As a public sector organisation our Trust has a legal duty to protect children and adults at risk from harm. All our staff are trained to recognise the signs of abuse and know how to report any concerns they may have.
Safeguarding unborn babies, children, young people and adults who may be at risk is ‘everyone’s business’ and is a high priority for our Trust.
Abuse of children and adults can have devastating, lifelong effects on victims, as well as their family members and carers.
We are committed to preventing and identifying any abuse of children, young people and adults and work closely with our local authority colleagues who have lead agency responsibility for safeguarding across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.
Board of Directors' Safeguarding Declaration 2024/25
Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust’s (LPT) Board of Directors take their responsibility for safeguarding seriously. The Trust is therefore making a declaration of compliance with the following aspects of safeguarding children, adults, domestic abuse and Prevent practice:
- The Trust meets the statutory requirement regarding the carrying out of safer recruitment processes including checks of Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).
- All safeguarding policies, procedures and systems are reviewed and updated regularly with oversight provided by the LPT Safeguarding Team and Trust Wide Safeguarding Committee. LPT also contributes to designing the multi-agency policies and procedures of the Local
- Safeguarding Adults Boards (LSABs) and the Local Safeguarding Children Partnership Boards (LSCPBs).
- Staff and volunteers have completed and are up to date with safeguarding children and adult training which includes domestic abuse and Prevent to at least level 1. All safeguarding training is reviewed on an annual basis.
- Our Head of Safeguarding, Named Nurse, Named Practitioner, Named Doctors, and Safeguarding Staff are clear about their roles and the Trust is independently reviewing this specialist resource’s capacity, knowledge, and skill to ensure that they have time, training and support to undertake their roles.
- There is Board level Executive and Non-Executive Director Leadership for safeguarding; the Executive Director of Nursing, AHPs and Quality, and our Quality and Safeguarding Non-Executive Director who champions and scrutinises LPT’s safeguarding governance. The Board reviews safeguarding across the organisation at least quarterly and has robust internal and external audit programmes to assure that safeguarding systems and processes are in place and working. The Head of Safeguarding provides regular written reports and updates to the Board regarding safeguarding both internally within LPT, and externally in our work with multi-agency partners.
- The Trust is assured that all clinical staff are aware of the Trust’s Prevent Duty and Government strategy and have robust processes in place to ensure that any patient who may be at risk of radicalisation is identified and supported through the Channel process. Embedded within the LPT Safeguarding Team are Prevent Leads who can provide additional signposting, information, and support.
- The Board receives an annual report which summarises the safeguarding agenda across the whole trust, and the work in the different safeguarding committees and in multiagency adults and children’s boards. The Board is assured that LPT is working to ensure that it adheres to good practice, and that appropriate arrangements are in place.
If any further information is required, please contact the Executive Director of Nursing, AHPs and Quality via the Trust website. The full 2022-23 Annual Safeguarding Report is available on our website.
Trust safeguarding vision
“We are committed to a future where opportunities for abuse are minimised, identified abuse is stopped and prevented from recurring. As an integral part of the community the Trust and its staff will hear the voice of those at risk of abuse. We will work with partner agencies to uphold people’s rights and our response will be effective, kind and compassionate. Where people have experienced abuse that has caused emotional and psychological harm, we will work to enable recovery and a future free from abuse.”
Safeguarding children and young people
A child is defined as a person who has not yet reached their eighteenth birthday. Everyone who comes into contact with children and their families during the course of their work has a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. ‘Think family’ means that this includes staff who don’t have a direct role in relation to children or child protection. Everyone in our Trust working with children and families attend safeguarding training and are familiar with and follow the protocols for promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children – according to the level of responsibility or input they have with patients, carers and families.
Our Trust’s Safeguarding Team offer advice, support and training for all staff on matters of safeguarding.
If you have immediate concerns about the safety of a child, call the police on 999.
If you are concerned about the wellbeing of a child
Contact the social care offices for the local area of the child:
Leicester City Children’s Social Care: 0116 454 1004 (24hrs)
Leicestershire County Children’s Social Care: 0116 305 0005 (24hrs)
Rutland Children’s Social Care: 01572 758 407 (office hours only, contact Leicestershire Social Care outside of these hours)
We also have a Trust-wide child safeguarding service who are available Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm; you can contact the Safeguarding Team on:
Telephone: 0116 295 8977
Email: lpt.safeguardingduty@nhs.net
Further information is available on the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board Websites:
Leicester City: www.lcitylscb.org
Leicestershire and Rutland: www.lrsb.org.uk
Safeguarding adults
The Care Act (DH, 2014) governs the work around adult safeguarding. The statutory guidance within the Care Act enshrines six principles of safeguarding which should inform the ways in which we all work with adults:
- Empowerment – supporting and encouraging person-led decisions and informed consent.
- Prevention – it is better to take action before harm occurs.
- Proportionality – least intrusive response, appropriate to level of risk
- Protection – support and representation for those in greatest need
- Partnerships – local solutions through services working with their communities.
- Accountability – accountability and transparency in delivering safeguarding.
Who is an adult in need of safeguarding?
The Care Act 2014 states that safeguarding duties apply to an adult, aged 18 years and over whom:
- has care and support needs (whether or not the local authority is meeting any of those needs) and;
- is experiencing, or at risk of, abuse or neglect, and;
- as a result of those care and support needs is unable to protect themselves from either the risk of, or experience of abuse and neglect.
What is abuse?
Abuse is defined as ‘a violation of an individual’s human and civil rights by any other person or persons which may result in harm’.
Abuse may be a single act, repeated acts or multiple acts. It may be an act of neglect or a failure to act. Abuse is about the misuse of the power and control that one person has over another. Abuse can occur in any relationship and may result in harm to, or exploitation of, the person subjected to it. Abuse may be perpetrated as the result of deliberate intent, negligence or ignorance. Acts of abuse may constitute a criminal act.
Abuse can happen anywhere – in a residential or nursing home, in a hospital, at home, at a day centre, in supported housing or in the street. Abuse can be perpetrated by anyone – relatives, partners, friends, care workers, or strangers.
What are the categories of abuse in adult safeguarding?
The Care Act (2014) refers to the following categories of abuse:
- Physical
- Sexual
- Psychological/emotional
- Financial and material
- Neglect or acts of omission
- Discriminatory
- Organisation (previously known as institutional abuse)
- Domestic abuse and violence (Inc. honour based violence)
- Modern Slavery (including human trafficking, forced labour and domestic servitude)
- Self-neglect (including behaviour such as hoarding, neglecting one’s health and surroundings)
What should you do if you think someone is being abused?
If you are concerned that an adult has been or is being abused outside of a hospital setting you should notify the relevant adult social care department:
If the person you are concerned about lives in the County please call: 0116 305 0004 (office hours, Mon – Fri)
If the person you are concerned about lives in the City please call: 0116 454 1004 (operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week)
If the person you are concerned about lives in Rutland please call: 01572 758 341 (office hours, Mon – Fri)
For emergencies only, outside of office hours and at weekends and bank holidays, call 0116 255 1606 for all areas.
If a crime has been committed and the person is in immediate danger, call 999 and ask for the police/ambulance. If the person is not in immediate danger call the police on 101.
Concerned about an adult in hospital?
If you are concerned about someone who is currently in one of our community hospitals and you are worried that they may be experiencing abuse while on a ward please ask to speak to the Ward Sister/Manager or Matron in the first instance to discuss your concerns. Alternatively you can contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS):
Telephone: 0116 295 0830 (Monday to Friday 9.00am – 4:30pm)
Email: lpt.pals@nhs.net
Post: Freepost LPT Patient Experience (note: this is the full address and will reach the team)
We also have a Trust-wide child safeguarding service who are available Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm; you can contact the Safeguarding Team on:
Telephone: 0116 295 8977
Email: lpt.safeguardingduty@nhs.net
Additional safeguards
Our Trust takes a number of further steps to protect children, young people and adults, including:
Training our staff: We require all staff to complete an appropriate level of training in safeguarding as part of our mandatory training programme. Compliance of these training requirements is regularly monitored by our Trust Board. The level of training is compliant with national guidance and standards where they exist. All staff complete safeguarding training as part of the induction programme before starting in their role and then on a regular basis thereafter.
Implementing safeguarding systems: We have a comprehensive set of safeguarding policies and procedures which we review periodically.
Checking our staff: We practice safe recruitment and meet the statutory requirements for carrying out DBS checks on all new staff joining our organisation.
Engagement with multi-agency partners: Representatives from our organisation are members of the Leicester City and the Leicestershire and Rutland Local Safeguarding Children and Adults Boards and associated sub-groups. We work closely with other health and social care providers, police and other agencies regarding children and adults for whom there are safeguarding concerns.
Modern Slavery
Obligations
The UK Modern Slavery Act became law on the 26th March 2015. It aims to prevent all forms of labour exploitation, and to increase transparency of labour practices in supply chains. Under the additional clause (clause 6) added retrospectively to the Act, it also requires eligible commercial organisations (over £36m turnover per annum) to make a public statement as to the actions they have taken to detect and deal with forced labour and trafficking in their supply chains – the ‘Transparency in Supply Chains obligation’.
There is clear direction from HM Government, in the guidance issued with the Act, that eligible organisations will commit time and resources to understanding, and working to combat, the issue of slavery in its supply chain. Additional specific direction came from the then Home Secretary Theresa May that organisations must increase their supply chain accountability.
Under the Act, eligible organisations must publish an annual statement in line with their financial year end.
The scope of the obligation is to state the steps the organisation has taken (or state that no steps have been taken), to detect and deal with forced labour or human trafficking in the supply chain. Whilst a non-compliance statement was deemed acceptable for the first year of publication, there is an expectation of evidenced year on year improvement in the actions carried out within the organisation to detect and deal with forced labour or human trafficking in the supply chain.
Whilst Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT), being an NHS organisation, does not meet the definitions of organisations covered by the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and, therefore, is not required to publish a statement, as a professional, responsible and ethical public procurement organisation, LPT recognises this is good practice and to fail to do so could give rise to increased supply chain and reputational risk.
For clarity, ‘supply chain’ has a much wider implication than just the purchasing of goods and services carried out, by procurement teams. It also includes the supply chain of the carrying out of its own business.
This means, that for LPT, in addition to the purchasing of goods and services carried out by the Procurement Team and the Health Informatics Service (HIS), the definition includes spend incurred by pharmacy, capital schemes, purchasing cards, petty cash, healthcare expenditure, payments to statutory and other agencies, and any other goods and services purchased by LPT.
As ‘supply chain’ also includes the carrying out of its own business, HR recruitment for permanent staff, bank and agency staff, and other bought in medical and non-medical consultants fall within the scope of the Act.
What has LPT done?
LPT has identified the policies that required the addition of appropriate reference to the Modern Slavery Act and its requirements.
The Trust’s e-learning module on Equality and Diversity includes training on the awareness of human trafficking and forced labour and provides advice on what to do if this is suspected. The module is mandatory for all new staff and refresher training, and participation is monitored and reported on.
Tender documentation for goods and services procurement, and business development healthcare services, routinely include questions as part of the tender return to determine eligible bidders’ compliance with the requirements of the Modern Slavery Act. Successful suppliers will be added to the Trust’s Modern Slavery Act database.
Agency Staff provision and the recruitment process have processes in place to detect and prevent the incidence of modern slavery.
LPT has established a database of Modern Slavery Act Statements published by all eligible suppliers.
The programme of validation for all suppliers will continue, as an embedded part of annual reporting by LPT. The expectation of the Act is that published statements demonstrate improvement in detection and prevention of modern slavery, and that organisations can demonstrate their own improvement in detecting and preventing incidences of modern slavery.
LPT is signed up to the Business and Human Rights Registry, which collates statements and locations by organisation. There is no obligation for organisations to publish their statements or details on this website or on any other. There are several databases in existence, but none are comprehensive.
LPT will continue:
- To maintain a central, shared, e-filing space, which allows all Trust activity to be monitored and audited.
- Ongoing assessment of our contracts which have the highest risk of modern slavery
- To use our supplier Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ), to support assurance that our suppliers comply with the Modern Slavery Act
- To include an MSA clause in our standard terms and conditions.