Safeguarding Assessments: Seven Key Risks Revealed

Safeguarding risks are often identified too late, trapping organisations in a pattern of responding to risks rather than preventing harm from occurring.

Ansvar, a leading insurance provider and trusted partner of Moores, is trying to change that. Stephen Ratcliffe, one of Ansvar’s Senior Enterprise Risk Consultants, recently published guidance on the key gaps in safeguarding practice. A link to this publication can be found here.

The seven key safeguarding gaps identified by Ansvar are summarised as follows.

1. Not defining what constitutes abuse. Defining what constitutes abuse (including the signs of abuse) is important as it assists staff and volunteers to accurately identify and report it.
2. Not considering “non-physical contact” abuse, which is distinct from “physical contact abuse” and may include:
   (a) sharing images or videos of sexual related content;
   (b) inappropriate or sexualised conversation;
   (c) capturing photos or videos of a person for sexual purposes without their consent.
3. Not defining grooming or providing guidance on how to spot grooming behaviours. Grooming behaviours may seek to persuade a vulnerable person that they have a special relationship with the perpetrator and lead to sexual abuse.
4. Not including notification of an allegation of abuse to your insurance broker or insurer in your incident management procedure. Typically, insurance brokers and insurers must be notified of an allegation of abuse as soon as an organisation becomes aware of it.
5. Incomplete record keeping on staff training, including upon induction and throughout employment.
6. Incomplete record keeping on staff screening, police checks and reference checking.
7. Conflicts of interest in investigating and escalating allegations of abuse or neglect, which may arise if a person responsible for safeguarding is related to a member of staff or has a material personal interest in the organisation. Conflicts of interest should be managed in accordance with the organisation’s conflict of interest policy and documented accordingly. Additionally, a secondary avenue should be available to report abuse in the event that it is inappropriate to report it to the person responsible for safeguarding within an organisation.

The good news is that these safeguarding gaps are preventable and easy to address.

Ansvar has published a range of helpful resources that may assist you to evaluate your safeguarding framework so that you understand your gaps in policy and practice and how to fix them. Those resources can be found using the following links.

• Safeguarding for Vulnerable People Risk Alert
• Safeguarding Checklist: Code of Conduct
• Safeguarding Checklist: Employees, Contractors and Volunteers
• Safeguarding Checklist: Policies and Procedures

Contact Ansvar

Ansvar is a trusted partner of Moores and one of the few insurers that provides coverage for physical injury and sexual abuse in care services. For information about their expertise in care services, please visit their website or email info@ansvarrisk.com.au.

How we can help

Organisations working with children should ensure that they have sufficient systems and processes in place to equip staff to identify, prevent and manage safeguarding risk and harm.

Our safeguarding team can assist you to review your current framework, identify gaps and take steps towards preparing and implementing systems and processes that are tailored to your organisation.

Contact us

Please contact us for more detailed and tailored help.

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