This policy applies to all Syli team members, including staff, contractors, volunteers and consultants involved with Syli. We also expect our delivery partners to adhere to the standards contained in this policy where they deliver any activities or services on our behalf.

This policy must be read and understood within our wider policy framework, with particular reference to the following:

Team Code of Conduct

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Policy

Modern Slavery

Code of Conduct for Businesses and Organisations

Whistleblowing Policy

Harassment and Bullying Policy

Through our safeguarding and SEAH prevention approach, we aim to minimise the risk of exposure to harm, particularly for vulnerable groups.

Definition of vulnerable groups

Children and young people:  this group includes children (usually defined as those under 12) and young people (often those between 12 and 17), with young people being in a transitional phase toward adulthood.

Adults at risk of harm: individuals aged 18 or older who are more susceptible to harm, abuse, neglect, or exploitation. They are people who:

• have needs for care and support (whether or not the authority is meeting any of those needs),

• are experiencing, or at risk of, abuse or neglect, and

• as a result of their needs are unable to protect themselves against the abuse or neglect or the risk of it.
  
  Respect for rights, dignity and safety

Syli prioritises the rights, dignity, and safety of all people. We uphold fundamental principles of non-discrimination and inclusion, respecting the diverse backgrounds and identities of those involved in our work, and their right to be free from abuse and harm.

All our team are expected to uphold the standards in our Team Code of Conduct as part of this commitment.

Child Protection

Our work does not involve activities with children or young people; should this change, we will implement additional guidelines and procedures to ensure their safety.

Our work may bring us into indirect contact with children and young people. We will ensure our staff is aware of the types of risk and abuse children and young people may be exposed to and know what action to take should they have a concern.

Prevention through training and awareness

Syli believes that prevention is key. We will:

Provide training and awareness raising during induction for all staff to understand the signs of abuse and exploitation how to prevent it, and how to report a concern. 

Provide annual refresher training.

Team member responsibilities

Team members must:

Be particularly alert to safeguarding and SEAH risks within vulnerable populations.

Report any suspected incidents or potential signs of safeguarding and SEAH issues.

Never hesitate to report suspicions of safeguarding or SEAH issues just because evidence was not collected.

Respect the dignity, wishes and rights of adult survivors of safeguarding and SEAH incidents.

Speak to their line manager for questions about whether or how to report suspected safeguarding and SEAH issues.

Programme design responsibilities

Syli team members responsible for designing, pricing, funding, and implementing programmes, directly or indirectly, are responsible for ensuring that all delivery partners, subcontractors and similar have safeguarding and SEAH policies or agree to implement Syli’s policy.

Team members must not:

Syli team members and delivery partners are prohibited from engaging in any form of SEAH, including with a person participating in a Syli programme. Examples of sexual exploitation and abuse include, but are not limited to:

Syli team members and delivery partners should not engage in new sexual relationships with programme participants when a programme is running; these relationships are based on inherently unequal power dynamics.

Enforcement

Engagement in safeguarding or SEAH violations involving colleagues, programme participants, or other stakeholders constitutes serious misconduct. Such actions may result in disciplinary measures, including termination of employment, referral to law enforcement, and, where applicable, termination of delivery contracts or sub-contracts.

A staff member who is dismissed from their employment with Syli for safeguarding or SEAH related issues is ineligible for rehire. 

If an allegation is made in bad faith, appropriate steps will be taken to follow up with the person who has made the allegation and the person accused following Syli’s Disciplinary Policy. Any team member who makes false and malicious accusations will face disciplinary action, up to and including termination.

Protection against retaliation

Syli is committed to ensuring that those who report safeguarding and SEAH concerns will not face retaliation or adverse consequences for raising a concern in good faith.

Reporting and accountability

The senior staff member with overall responsibility for safeguarding and SEAH is: Hannah Marcella, Syli’s Business Manager. They take the lead in dealing with safeguarding and SEAH matters within the organisation and supervise yearly reviews of our associated policy, procedures and other measures. 

This policy and the associated procedures establish clear channels for reporting safeguarding and SEAH concerns, and we will take all reasonable steps to ensure all parties feel supported in raising issues and that these concerns will be dealt with promptly, fairly, and transparently. We will report concerns in line with the relevant legal requirements, including the specific SEAH reporting duties introduced by the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023.

We will also ensure we have a safeguarding and SEAH risk assessment in place that all staff must be familiar with, and that we update this at least annually, so it remains relevant and impactful in helping us fulfil our responsibilities. This includes discussing any safeguarding and SEAH issues that may have arisen during our quarterly Advisory Board meetings.

Record Keeping

Safeguarding and SEAH records will be kept in confidence, and access will be limited on a strictly need to know basis within the organisation. The appointed lead for safeguarding and SEAH and the Executive Directors will have full access to records. Any other individual may be granted partial access on a need to know basis and for a temporary period of time. Records will be retained in line with statutory requirements.

Safe Recruitment

Our Recruitment Policy sets out the steps we undertake to ensure we recruit in a fair, transparent, and ethical manner - this includes establishing a clear job description, person specification and responsibilities for all roles. We undertake various steps during the recruitment process to ensure those we recruit align with our culture and values as well as to verify their identity, right to work, level of qualification, and suitability for the role.

For any staff role that meets the eligibility criteria for the Disclosure and Barring Service, we will undertake an appropriate level of DBS check before allowing them to work unsupervised with children, young people, or adults at risk of harm.

If a non-team member has a concern or wishes to report a safeguarding or SEAH incident, they may do so using our Incident Report Form.

Participants at a Syli event or activity may also follow the procedure outlined in our Participant Code of Conduct.

Syli’s detailed internal procedures on reporting and responding to concerns are provided for all staff in the Staff Handbook and covered through induction and refresher training.

All internal procedures are made available to all staff through the Staff Handbook.