What are the six principles of safeguarding?
Safeguarding is the process of looking after and protecting the most vulnerable people in our society from abuse, harm, and exploitation.
A safeguarding lead is a designated person in a community, business, or organisation who is tasked
with overseeing and managing safeguarding procedures and practices.
The six principles of safeguarding form a structure to help safeguarding leads to achieve this.
Safeguarding is important as it can help vulnerable people to live independently without coming to
any harm.
Check out our Advanced Combined Safeguarding Lead course and our Combined Safeguarding course.
Safeguarding adults
Vulnerable adults are identified on a case-by-case basis. An adult is classed as vulnerable if they
struggle to care for themselves or have impaired communication skills, this could be due to either a
physical or mental health condition.
Some reasons an adult may be classed as vulnerable include:
- They have a physical disability.
- They have a mental health condition.
- They are elderly and frail.
- They have a learning difficulty.
- They have an alcohol or drug addiction.
- They require a carer.
- They have a long-term illness.
Vulnerable adults may struggle to protect themselves from becoming victims of abuse, harm, or exploitation.
Safeguarding children
The six principles of safeguarding can also be applied when safeguarding children.
Safeguarding children involves protecting children from abuse and neglect and ensuring that they are growing up in a safe environment.
The six principles of safeguarding
The safeguarding principles were first created by the UK government in 2011 for safeguarding
vulnerable adults but can also be applied when safeguarding children.
These principles are now found in the Care Act 2014 and should be applied throughout all health and
social care settings including hospitals, care homes, social care settings, and educational settings.
It is good practice for all workplaces to have a designated safeguarding lead, this could be a safeguarding lead for adults, a safeguarding lead for children, or both.
The safeguarding lead should be familiar with the six principles of safeguarding and use them as a
framework for the work they carry out.
The six principles of safeguarding are:
Empowerment
The empowerment principle is about helping vulnerable adults to make their own informed decisions wherever is reasonably possible.
Those caring for vulnerable people can support them in making their own decisions by providing them with relevant information about the possible outcomes of their decisions in a way that is simple to understand and unbiased.
Prevention
This principle is about putting preventative measures in place to prevent neglect, harm, or abuse from happening rather than waiting until it has already occurred to act.
This could include raising awareness and training staff in signs to look out for that could indicate that a person is at risk or already being harmed in some way.
Proportionality
Proportionality involves assessing how much risk a vulnerable person is at and then responding in a proportional way, aiming for a response that is appropriate but as unobtrusive as possible.
The aim is to act proportionally whilst impacting the individual’s life as little as possible.
Protection
This principle underpins what safeguarding is all about, supporting and representing vulnerable people to prevent them from becoming victims.
This principle provides detail on how to offer help and support to those at risk as well as how to go about stopping abuse.
Partnership
The partnership principle is about working with your local community and other organisations to create solutions together to help safeguard vulnerable people. When the wider community is involved it is more likely that cases of neglect or abuse will be picked up.
This could include using local campaigns to raise awareness about how to identify people who are at risk and how to detect and report abuse in the community.
Accountability
Accountability puts responsibility for safeguarding vulnerable people on everyone who encounters them, not just the safeguarding lead. This principle highlights how everyone should be working together to identify and report vulnerable people who may be at risk of harm.
According to this principle, all individuals and organisations involved with a vulnerable person should be transparent in their actions and held accountable for their responsibility to protect the person.
Safeguarding training courses
Here at CBAT, we offer a range of professional safeguarding training courses to provide safeguarding
leads with the knowledge and understanding they require to provide effective protection to vulnerable people.
Browse our courses online or speak to a member of our team by calling 01772 816 922 or emailing admin@cba-training.co.uk.