East of England Community Health & Care NHS Trust (EEC) is committed to safeguarding children and adults at risk. All our staff have a responsibility to safeguard service users and their carers from abuse and neglect. The statements below set out how we achieve this commitment.
Quality assurance processes are in place as part of our internal governance processes and wider safeguarding partnership arrangements, and this includes learning from incidents and safeguarding reviews. An annual safeguarding assurance report is provided to the Trust Board, which provides assurance that we are meeting all our statutory requirements as well as identifying themes, emerging trends, and system-wide learning.
In line with legislation and guidance, staff are supported with safeguarding training, supervision, and support from dedicated safeguarding professionals.
We work with other healthcare providers, children and adult social care and the police to identify and intervene to prevent harm and abuse.
EEC staff acknowledge and understand the importance of involving the person at risk of harm and abuse in decision making processes and safety planning as part of our safeguarding responsibilities.
As a community healthcare organisation, we provide a wide range of services and this requires us to adopt a whole family safeguarding approach. This involves considering the wider support mechanisms that may inform our assessment of safeguarding risk and the support needed to prevent harm and abuse.
Many of our children’s service professionals have specific safeguarding responsibilities and work with children/young people and their families, alongside other key partners to support families to promote child wellbeing and development.
We promote the welfare of adults who are identified as requiring care and having support needs with a collaborative and inclusive approach. Our professionals play an active role in identifying harm and abuse and work with adult social care and the police to manage potential issues.
As a community healthcare provider, we are privileged to work within people’s homes, within in-patient and community settings. This often means our staff are in a position to identify children and adults at risk of harm and abuse from organised criminal activities.
