The safety and security of children and vulnerable adults is our main priority and we are committed to doing all we can to protect them all forms of violence or abuse. We have effective measures in place to ensure that the risks of harm as a result of our member’s work is minimised; and that any concerns are reported and dealt with in an appropriate manner.

Inclusive safeguarding

Children and adults with disabilities are at particular risk of harm, abuse or exploitation, due to the multiple barriers that prevent them from protecting themselves or reporting abuse. As such, staff from our members are more likely to uncover existing concerns that expose children and adults to additional risks. We also recognise that some activities will increase the instances of interactions between children and adults in homes and at schools, with the people we support more susceptible to forms of abuse by their peers following their enrolment in schools. We are committed to the consideration of these risks in any project design, delivery or visit to ensure the protection of children with disabilities.

Safeguarding, consent and communications

In order to communicate and celebrate the impact of our work, we use imagery of children and young people with disabilities that our members work with. While this is an important aspect of our work, we understand the risk associated with this and are committed to ensuring we do not cause harm or cause a loss of dignity for those whose imagery we use.

We are extremely careful about the use of imagery and case studies, ensuring that full, informed consent is granted by the individual and their parents where possible. Any case studies we use are anonymised to protect the identity of the individuals and we choose to portray positive and empowering images of children with disabilities, rather than focusing on more negative perspectives. If we have any concerns that the child is not able to consent or does not understand, we will not use the content. We also choose to impose a life-span on any consent given. After 5 years, new consent will be sought for any case study or imagery we want to continue using or the content will be removed from our systems. In addition, any individual has the right and the opportunity to ask us to withdraw their imagery and information at any time.