Safeguarding Policy

Blacktax Radio Taxis Ltd.

POLICY STATEMENT: The purpose of this policy is to provide members of staff and drivers with an understanding of and a course of action for Blacktax Radio Taxis Ltd in the event of any concerns about the potential abuse of vulnerable adults and children.

POLICY AUTHOR: Lee Fairhurst, Company Director

What to do if you are concerned about a child or a vulnerable adult

Don’t keep it to yourself, if in doubt, seek advice. Contact can be made with the Directors (who are the safe guarding leads) on:

01253 596596
office@blacktax.co.uk
If anyone within the company has a concern regarding a child or thinks a young person or vulnerable adult is at risk, they must follow the policy, including communicating with the safeguarding leads. Concerns can be directed to the relevant bodies that can contacted on the following numbers:

Useful Contacts

Blackpool Safeguarding Adults Board BSAB 01253 476931

Blackpool Safeguarding Children’s Board BSCB 01253 477025

Worried about an Adult?

Adult Social Care 01253 477592

Worried about an Adult? (emergency out of hours)

Adult Social Care 01253 477600

Worried about a Child? (available 24 hours)

Children’s Social Care 01253 477299

Worried about a Child or Adult?

If the Child or Adult is in immediate danger 999

POLICE can also be contacted 24hrs on 101

Purpose

The purpose of this document is to outline Blacktax Radio Taxis Ltd procedure and provide information for protecting children, young people and adults at risk from harm, abuse and exploitation.

The policy will apply where people at risk are employed within the company environment or where staff members or drivers may come into contact with vulnerable people whilst carrying out their duties. It details the action that will be taken within The Blacktax Radio Taxis Ltd framework in response to concerns about children, young people and adults at risk, and to allegations of harm, abuse or exploitation. The policy is in support of our duty of care and customer care.

The Extent

All staff members and drivers have a role to play in safeguarding and as such this policy is relevant and applicable to all staff and drivers including temporary employees, Contractors, volunteers and other people working for or with Blacktax Radio Taxis Ltd. Since safeguarding involves our general duty of care towards vulnerable people as well as ensuring the welfare and safety of all of those at risk, the policy and procedure apply to all areas where Blacktax Radio Taxis Ltd operates, it’s office and all staff and drivers.

Definitions to give guidance on issues

These definitions have been taken from a range of legal and statutory sources, including legislation relating to the protection of children and adults and guidance from the UK and Scottish governments and their associated agencies.

Staff Members

All permanent/ temporary employees, contractors, volunteers and other people working for or with BLACKTAX RADIO TAXIS LTD

Drivers

Refers to and inclusive of all Directors, shareholders, concessionaires and their authorised drivers.

Company

The company is BLACKTAX RADIO TAXIS LTD

Safeguarding

Safeguarding is the action that is taken to promote the welfare of children and vulnerable adults to protect them from harm.

Safeguarding means:

Protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and maltreatment
Preventing harm to children’s and vulnerable adult’s health or development
Ensuring children and vulnerable adults grow up with the provision of safe and effective care

Taking action to enable all children and young people (including vulnerable adults) to have the best outcomes.

Safeguarding is the process that focuses on protecting individual children and vulnerable adults, identified as suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. This includes child protection procedures which detail how to respond to concerns about a child.

Duty of Care

Blacktax Radio Taxis Ltd has a duty of care to it passengers /service users, colleagues, employers and the public interest. Everyone has a duty of care – it is not something that you can opt out of. Blacktax promotes the best interests of employees and drivers, we exercise an appropriate level of care towards employees and drivers as is reasonable within the parameters of our relationship. To ensure this same level of care is mirrored towards children and vulnerable adults when our employees and drivers are working in environments where they come into contact with such people.

Child

A young person being below the age of puberty or below the legal age of majority (under 18 years).

Child Protection

Child Protection is a part of the overall area of safeguarding and refers to the activities undertaken to protect specific children who are being harmed or are at risk of suffering harm.

Vulnerable Adult

A vulnerable adult is described as a person aged 18 years or over who is in receipt of, or may be in need of community care services by reason of mental or other disability, age or illness and who is or may be unable to take care of him or herself, or unable to protect him or herself against significant harm or exploitation.

Harm

Harm is most broadly defined as being all harmful conduct, but more specifically is: conduct which causes physical, psychological, self-harm or unlawful conduct which appropriates or adversely affects property, rights or interests.

Bullying

Verbal, emotional and physical bullying is also a form of harm and there is a requirement for all within the Company to ensure that there are sufficient mechanisms to allow children to report instances of bullying. The Company must ensure that everyone understands bullying will not be tolerated in any form, and that the Company is prepared to take the problem seriously and investigate any incident and decide on appropriate action, also ensuring that children are able to report bullying to someone in authority.

Abuse

A broad definition of abuse is all forms of physical and/or emotional ill treatment, neglect or negligent treatment or commercial or other exploitation, resulting in actual or potential harm to health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power.

Physical – any deliberate act to cause physical harm including hitting, slapping, pushing, kicking and misuse of medication or restraint.

Financial or Material – theft, fraud, exploitation, pressure in connection with wills, property or inheritance or financial transactions, or misusing property, possessions and benefits.

Sexual – involvement in a sexual act to which the vulnerable person has not consented, or to which he or she could not consent or was pressured into consenting.

Neglect and Acts of Omission – ignoring medical or physical care needs and withholding the necessities of life such as nutrition, heating and medication.

Psychological – emotional abuse, threats to harm or abandon the person, depriving them of contact, humiliating, blaming, controlling, intimidating, coercing or harassing them, verbal abuse, isolation or withdrawing services and support networks.

Discriminatory – based on cultural, sexual, age, disability, sexual orientation or religion.

Institutional – Mistreatment or abuse by an organisation or the individuals within it.

Domestic – any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (including any of the above) occurring between adults who are or have been in an intimate relationship or are family members – regardless of gender or sexuality.

Trafficking

The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or a position of vulnerability, or the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to obtain the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.

Exploitation

Exploitation refers to social relations where an ‘actor or character of actors uses others for their own end because of a fundamentally asymmetric power relationship between them’. When speaking about exploitation there is a direct affiliation with consumption in social theory.

Various forms are following

Exploitation for the purpose of prostitution of another person (commercial sexual exploitation) and other forms of sexual exploitation;
Forced labour or services;
Slavery, servitude and other practices similar to slavery (debt slavery);
Removal of organs for the purpose of illegal transplants.
Child labour
Child sexual exploitation

Sexual exploitation of children and young people under 18 involves exploitative situations, contexts and relationships where young people (or a third person or persons) receive “something” (e.g. food, accommodation, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, affection, gifts, money) as a result of them performing, and/or another or others performing on them, sexual activities. Child sexual exploitation can occur through the use of technology without the child’s immediate recognition; for example, being persuaded to post sexual images on the internet/mobile phones without immediate payment or gain. In all cases, those exploiting the child/young person have power over them by virtue of their age, gender, intellect, physical strength and/or economic or other resources. Violence, coercion and intimidation are common, involvement in exploitative relationships being characterised in the main by the child or young person’s limited availability of choice resulting from their social/economic and/or emotional vulnerability.

Our Responsibilities

The Directors have overall strategic responsibility for the Safeguarding Policy and Procedure and for ensuring that all children and adults at risk involved are protected to the best of the company’s ability. The Directors have overall responsibility for the implementation of the policy, it’s review and execution.
All members of staff and drivers have a responsibility in safeguarding and as such this policy is relevant and applicable to all staff and drivers including temporary employees, Contractors, volunteers and other people working for or with Blacktax Radio Taxis Ltd.

The following Procedure will apply

The purpose of this procedure is to support the effective implementation of our Safeguarding Policy and to ensure that concerns about the welfare vulnerable people interacting with the company are dealt with sensitively, effectively and promptly. The procedure provides step-by-step guidance on how to respond to a concern or disclosure.

Confidentiality In any safeguarding matter, the welfare of the child or adult at risk is paramount and as such, only a restricted number of people within Blacktax Radio Taxis Ltd will have access to information that involves such issues. Information will be shared on a ‘need to know’ basis in accordance with current legislation and Codes of Practice.

Staff Development and driver Support

To support staff in the implementation of the Safeguarding Policy and Procedure, Blacktax Radio Taxis Ltd will provide appropriate training and information to all staff members on the policy and its associated procedure. Blacktax Radio Taxis Ltd will also support staff by ensuring that they are aware of best practice relating to working with children and adults at risk in order that they can work within the parameters of our Duty of Care and protect themselves from wrongful allegations of harm. Blacktax Radio Taxis Ltd will further support staff by providing an opportunity to talk through anxieties relating to Safeguarding issues with the Directors and offer reasonable appropriate support from external agencies if requested

When a driver or member of staff believes they have been presented with a safeguarding issue.

When a driver or member of staff are confided in or believe they are in the presence of a vulnerable child or adult the appropriate action needs to be taken.

Don’t put them off, they may think you don’t want to listen and may not choose to tell again.

Be clear from the start that the information cannot be kept confidential.

Document clearly what the vulnerable adult or child says.

Stay calm and be reassuring. Your job is to listen, so keep responses brief, slow and gentle.

Don’t ask leading questions. Any evidence needed may be invalidated.

You may repeat back what the vulnerable person has said using their own words, but on no account interrogate them. You are there to hear their story.

One of the safeguarding leads should be contacted and or the relevant authority as per the perceived vulnerability of the child or adult.

When an Allegations against staff members or Drivers is made
A person at risk may make an allegation against a member of staff. If an allegation is made, the member of staff or a driver to whom the allegation is disclosed should immediately inform the Safeguarding leads. Blacktax Radio Taxis Ltd may make an immediate decision to temporarily suspend an individual accused of harming a child or adult at risk pending further inquiries. The safe guarding lead will contact the appropriate authority in the case of a driver Blackpool Licensing or one of its officers will be informed. Where substantiated cause for concern exists the assigned Safeguarding lead will notify the Police.

Code of Conduct

Code of conduct for Staff members and Drivers at Blacktax Radio Taxis Ltd recognises that it is not practicable to provide definitive instructions that would apply to all situations at all times where staff come into contact with children and adults at risk. However, we have a duty of care and customer care document that details best practice when carrying out their duties.

This code aims to assist in the safeguarding (including Child sexual exploitation), and promotion of the welfare of children and adults at risk and in the protection of children, adults at risk and members of staff. The code also applies to volunteers and any other people who may work in an unpaid capacity on Blacktax Radio Taxis Ltd premises. All staff and drivers working in Blacktax Radio Taxis Ltd are required to implement the Safeguarding Policy and procedure at all times and should routinely act to promote the welfare of children and adults at risk and to prevent harm and report any harm that is discovered or suspected.

This Policy is a part of our term and conditions.

Blacktax Directors at Blacktax Radio Taxis Ltd tel 01253 596596

E-mail: office@blacktax.co.uk

Policy reviewed 16th April 2024

Next review by 15th April 2025