 2019). This is taken to
empower the people with needs of the adults. This helps to provide the senior citizens required
autonomy to survive with dignity (Braye et al. 2017). It also sets out the procedures for local and
national arrangements for securing their health and other benefits (Greenberg et al. 2017). It also
sets out to explain how national leadership will be used to promote and protect the health issues
of the seniors (Graham et al. 2016). To understand the importance of such safeguarding policies
it is important to consider types of policies and procedures taken by the government.

3SAFEGUARDING POLICIES AND ETHICAL DILEMMA
In case of abuse of the children there are number of protocol and ensures have been
adopted. For abuse and violation of rights of the child, the government has appointed the lead of
the child protection officer who is in charge of considering the issue of child abuse either directly
from the individual or the police and social service groups (Graham et al. 2017). It is also to be
noted that the kind of violence that has taken place so that a proper measure could be adopted
towards the issues (Greenberg et al. 2017). Under the child safeguarding policy, there are types
of abuse that have been identifies such as emotional, physical, sexual abuse, neglect and bullying
and cyber bullying (Graham et al. 2017).
Taking into consideration of the Care Act of 2014, it is to be noted that there multiple
agency working in this behalf and it is important that the support worker first convey the
message to the social work agency so that an immediate action could be taken for the issue
before complaining the same to the police (Northway et al. 2017).
Analysis and working on multi-agency working for safeguarding
Keeping in mind the situation of Claudia and her family where the old person along with
the children are also victim of domestic violence and abuse, there are multiple agencies who
protect the interest of such vulnerable groups (Braye et al. 2017). This is multilevel process
whereby starting from the local authority to the highest authority of the country are involved in
ensuring better health for the old and the young and the most vulnerable sections of the society
(Henry 2015). To understand the critical role played by these agencies, it is important to consider
their role and responsibilities. At the local level, the local authority is responsible for filling the
necessary detail regarding the complaint or concern of the particular child and gets themselves
involved with the family to ensure any possible benefit at the local level (Northway et al. 2017).

4SAFEGUARDING POLICIES AND ETHICAL DILEMMA
This is followed by the Local Safeguarding Children Boards which are responsible for setting
policies for the local areas (Norrie et al. 2016). This panel is made up of the panels from the
various child and old protection agencies (Oakley et al. 2018). This should be noticed that the
issue of safeguarding is taken with utmost seriousness starting from the lower to the higher level.
In this situation, where both the children ,Jedah and Simon is seen to have found marks on their
body indicates that there are evidence of physical violence towards the child and their basic
rights of a dignified life is violated. In such case, the local authority has to be careful about the
situation and; should ensure possible measures to stop any such incidents in future (O'Connell
2018). The formal introduction of the Care act of 2014 is the policy taken by the government
which s aimed at addressing the issue of elderly abuse in any form (Penhale et al. 2017). There is
need for a multiagency approach for ensuring better health of some segment of the society.
The multi-level agency in safeguarding is the process by the police, different local
authorities and other social agencies to help co-operate in the field of ensuring the safeguarding
benefit to the vulnerable population (Peckover et al. 2017).
These following agencies are part of the Safeguarding Adults Board and they are
primarily responsible for ensuring safeguarding measures for the population (SAB 2015). From
the analysis it could be said that the government has ensured a multilevel approach by including
multiple agencies under its forum like NHS Health Trust in Kent Medway, NHS England,
National probation Service, Clinical Commissioning groups, District council and many more
(Policy 2016). It is to be noticed that the government has ensured an approach whereby the
national and their regional stakeholders have equal role to play for reaching to the population and
their making positive change (Braye et al. 2017).

5SAFEGUARDING POLICIES AND ETHICAL DILEMMA
For safeguarding the children, a safeguarding partners under the Children Act of 2004 in relation
to the local authority has been included where the local authority, a group of clinical
commissioning and the chief police officer will work in accordance with the people and the
community as a whole to safeguard the interest of the population (Social care policy, DH, 2019).
What is analyzed from this is that , there required structure is already in place for safeguarding
the old and the children, however it is important to co-ordinate the actions under the strategic
leaders for supporting the groups along with their participation in the empowerment and
upliftment of the people (Greenberg et al. 2017). What is important to note here is that
geographical area chosen for the safeguarding is the local areas where the number of such cases
happen in greater number (Social care policy, DH, 2019). Moreover, it is noteworthy that the
local areas cannot be governed by the central government alone because to understand the issue
there has to be some sort of local arrangements.
Analysis of the ethical dilemma
Ethical dilemma is the state of confusion where the decision taker takes decision on the
basis if certain undesirable alternative and it is mostly a choice between two paradoxical options
(McCarthy et al. 2015). In the context of this case study, it is to be noted that the support worker
is in the state of dilemma for reporting the issue to the police as she fears it would be harmful for
the family and she is also concerned if this information does not reach to the required authority,
the issue will go on without any possible solution for the coming years. Moreover, Daphne has to
take difficult decisions when it comes to take care of her mother-in-law and she is in a
compromising situation between her option to do the job and taking care of Claudia. She finds
herself in the middle of a tussle between her husband and she who want her to take care of
Claudia by quitting Daphne’s job. There is a situation of uncomfortability towards taking care of

6SAFEGUARDING POLICIES AND ETHICAL DILEMMA
Claudia as she thinks it is not her job and at the same time she is forced to take care of her
mother-in-law. This leaves Daphne into a situation of irritability in dealing with things and even
domestic violence over Claudia and their children. For Daphne, what are more crucial are the job
and their financial security that it brings to the family to secure the lives of their children than
taking care of the old lady who according to her is of no productive value. She highlights the
higher value of financial independence and comfortibility of their child than any other issues
(McCarthy et al. 2015). It seems that the characters involved here are dependent in each other to
many extent. For example, Claudia is completely dependent on her son due to poor financial
condition while James is also dependent on the money that Daphne contributes to the family.
However, what this dilemma that the support worker is facing is genuine and it is to be conveyed
to the required authority without any fear rather than covering it up for the sake of the family.
Provided there are respective agencies to take care of the old for the society, the support worker
should take the step and convey the message in order to protect Claudia from domestic abuse and
exploitation.
Considering the ethical dilemma of the support worker, it is to be noted that there are
alternative steps that can be taken. For example, the issue could be reported to the local council
that someone is not being treated properly in that house which requires immediate care (Shapiro
et al. 2016). Moreover, there are other options than directly going to the police which is
contacting the manager of the NHS hospitals or clinic for the mistreatment of the lady (Richards
et al. 2015). In case the first two alternatives do not work, it is advisable to talk to the local
advice group on Action on the elder abuse (Stevens et al. 2015). These will provide with ideas
and procedures to approach the family against the violation of rights of the old lady and can
ensure the protective measures for them to be adopted.

7SAFEGUARDING POLICIES AND ETHICAL DILEMMA
Strategy and approach to resolve the dilemmas
An approach is the way and method of things in a certain manner. There are multiple
approaches, however it is important to understand the type of approach required to adopt here. A
right approach will bring all the important stakeholders in the process of taking right decision so
that effective changes could be made for the vulnerable people (Stevens et al. 2015).
Communities benefit when there are right approaches adopted by the government and the local
council to safeguard their interest. In this scenario, Claudia is subjected to exclusion from the
benefit of support for the old population.
For safeguarding the old, the “personalization” approach is the first step to be taken by
the stakeholders (Redley et al. 2015). This is the approach that enables people to live their lives
with the choices made by them and achieve positive outcome in the best way possible
(England.nhs.uk, 2019). This approach is particularly important because it does include the risk
factors and focuses on the safety of the vulnerable population (McCarthy et al. 2015). It
considers the probable risk alongside benefits; however it does not restrict people’s lives in the
basis of this risk. Increasing the control and choice of the people is the central theme of this
agenda. One of the key pillars of personalization is the community wide approach (Redley et al.
2015). This is done by developing a multi-agency approach whereby staff will be having enough
knowledge about the risk associated with the required to protect and safeguard the old
population. Second important issue of the personalization approach is to work with the service
providers and local level regulators to distribute the work burden and cater to the demand of
the people at the local level (Dalphinis 2016). Like the central authority, all the local regulators
have equal stake in the protection of the senior population. Thirdly, at the local level, council
has to act with citizens for bringing about transformation in the lives of the people (Dalphinis

8SAFEGUARDING POLICIES AND ETHICAL DILEMMA
2016). By this it means that the council have to work with the disable people, children
volunteers, people funding the support, the NGO’s and social service groups (McCarthy et al.
2015). This will provide these local agencies with knowledge of the local problem and the
effective measured to solve such issues.
The strategy to be adopted for issues like Claudia’s, there has to be a multilayered step.
These are early intervention into the issue and contact the affected party. If there are any sign of
domestic violence or any other form of abuse, it is important to contact the aggrieved person too
critically assess the issue of what happened. The next important strategy would be to plan a
support mechanism for the family or the aggrieved party (Dalphinis 2016). This helps to build
capacity of the people at the local level. In case of the case study, Claudia required support from
the local support group which would lead to the identification of the problem and a proper
solution mechanism must have been adopted. However, due to the lack of the support
mechanism and less personal communication, the issue remained unsolved. Hence the
personalization strategy will be helpful in situations like this for capacity building purposes. This
is important because a person centric approach is more useful than community centric
approaches (Dalphinis 2016). The Department of Health provides guidance of risk management
to the staff at the local and national level to care for the people with dementia (Penhale et al.
2017). Hence, it is found that it is important to consider all the stakeholders while formulating a
strategy or a policy. This approach followed by certain strategic tool to implement the benefit to
the people is important to adopt for safeguarding the interest of the senior and the child (Penhale
et al. 2017).
While there should be the external approach to solve the issue of safeguarding the old, it
is equally important to understand the situation to solve the ethical dilemma. Therefore it is to

9SAFEGUARDING POLICIES AND ETHICAL DILEMMA
consider that the out of the four ethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, nonmalficence and
justice, it is the first principle that requires being implemented in this case scenario (Dalphinis
2016). While it is not the duty of Daphne’s to take care of Claudia, it is right to respect her
decision for her choice. It is important to respect the choice of other instead of forcing them to do
certain things. The approach of the family should be co-operative in nature (Dalphinis 2016).
There should be clear distribution of work for their children and Claudia. If Claudia is not
assured proper help at home, the family should consult any local agency who are the in charge of
the safeguarding the old to provide external financial and social help so that their families
situation can be eased out for the time being.
Conclusion
Safeguarding the adult and the young is based on the principles of empowerment,
prevention, protection, proportionality, partnership and accountability (Dalphinis 2016). These
key factors are the outcome when an all inclusive safeguarding strategy is being adopted for the
vulnerable population. This essay is a reflection on the various aspects of safeguarding of the old
and the young and it has been done by analyzing the case study of Claudia and her family. This
helps to understand that it is important to take of the social issues and develop a proper
mechanism for the same. This tried to analyze the ethical dilemma of the characters of the case
study which helped to develop the safeguarding approach for the overall benefit of the adult
population of United Kingdom. It can be concluded that instead of presence of number of
protocols and procedures for the safeguarding of the adult and the young, there are situations
where the victim or the vulnerable party is not able to get themselves included for the benefit and
development. Hence, it is requirement of the government along with the other stakeholders to

10SAFEGUARDING POLICIES AND ETHICAL DILEMMA
reach out to the population and take a more personalized approach to cater to the need of the
population.

11SAFEGUARDING POLICIES AND ETHICAL DILEMMA
References
Assets.publishing.service.gov.uk (2019). [online] Assets.publishing.service.gov.uk. Available at:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/
file/729914/Working_Together_to_Safeguard_Children-2018.pdf [Accessed 26 Jan. 2019].
Bailey, T., Lead, D.S., Griffin-Headteacher, P., Lead, D.D.S. and Bailey–Deputy, T., 2018. Child
Protection and Safeguarding Policy. Policy.
Braye, S., Orr, D. and Preston-Shoot, M., 2017. Adult safeguarding and self-neglect: emergent
lessons from England. Self-Neglect in Older Adults: A Global, Evidence-Based Resource for
Nurses and Other Healthcare Providers, p.175.
Dalphinis, J., 2016. Protecting against harm: Safeguarding adults. practice nursing, 27(2), pp.84-
88.
England.nhs.uk (2019). [online] England.nhs.uk. Available at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-
content/uploads/2015/07/safeguard-policy.pdf [Accessed 25 Jan. 2019].
GOV.UK (2019). Safeguarding policy: protecting vulnerable adults. [online] GOV.UK.
Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/safeguarding-policy-protecting-
vulnerable-adults [Accessed 25 Jan. 2019].
Graham, K., Norrie, C., Stevens, M., Moriarty, J., Manthorpe, J. and Hussein, S., 2016. Models
of adult safeguarding in England: a review of the literature. Journal of Social Work, 16(1),
pp.22-46.

12SAFEGUARDING POLICIES AND ETHICAL DILEMMA
Graham, K., Stevens, M., Norrie, C., Manthorpe, J., Moriarty, J. and Hussein, S., 2017. Models
of safeguarding in England: Identifying important models and variables influencing the operation
of adult safeguarding. Journal of Social Work, 17(3), pp.255-276.
Greenberg, N., Crossland, J. and Burnell, K., 2017. The Health and Social Care of Older
Veterans in the UK: Raising Awareness of Needs in Later Life. In Military Veteran
Psychological Health and Social Care (pp. 103-117). Routledge.
Henry, L., 2015. Safeguarding children: where does the responsibility lie?. Dental
Nursing, 11(11), pp.673-676.
McCarthy, J. and Gastmans, C., 2015. Moral distress: A review of the argument-based nursing
ethics literature. Nursing Ethics, 22(1), pp.131-152.
Norrie, C., Stevens, M., Graham, K., Moriarty, J., Hussein, S. and Manthorpe, J., 2016. The
advantages and disadvantages of different models of organising adult safeguarding. British
journal of social work, 47(4), pp.1205-1223.
Northway, R. and Jenkins, R., 2017. Safeguarding adults in nursing practice. Learning Matters.
Oakley, H.M.K., Governor, S., Humphrey, M.R., Lead, D.S. and O’Hara, M.E., 2018. Child
Protection and Safeguarding Policy October 2018. Policy.
O'Connell, S., 2018. Safeguarding changes: Will they make a difference?. Seced, 2018(13), pp.6-
6.
Peckover, S. and Golding, B., 2017. Domestic abuse and safeguarding children: critical issues
for multiagency work. Child abuse review, 26(1), pp.40-50.

13SAFEGUARDING POLICIES AND ETHICAL DILEMMA
Penhale, B., Brammer, A., Morgan, P., Kingston, P. and Preston-Shoot, M., 2017. The Care Act
2014: a new legal framework for safeguarding adults in civil society. The Journal of Adult
Protection, 19(4), pp.169-174.
Policy, C.P., 2016. Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy. Education.
Policy, S., 2016. Safeguarding Policy. Children’s Rights, 800(528), p.0731.
Redley, M., Jennings, S., Holland, A. and Clare, I., 2015. Making adult safeguarding
personal. The Journal of Adult Protection, 17(3), pp.195-204.
Richards, B. and Williamson, L., 2015. Supporting Innovation in the UK: Care Act
2014. Journal of bioethical inquiry, 12(2), pp.183-187.
SAB, S.A.B., 2015. Safeguarding adult board and safeguarding group structure 12 march
2015. Structure.
Shapiro, J.P. and Stefkovich, J.A., 2016. Ethical leadership and decision making in education:
Applying theoretical perspectives to complex dilemmas. Routledge.
Social care policy, DH (2019). [online] Communitylivingbc.ca. Available at:
https://www.communitylivingbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Practical-approaches-to-
safeguarding-and-personalisation.pdf [Accessed 26 Jan. 2019].
Stevens, E.L. and Cook, K., 2015. Safeguarding vulnerable adults: learning from the reflective
assignments of pre-registration students in the adult field of nursing practice. The Journal of
Adult Protection, 17(1), pp.31-40.