Safeguarding Advisory Group Blog – November 2023

The SAG's function is to advise and guide members and the society on aspects of Safeguarding including best practice and legislation.

The SAG advises the society and member networks on issues concerning safeguarding across the lifespan. It provides an expert contribution on safeguarding issues to government, stakeholders and other organisations and bodies as required.

The SAG keeps abreast of current changes in legislation and policy relevant to safeguarding and informs the society.  It also contributes to consultations on aspects of safeguarding.

Document production

Guidance on responding to disclosures of non-recent (historic) child sexual abuse: Safeguarding and support implications

Following considerable effort this guidance has been amended and updated and was published in July 2023.

The guidance builds on the previous version published in 2016. It has been written to support practitioner psychologists because they have become increasingly concerned about how to respond to client disclosures of non-recent sexual abuse during assessment or therapeutic work.

Consultations

The SAG was kept busy responding to a number of consultations, including three from the Department of Education on:

• Children's Social Care National Framework
• Stable Homes, Built on Love
• Use of reasonable force and restrictive practices in Schools.

Additionally, the SAG contributed to the Family Justice Council's consultation on Responding to allegations of alienating behaviour.

Members of the advisory also contributed to the BSI Standards' on: PAS 5222 Child safeguarding – Provisions for out of school activities – Specification.

Presentations and events

Dr Rebekah Eglinton, Head of Support and Safeguarding, Chief Psychologist  presented to the group on Independent inquiry into child sexual abuse: Learning from Victims and Survivors

Kate Richardson, National Crime Agency, presented on Complex Adult Safeguarding Issues.

Part of the NCA's role is safeguarding the public and to assess key threats to the national interest.  For example, concerns about online harm to children and young people. The NCA is focused, for example, on:

• Sexual exploitation of adults
• Adults abused in childhood
• Modern slavery
• County lines
• Organised immigration crime, and
• Fraud, via cybercrime.

The SAG's Chair and Policy Advisor contributed to the Division of Occupational Psychology's webinar on safeguarding, which had been organised by a SAG member. 

Contemporary safeguarding issues

Contemporary safeguarding issues are a regular feature of the advisory group's discussion.

These have included concerns about children missing from education, the psychology of older people and the Amber Project which is a multi-agency approach that provides webinar training related to abuse linked to witchcraft and spirit possession accusations.