The term ‘safeguarding’ is used to outline a measure or measures used to protect individuals from damage or harm.

With regards to children, the Department of Education outline that Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as:

• protecting children from maltreatment

• preventing impairment of children’s health or development
• ensuring children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care

With regards to adults, there are six safeguarding principles outlined within the Care Act 2014:

• Empowerment
  People being supported and encouraged to make their own decisions and informed consent.
• Prevention
  It is better to take action before harm occurs.
• Proportionality
  The least intrusive response appropriate to the risk presented.
• Protection
  Support and representation for those in greatest need.
• Partnership
  Local solutions through services working with their communities. Communities have a part to play in preventing, detecting and reporting neglect and abuse.

Accountability
Accountability and transparency in safeguarding practice

A safeguarding policy outlines what an organisation or individual working with children or adults will do to protect individuals from harm. It will include preventative measures and responsive measures to concerns or incidents. The content of a safeguarding policy will change dependent on the area of work that an organisation or individual undertakes, the type of work being undertaken and the local area that the work is being delivered.

Safeguarding training provides knowledge and support for those undertaking a role where they come in to contact with vulnerable adults or children. There are many areas where the completion of safeguarding training is a statutory requirement or governmental expectation.

The term ‘child protection’ is used as a term to describe the protection of children from violence, exploitation, abuse and neglect. The systems used to support ‘child protection’ vary dependent on the locality where a child is found to be in need.

Membership to the Independent Safeguarding Service primarily includes:

• The creation of a tailored safeguarding policy for an organisation (or individual)
• Access to the portfolio of training courses delivered through our LiveOnline service
• Access to the resource bank of policy templates, tools and legislative frameworks for safeguarding in your sector.
• Continuous updates to all aspects of the above services
• Use of the ISS Member logo on marketing material

This is dependent on the type of membership you have.

• Individual membership allows one named individual to attend any or all of the 20+ courses.
• For small organisations, you are able to book up to 50 named members of staff on to any or all of the 20+ courses scheduled.
• For medium organisations, you are able to book up to 100 named members of staff on to any or all of the 20+ courses scheduled.

We welcome anyone who wishes to contribute to how ISS is developed to be part of our ERG. Whilst we have to ensure a balance amongst the represented sectors, all applications will be considered. Please forward a copy of your CV, along with your membership number to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we will get back to you with a position from the Chair.

ISS is happy to complete independent safeguarding audits for schools or other organisations as well as independent investigations for LADO purposes. Send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. outlining the nature of your request and one of our team will get back to you.

The term ‘LADO’ is used for the ‘Designated Officer for the Local Authority’ as outlined in the Department of Education’s Working Together to Safeguard Children statutory guidance.

For details of when they should be contacted and under what circumstances, members should view their safeguarding policy as thresholds often differ dependent on the area you are in. The statutory guidance advises that it should be within 24 hours (or as early as possible after an allegation is apparent). The threshold for LADO involvement is when an individual who works or volunteers with children has:

• behaved in a way that has harmed a child, or may have harmed a child
• possibly committed a criminal offence against or related to a child
• behaved towards a child or children in a way that indicates they may pose a risk of harm to children

Yes, if you would like to cancel your subscription, please get in touch and we can sort that for you. You will be notified before your next memberhsip payment occurs.

All our courses are CPD accredited unless stated otherwise and have been reviewed and approved by members of our independent Expert Reference Group.

Whilst all our documentation has been approved and proof read, we would never presume infallibility. Please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with any concerns and we will get back to you.

Please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with any concerns and we will get back to you.

Yes, we are happy for you to show your documentation to other organisations as it is our belief it will help promote best practice. However, all our documents are copy right protected and must not be amended in any way, each organisation wishing to use ISS documents must become a member.

The Care Act 2014 suspended the term ‘vulnerable adult’.

The current terminology is ‘an adult at risk.’ An adult at risk of abuse or neglect is defined as someone who has needs for care and support, who is experiencing, or at risk of, abuse or neglect and as a result of their care needs - is unable to protect themselves.

Abuse can take many forms that all fall in the category of either ‘abuse’ or ‘neglect’ as per the above definition but generally, the following list outlines the types of issues that an adult at risk may face:

• Physical abuse
• Domestic violence or abuse
• Sexual abuse
• Psychological or emotional abuse
• Financial or material abuse
• Modern slavery
• Discriminatory abuse
• Organisational or institutional abuse
• Neglect or acts of omission
• Self-neglect

Unfortunately, we do not provide recordings of previous training sessions as we believe live is best. However, we do repeat our sessions frequently throughout the year so book yourself on to the next one.

We frequently review the documents on our store so if you have any particular documents related to safeguarding that you feel should be on there, please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the subject header ‘document request’ and we will get back to you.

Certificates are automatically sent to the email address of the attendee. If, for any reason you have not received yours, please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we will look in to it for you.

Once you have registered your account and logged in, you will be taken to the ‘organisational details’ tab under ‘ACCOUNT’ (top right) section of the site in order to complete your details (this is required to produce your tailored policies).

Once you have done this, click on the ‘policies/procedures’ tab and you will be walked through the creation of your safeguarding policy. Once this is done, all the templates, tools and legislation will be available for you to download as you wish.

If you make a mistake or wish to add/amend your organisation details, return to the relevant tab and edit your entry or click the ‘edit’ button to re-create your safeguarding policy.

Any problems or difficulties, send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we will look in to it for you.

If you are not your organisation’s account manager, you will need to ask them to book you on to a course. If you are the account manager and have registered your account and logged in, you can book training courses by clicking on the ‘training’ tab on the site.

Find the course and date/time you wish to book and click ‘join’.

You will be prompted for the number of people you wish to join the course and be asked for their names and email addresses. Invitations will be sent directly to them with details of how to join the session.