Safeguarding is firmly embedded within the core duties of all organisations and all staff across the health system. However, there is a distinction between providers’ responsibilities to provide safe and high-quality care, and commissioners’ responsibilities to assure themselves of the safety and effectiveness of the services they have commissioned.
NHS Safeguarding is bringing clarity to reporting concerns using devolved shared leadership. All clinical or service concerns must be reported to local commissioners and Designated Professionals since they may have other local intelligence about the reported incident or allegation.
The context of safeguarding continues to change in line with societal risks both locally and nationally, large scale inquiries and legislative reforms.
Fundamentally, it remains the responsibility of every NHS-funded organisation and each individual healthcare professional working in the NHS, to ensure that the principles and duties of safeguarding children and adults are holistically, consistently and conscientiously applied; the well-being of those children and adults is at the heart of what we do.
Every NHS funded organisation needs to ensure that sufficient capacity is in place for them to fulfil their statutory duties; they should regularly review their arrangements to assure themselves that they are working effectively. Organisations need to co-operate and work together within new demographic footprints to seek common solutions to the changing context of safeguarding and developing structural landscape needed to deliver the NHS Long Term Plan (LTP).