We take our responsibility seriously and embrace the Essential Standards of Quality and Safety from the Care Quality Commission, and in doing so are committed to working in partnership with local agencies and authorities to ensure those who visit us or are admitted into our care are protected from harm.

Staff and volunteers at Richard House Children’s Hospice work hard to ensure that all children and young people are cared for in a safe, secure and caring environment. The palliative care that we give to children and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions acknowledges their individual physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs.

We strive to enrich their quality of life and the support for their family and friends. We recognise the enormous strain on family life and provide a range of support measures to help families come to terms with their child or young person’s condition. Safeguarding and protecting our patients and visitors from harm is a very high priority for staff at Richard House and plays a large part in everything we do.

We take our safeguarding responsibilities very seriously – it is everybody’s business. We embrace the Essential Standards of Quality and Safety from the Care Quality Commission and in doing so are committed to working in partnership with local agencies and authorities to ensure that all who visit us or, are admitted into our care, are protected from harm.

Child protection is the process of protecting individual children identified as either suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm as a result of abuse.

We respect and promote the dignity, rights and welfare of children, young people and young adults who visit us and accept our duty to:

• Protect children from maltreatment
• Prevent impairment of children’s health or development
• Ensure children grow up in circumstances consistent with provision of safe and effective care.
• Take action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.

The responsibilities for the safeguarding of children and young people are identified by The Children Act (1989), Every Child Matters Green Paper (2003), The Children Act (2004) and, the No Secrets Review (2009). These documents and publications provide the legislative framework for the protection of children, young people and vulnerable adults. All are supported by statutory and supplementary guidance in Working Together to Safeguard Children (2013).

We ensure our commitment to our safeguarding responsibility by undertaking a range of measures:

• We ensure that statutory requirements around Disclosure and Barring Service checks are undertaken for all staff and visitors
• Child protection policies and systems are up-to-date and robust to ensure that accurate records with regard to actions and decisions are made promptly
• Safeguarding training is in place with systems to monitor compliance. Supplementary training is provided and reflective Processes are in place to learn from events
• We have identified roles and responsibilities for named professionals and they have a key role in promoting good professional practice within the hospice and provide advice and expertise for fellow professionals, staff and volunteers
• The Chair of the Board of Trustees receive regular reports on safeguarding arrangements and evidence of best practice within the hospice and supporting a culture that enables safeguarding issues and promotion of children’s welfare to be addressed.

Libby Basson

Director of Care