Safeguarding Policy
Version 3 Revised August 2023
Author D Watkins
1. Purpose and Aims
This policy sets out the safeguarding aims of the project and summarises how these will be achieved. It also provides information on how any safeguarding concerns or incidents can be reported, and how these will be dealt with.
The policy applies to children and young people participating in the research project. It also applies to their parents/carers, and to their school or other communities where the research takes place. The policy applies to all staff employed on the project and to staff employed by partner organisations.
It has been developed collaboratively by research team members at the University of Sheffield’s School of Law and at Nottingham Trent University’s Department of Psychology, in line with the University of Sheffield’s Safeguarding Policy (available at https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/rs/ethicsandintegrity/safeguarding) and Nottingham Trent University’s Safeguarding children and vulnerable adults Policy (available at https://www.ntu.ac.uk/policies/safeguarding-children-and-vulnerable-adults).
2. The Principal Investigator (PI) and all members of the Research Team aim to:
Safeguard and promote the welfare of the children and young people who participate in the research and to conduct the research activities in a way that protects them from harm and respects their rights.
Ensure participation in research is voluntary.
Obtain fully informed consent for their participation (apart from where participation is anonymous).
Make participants aware of their entitlement to refuse/withdraw at any stage.
Not exclude any group from consideration.
Maintain participants' anonymity and confidentiality. The only exception to this is where a researcher feels a participant or someone else is at risk of being hurt. If this happens, the researcher will follow the steps set out in paragraph 4.
3. To achieve these aims, the PI and all members of the Research Team will:
Make publicly available the names and contact details of each member of the research team.
Obtain DBS clearances for each member of the research team conducting research activities with participants.
Fully inform participants, their parents/carers and schools (where appropriate) of the nature of the research project and their involvement in it.
Apart from where participation is anonymous, take steps to obtain fully informed consent and assent of those children who wish to participate and the consent of their parents/carers.
Where participation is anonymous, take steps to ensure parents/carers are informed about the steps that they (or their child) can take to withdraw their child from the research activities at any time.
Keep information relating to all participants confidential; including the anonymising of data gathered from or in respect of all participants, apart from where a researcher feels a participant or someone else is at risk of being hurt.
Clearly state this limitation regarding to respect for the participant’s confidentiality and/or anonymity in the information provided to parents/carers and children about the project.
Store and process any data relating to participants in accordance with GDPR and data protection legislation, currently the Data Protection Act 2018.
4. Where a member of the research team feels that a participant or someone else is at risk of being hurt, she/he will take the following steps:
Discuss the safeguarding concern with one of the project’s Designated Safeguarding Contacts in person or by telephone.
Agree with Designated Safeguarding Contact whether/how to let participant know there is a safeguarding concern and establish if participant wishes to be involved in communicating this.
Where the participant is recruited via their school, disclosure will be made to the Designated Safeguarding Contact of that school. Where the participant is recruited outside of school, disclosure will be made to the social care team at the participant’s local council. Where this is impractical for any reason, the disclosure will be made to the NSPCC online or via telephone.
Where a disclosure is made, the issue will be followed up in accordance with the school/organisation’s own safeguarding procedures.
The school/organisation will be asked to provide a report to the research team of measures taken in response to any such disclosures, and the research team will monitor for a response/outcome.
5. To facilitate the reporting of incidents or concerns about potential exploitation, abuse or harm arising from the research by any person, the PI will:
Provide participants and their parent/carer with the name and contact details of the project’s Designated Safeguarding Contact who will be responsible for receiving details of reported incidents or concerns.
Provide participants and their parent/carer with the name and contact details of an external Designated Safeguarding Contact who is independent of the research team, who will receive details of reported concerns or incidents where preferable to the person raising the concern.
Make publicly available the names and contact details of both the primary and external Designated Safeguarding Contacts for the project.
The primary Designated Safeguarding Contact is the PI, Professor Dawn Watkins. Email d.watkins@sheffield.ac.uk. Tel. 0114 222 6827.
The external Designated Safeguarding Contact is Penny Russell, Chair of the Ethics Committee in the Law School, University of Sheffield. Email P.Russell@sheffield.ac.uk. Tel. 0114 222 6873.
6. Where either the project’s Designated Safeguarding Contact (or the external Designated Safeguarding Contact) receives a report of an incident or concerns about potential exploitation, abuse or harm arising from the research by any person:
They will follow the steps outlined in the Reporting Process Flowchart, available via this link:
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/research-services/ethics-integrity/safeguarding/about#downloads