Adult Safeguarding Policy

Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to protect vulnerable adults and beneficiaries of assistance, from any harm that may be caused due to their coming into contact with the Longchen Foundation (LCF). This includes harm arising from:

  • The conduct of personnel associated with Longchen Foundation
  • The conduct of those attending LCF events
  • The creation and implementation of LCF programmes and activities

The policy lays out the commitments made by LCF and informs associated personnel of their responsibilities in relation to safeguarding.

The policy is intended to cover both the safeguarding of vulnerable adults who may attend our events and also the protection of all people involved with our activities from being harmed by them. Although ‘vulnerable adults’ normally refers to people with a specific vulnerability (see glossary below), in reality vulnerability is a continuum and any of us could be vulnerable in certain circumstances.

What is meant by safeguarding?

Safeguarding means protecting people, people’s health, well-being and human rights and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse and neglect.

Scope

  • All volunteers, meditation instructors, teachers
  • All personnel contracted by LCF
  • Those attending LCF events

Policy Statement

LCF accepts that everyone that we come into contact with, regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, disability, sexual orientation or other protected characteristic, is entitled to be protected from all forms of harm, abuse, neglect and exploitation. LCF will not condone abuse and exploitation by associated personnel.

LCF commits to addressing safeguarding throughout its work through the three pillars of preventing, reporting and responding.

Preventing

LCF responsibilities

LCF will

  • Ensure all event organisers, meditation instructors and teachers (thenceforth referred to as ‘associated personal’) know their responsibilities given in this policy.
  • Create and execute all programmes and activities in a way that protects people from any risk of harm that may arise from their contact with LCF. This includes the content of programmes of teachings and the way in which the programmes are communicated.
  • Ensure personnel receive training on safeguarding at a level commensurate with their role in the charity. All teachers, meditation guides and volunteers who provide help at Trust headquarters will be asked to attend safeguarding awareness training.

Responsibilities of associated personnel

Associated personnel must not:

  • Sexually abuse or exploit vulnerable adults and beneficiaries.
  • Subject adults to physical, emotional or psychological abuse or neglect.

Associated personnel are required to:

  • Contribute to creating and maintaining an environment that enables this safe- guarding policy to be followed.

Reporting

The Listening Post is a safeguarding team, authorised by the trustees to be a first port of call for people who have concerns about a safeguarding issue. It is staffed by two people, who are experienced and trained in safeguarding vulnerable adults, at least, one of whom will always be a woman. More details about the Listening Post, including how to contact the team, are on the Longchen Foundation website.

Associated personnel must:-

  • Follow up reports of safeguarding concerns promptly.
  • Report concerns or suspicions regarding safeguarding violations to the most
  • senior person involved with the event or programme or other senior member of the sangha, who will, if appropriate, get advice from the The Listening Post team, or report their concern directly to the Listening Post, who will give them advice about the options for taking it further.
  • The Spiritual Director and the Trustees will be informed of any serious concerns or incidents.

Responding

  • LCF will follow up safeguarding reports and concerns according to policy, legal and statutory obligations. Any investigation will include finding out the concerns, opinions and wishes of all parties, together with consideration of the risks involved and whether a crime has been committed.
  • Other actions may include arranging one or more informal discussions or meetings with relevant parties to address the issues, or a formal process of investigation, for which a written signed statement of the facts would be required.
  • If someone is seriously at risk of being harmed, then the local adult safeguarding team will be contacted. If a criminal act has been committed then this will be reported to the police.
  • LCF will apply appropriate disciplinary measures to associated personnel found in breach of policy.

Complaints

Members, students and volunteers can make an informal complaint by contacting The Listening Post team, who will work with them to find a way of resolving the situation, for example, by setting up an informal meeting of the relevant parties, or by passing on feedback.

A formal complaint can be made by putting it in writing to the trustees, who will discuss the issue and decide on the best way to respond, taking into account legal and statutory obligations and the wishes of the complainant and any other relevant parties.

All complaints will be responded to promptly.

Confidentiality

It is important that confidentiality is maintained at all stages of the process dealing with safeguarding concerns. Information relating to the concern and subsequent case management should be shared on a need to know basis only and should be kept secure at all times. However it may be necessary to discuss the details with those who are directly involved and to inform the Trustees and Spiritual Director if it is a serious incident. For this reason, when a concern is reported, it is not possible to guarantee complete confidentiality.

Review.

This policy will be reviewed by the trustees on a regular basis.

Glossary

Beneficiary of assistance

Someone who directly receives services from LCF programmes e.g. meditation instruction, spiritual guidance.

Associated Personnel

Event organisers, meditation instructors and teachers within LCF.

Vulnerable Adult

A person aged 18 years or over who is or may be in need of community care services by reason of physical or mental disability, age or illness; and who is, or may be, unable to take care of him/herself or unable to protect him/herself against significant harm or exploitation.

Harm

Psychological, physical and any other infringement of an individual’s rights.

Grateful acknowledgement

Bond Safeguarding policy template

Second Issue Feb 2022

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