Safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults
YMCA aims to ensure that everyone is welcomed into a safe, caring environment and takes a zero tolerance approach to all forms of abuse. Protecting children, young people and vulnerable adults is one of our highest priorities.
Reporting and training
With the charity based on the Christian core values of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility, we believe as a movement that all people are entitled to live free from abuse regardless of their age, gender, disability, culture, language, racial origin, religious beliefs, sexual identity, personality, lifestyle or any other reason.
We have an important responsibility to increase awareness around issues of abuse and we have clear alerting and referring procedures for employees and volunteers to follow should they have any suspicion that abuse is occurring or has occurred. Service users must be aware that we have a duty to report concerns, allegations or suspicions of abuse and that confidentiality cannot be maintained where there are allegations of abuse.
Service users who suspect abuse are encouraged to share their concerns with appropriate staff members. Safeguarding training is compulsory for all new YMCA staff, and we ensure that all staff and volunteers are appropriately recruited, vetted, DBS checked, inducted and managed in line with our core values and safeguarding procedures.
Designated Safeguarding Officers
We have a Senior Designated Officer with overall responsibility for safeguarding issues and have designated officers in specific locations and departments as appropriate across the organisation. These designated officers will work in partnership with local safeguarding boards and other partner organisations to ensure the proper reporting and management of concerns. Contact details for these officers and external sources of support are contained in our Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Policy and Procedure and Safeguarding Children and Young People Policy and Procedure. Our ‘Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Policy and Procedure’ and ‘Safeguarding Children and Young People Policy and Procedure’ are reviewed annually for approval by the Board of Trustees and safeguarding is a standing item at all Board meetings, supervision meetings with staff, and managers meetings.