Durham Community Action provides information and training on safeguarding to voluntary and community groups including community buildings:
We are delighted to be part of a new partnership between local infrastructure organisations that has been formed to help charities across the region to protect vulnerable people and will allow us to offer greater support around safeguarding to groups across County Durham.
Safer Culture North East, a partnership between Voluntary Organisations' Network North East (VONNE), Connected Voice, Northumberland CVA, Catalyst Stockton on Tees and ourselves, will champion safeguarding and help charities across the region to embed best practice.
 (logo for use with Safer Culture North East comms)(1).jpg)
Funded jointly by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and The National Lottery Community Fund
Read more here
This online session is for you if you are new to the world of safeguarding. It will give you an overview of the key issues about safeguarding for adults and children that any community organisation, charity or social enterprise needs to know.
This session is being delivered by Connected Voice.
By the end of the session you will:
- Have an entry level understanding of safeguarding
- Know how to recognise and report abuse or harm
- Understand the importance of responding to safeguarding concerns
- Feel able to begin making safeguarding part of your day to day activities.
It will also cover some of the key issues in safeguarding in the current situation with COVID-19.
This event will take place online and joining instructions will be sent prior to the session.
As thousands of people volunteer to help their communities, organisations move to deliver their services online quickly, and trustees and leaders of charities are faced wirh challenges that just a few weeks ago would have been unthinkable, safeguarding needs to remain at the heart of our collective response.
Durham Community Action, as a partner in the Safer Culture North East project, have been working to adapt our project to meet the specific demands of the current situation; thanks go to The Community Fund and DCMS for allowing flexibility in the project.
We have created with our partners some easy to read factsheets for the sector, designed as brief introductions to the subject matter with links showing where to get further information for people and organisations who are new to safeguarding and having to respond quickly whilst facing enormous challenges.
These factsheets are aimed at volunteers, trustees, community groups and those employees and volunteers new to delivering services online. The factsheets are available here
The Home Office has also published a guide: Safeguarding is Everyone's Business which sets out how to keep people safe from harm and abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Keep Safe have produced a range of easy read posters that are free to print or share online; these include a face covering exemption card, new rules about wearing face masks for England, support bubbles, shielding updates, symptoms and testing. Posters can be accessed here
Further guidance on how to handle an allegation of abuse or harm perpetrated by a person in your charity is available here
As a network member of ACRE (Action With Communities in Rural England), we will be working as part of their National Lottery Community Fund Safeguarding project to promote good safeguarding practice to village and community halls to make sure that the voluntary management committees that run them have the knowledge and confidence to provide a safe environment for all.
Read more here
If you have any specific safeguarding enquiries around developing, updating a policy or training for your organisation, please contact us by email
This partnership provides safeguarding arrangements under which safeguarding partners and relevant agencies work together to coordinate their safeguarding services and identify and respond to the needs of children in County Durham. For full details click here
Their Safeguarding Referral form has recently been updated, access it here
An updated version of the Multi-Agency Child Protection Procedures went live on 9th November and can be accessed here
This partnership is a range of public authorities who share a duty to keep adults in County Durham safe from abuse, harm and neglect. They aim to encourage people to report abuse, protect people who experience abuse, prevent abuse from happening and deal effectively with perpetrators. For full details click here
They have made two documents available to support staff and volunteers undertaking online or in-house training: Safeguarding Adults in Co. Durham to support Level 1 online learning here and Safeguarding Adults managing concerns and making S42 enquiries resources here
There are a wide range of resources available from NCVO and the UK Government including checklists and frameworks, and guidance on handling safeguarding allegations in a charity.
You can download a copy of our safeguarding policy here
This directory is a a combination of resources identified through Safeguarding Week 2020 and distributed on behalf of the Safeguarding Adults Board, Durham Safeguarding Children Partnership and the Safe Durham Partnership. Download it here
The Easy Read Safeguarding for Adults Resources can be downloaded here
In County Durham, local NHS commissioners have launched open recruitment for individuals to be involved with the Pa… https://t.co/VnTEGcnKCS
© 2018 DURHAM COMMUNITY ACTION LIMITED
