Safeguarding

1. Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to ensure that through its work and behaviours Educational Opportunity Foundation demonstrates its commitment to protecting the rights of people to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect. Through safeguarding, Educational Opportunity Foundation will promote the well-being and welfare of all those whom it comes into contact with, which includes beneficiaries, staff, volunteers and other stakeholders.

Everybody has the right to be safe no matter who they are or what their circumstances. Abuse and neglect can have devastating effects on children, young people, adult individuals, families and the wider Foundation. Damage from safeguarding incidents and allegations can be devastating to the reputation of the charity concerned.

As a funding organisation, Trustees and employees of the Foundation do not have direct contact with children, young people and vulnerable adults but its charitable activities include working with vulnerable people.

2. Our values and principles

We believe in the right of children and young people to be able to access high-quality education as a driver for personal development, well-being and equality of opportunity. Building on the heritage of the British and Foreign School Society, we value effective teaching and learning and the sharing of good practice. We are committed to inclusivity, integrity and to valuing and respecting others in everything we do.

We aim to ensure a culture of openness and accountability within the Foundation to enable all safeguarding issues or concerns to be raised through the proper channels, so that poor practice, potentially abusive or harmful behaviour does not go unchallenged. We all have a collective responsibility for creating a culture in which our people not only feel safe, but also able to speak up, if they have any concerns.

3. Lead Trustee

The Vice Chair of Council is automatically appointed lead trustee to provide oversight of safeguarding and to lead on any incident investigation and reporting. Safeguarding is a mandatory reportable item to each meeting of Council under the Foundation’s Risk Register.

The Director will make the Vice-Chair immediately aware of any safeguarding issues should they arise.

Current Lead Trustee: Charlotte Cashman

4. Trustee responsibilities

Prevention is the primary responsibility of trustees. Educational Opportunity Foundation trustees must take reasonable steps to protect staff, volunteers and those connected with the activities of the Foundation from harm.

Trustees are responsible for making reports, where necessary, to the police, social services and other agencies, and, where the criteria are met, sending a serious incident report to the charity regulator.

Trustees are responsible for:

Creating a culture of respect and leading the organisation so that everyone feels safe and able to speak up.
An annual review of safety, with recommendations to Council.
Receiving regular reports, to ensure this and related policies are being applied consistently.
Providing oversight of any lapses in safeguarding.
And ensuring that any issues are properly investigated and dealt with quickly, fairly and sensitively, and any reporting to the Police/statutory authorities is carried out.
Ensuring safeguarding risk assessments are carried out and appropriate action taken to minimise these risks, as part of our risk management processes.
Ensuring that all relevant checks are carried out in recruiting staff and volunteers.
Planning programmes/activities to take into account potential safeguarding risks, to ensure these are adequately mitigated.
Ensuring that safeguarding requirements, training and responsibilities are reflected in job descriptions, appraisal objectives and personal development plans, as appropriate.
Listening and engaging, beneficiaries, staff, volunteers and others and involving them as appropriate.
Responding to any concerns sensitively and acting quickly to address these.
Ensuring that personal data is stored and managed in a safe way that is compliant with data protection regulations, including valid consent to use any imagery or video.
Making staff, Trustees and others aware of:

Our safeguarding procedures and their specific safeguarding responsibilities on induction, with regular updates/reminders, as necessary.

The signs of potential abuse and how to report these.

Trustees need to be aware of and will comply with the Charity Commission guidance on safeguarding and protecting people and also the 10 actions trustee boards need to take to ensure good safeguarding governance.

Everyone needs to be aware of our procedures, undertake any necessary training, be aware of the risks and signs of potential abuse and, if you have concerns, to report these immediately.

5. Online safety

We will identify and manage online risks by ensuring:

Volunteers, staff and trustees understand how to keep themselves safe online. We may use high privacy settings and password access to meetings to support this.
The online services we provide are suitable for our users. For example, use age restrictions and offer password protection to help keep people safe.
The services we use and/or provide are safe and in line with our code of conduct.
We protect people’s personal data and follow data protection legislation.
We have permission to display any images on our website or social media accounts,
We clearly explain how users can report online concerns. Concerns may be reported using this policy, or direct to a social media provider using their reporting process.

6. Reporting concerns

If a crime is in progress, or an individual in immediate danger, you should call the police, as you would in any other circumstances.

For those involved directly with Educational Opportunity Foundation, you should make your concerns known to the Director. If you feel unable to do so, speak to the Lead Safeguarding Trustee.

Safeguarding should be appropriately reflected in other relevant policies and procedures.

7. Working with Grant Partners

Educational Opportunity Foundation is committed to protecting children, young people and vulnerable adults from abuse and/or neglect. We are committed to acting professionally, fairly and with integrity in all of our activities, and expects the same of those organisations with whom we enter into funding relationships in support of education projects in the UK and internationally. We will comply with Charity Commission guidance by carrying out due diligence and having a written agreement with Grant Partners that sets out safeguarding requirements

Grant Partners will be required to have their own safeguarding procedures that must, comply with the relevant Charity Commission guidance as a minimum, and include any additional legal or regulatory requirements specific to their work.

Compliance with safeguarding procedures as set out in our Grant Offer Letter is mandatory for all successful grant applicants.

7.1 Grant Partners reporting concerns

As stipulated in our Grant Offer letter, a Grant Partner should submit a report within 7 days regarding any safeguarding allegation with the grant funded project. This report should be submitted using the Educational Opportunity Foundation Safeguarding Report Form (Appendix 1), and should not wait for the regular project progress report to be submitted.

A separate report should also be sent regarding any safeguarding investigation where the allegation is proven and involves the Grant Partner but relates to activities not funded or part-funded by Educational Opportunity Foundation. This report should be submitted within a month of the investigation conclusion.

Educational Opportunity Foundation reserves the right to terminate or suspend the grant subject to the nature of any safeguarding concern which may arise.

8. Types of abuse

Abuse can take many forms, such as physical, psychological or emotional, financial, sexual or institutional abuse, including neglect and exploitation.

Signs that may indicate the different types of abuse are at Appendix 2.

9. Review

This safeguarding policy will be reviewed and approved by the Board annually.

This policy will also be reviewed as part of any safeguarding incident investigation, to test that it has been complied with and to see if any improvements might realistically be made to it.

Appendix 1 – Safeguarding Incident Report Form

Safeguarding incident report form

Appendix 2 – Signs of abuse

Physical abuse:

bruises, black eyes, welts, lacerations, and rope marks.
broken bones.
open wounds, cuts, punctures, untreated injuries in various stages of healing.
broken eyeglasses/frames, or any physical signs of being punished or restrained.
laboratory findings of either an overdose or under dose medications.
individual’s report being hit, slapped, kicked, or mistreated.
vulnerable adult’s sudden change in behaviour.
the caregiver’s refusal to allow visitors to see a vulnerable adult alone.

Sexual abuse:

bruises around the breasts or genital area.
unexplained venereal disease or genital infections.
unexplained vaginal or anal bleeding.
torn, stained, or bloody underclothing.
an individual’s report of being sexually assaulted or raped.

Mental mistreatment/Emotional abuse:

being emotionally upset or agitated.
being extremely withdrawn and non-communicative or non-responsive.
nervousness around certain people.
an individual’s report of being verbally or mentally mistreated.

Neglect:

dehydration, malnutrition, untreated bed sores and poor personal hygiene.
unattended or untreated health problems.
hazardous or unsafe living condition (e.g., improper wiring, no heat or running water).
unsanitary and unclean living conditions (e.g., dirt, fleas, lice on person, soiled bedding, faecal/urine smell, inadequate clothing).
an individual’s report of being mistreated.

Self-neglect:

dehydration, malnutrition, untreated or improperly attended medical conditions, and poor personal hygiene.
hazardous or unsafe living conditions.
unsanitary or unclean living quarters (e.g., animal/insect infestation, no functioning toilet, faecal or urine smell).
inappropriate and/or inadequate clothing, lack of the necessary medical aids.
grossly inadequate housing or homelessness.
inadequate medical care, not taking prescribed medications properly.

Exploitation:

sudden changes in bank account or banking practice, including an unexplained withdrawal of large sums of money.
adding additional names on bank signature cards.
unauthorized withdrawal of funds using an ATM card.
abrupt changes in a will or other financial documents.
unexplained disappearance of funds or valuable possessions.
bills unpaid despite the money being available to pay them.
forging a signature on financial transactions or for the titles of possessions.
sudden appearance of previously uninvolved relatives claiming rights to a vulnerable adult’s possessions.
unexplained sudden transfer of assets to a family member or someone outside the family.
providing services that are not necessary.
individual’s report of exploitation.