Safeguarding Policy

Report a concern

You can tell us about a safeguarding concern through the contact form. Put “safeguarding” at the start of your message and it will be treated as urgent rather than joining ordinary enquiries.

You do not need proof. You do not need to be certain. You do not need to be connected to us. If something worries you, tell us and let us work out whether it is anything — that is our job, not yours.

You may report anonymously. It is harder for us to act on, but we would rather have it than not.

Our commitment

We work with elderly people, with medical students under real strain, and with people asking for financial help at a difficult moment. Every one of those is a position of relative powerlessness in relation to us, and that is exactly where harm happens.

We commit to:

• Treat every concern seriously, whoever raises it and whoever it is about.
• Act on concerns about our own people exactly as we would about anyone else's.
• Never retaliate against somebody who reports in good faith.
• Never use a person's dependence on our help as a reason they should keep quiet.

Who this protects

• Elderly people receiving care from us or our volunteers.
• Patients at our clinics.
• Students and applicants, particularly those in financial difficulty or mental distress.
• Children, where they are treated or accompany someone.
• Volunteers and staff, who are owed the same protection.

What we mean by harm

Not only violence. Also:

• Financial harm — pressuring someone for money, misusing an award, taking from a person who depends on you.
• Neglect — withholding care, food or medication somebody needs.
• Emotional harm — humiliation, threats, isolating someone from people who would notice.
• Sexual harm, including anything unwanted, and anything at all where a power imbalance makes consent doubtful.
• Discrimination — treating someone worse because of who they are.
• Breach of confidence — telling people about a person's care or circumstances without their agreement.

What we require of our people

Everyone acting for us — staff, volunteers, clinicians, trustees — must:

• Never be alone with someone at risk where it can reasonably be avoided.
• Never accept personal gifts or money from a beneficiary or patient.
• Never lend or borrow money with anyone we help.
• Never contact a beneficiary or patient privately about anything other than their care or application.
• Never use their position to obtain anything for themselves.
• Report a concern rather than investigate it alone.
• Record what they saw, promptly and factually.

Access to patient and beneficiary records is limited by role and every access is logged. That is a safeguarding control as much as a technical one: it means inappropriate curiosity leaves a trace.

What happens when you report

When	What
Immediately	If anyone is in danger, we contact emergency services. This comes before any internal process.
Within 1 working day	We acknowledge your report and a named senior person takes it on.
Within 5 working days	We tell you what we are doing, or why we are not.
As required	We refer to the police or the relevant authority. That decision is not ours to weigh against our reputation.
Throughout	Anyone who is the subject of a concern is suspended from contact with those at risk while it is looked at. Suspension is not a finding.

Confidentiality

We keep reports confidential and share them only with those who need to know to act.

We cannot promise absolute confidentiality, and we will not pretend otherwise to obtain a disclosure. Where somebody is at risk of serious harm, or where the law requires it, we will pass information on. If we have to do that we will tell the person concerned, unless telling them would increase the danger.

If we are the problem

Concerns about our own staff, volunteers or trustees are handled the same way — by someone with no involvement, referred outside where appropriate. The organisation's reputation is not a factor in that decision, and any member of our team who treats it as one is themselves in breach of this policy.

If you are unhappy with how we handled something, our complaints procedure is separate and you can go straight to it. You may also report to the police or the relevant authority at any time, without coming to us at all.

Questions about this page

Write to us through the contact form or at info@cheermedics.org. We answer every message about privacy, safeguarding or a complaint — those are not marketing enquiries and they are not treated as such.