Safeguarding

Includes information on safeguarding, the Council's responsibilities towards safeguarding, adult and child abuse, neglect, radicalisation, and the different forms of modern slavery.

What is safeguarding?

Safeguarding protects individuals' health, wellbeing, and human rights, allowing them to live free from abuse, harm, and neglect. In particular, this relates to children, young people and adults with care and support needs. 

NNDC's safeguarding responsibilities

Section 11 of the Children Act 2004 places a statutory duty on key organisations. This duty includes district councils making arrangements to ensure that in discharging their functions, they have regard for the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. 

We also have a duty to promote wellbeing within local communities and cooperate with relevant partners to protect adults experiencing or at risk of abuse or neglect.

The council attends multi-agency safeguarding groups across Norfolk regarding adults with care and support needs as well as children and young people. 

Child abuse

Child abuse relates to when an adult or another child harms a child. It can be over a long period or a one-off event. The abuse can be physical, emotional or sexual, happening in person or online. It can also be child neglect, a lack of love, care, and attention.

Adult abuse

Adult abuse is when an adult with care and support needs is harmed or at risk of harm. Predominantly, this includes people with:

• disabilities
• older people
• mental health needs 
• long term health conditions 
• dependency issues such as drug or alcohol addiction

Types of abuse

Child	Adult
physical, emotional and sexual	physical, emotional and sexual
online abuse	financial
historical abuse	neglect
neglect	self-neglect
grooming	discrimination
female genital mutilation	domestic abuse
domestic abuse	criminal exploitation and county lines
criminal exploitation and county lines	modern slavery
child sexual exploitation	institutional abuse
bullying and cybercrime

Neglect

Neglect is a form of abuse where the perpetrator responsible for caring fails to care for someone unable to care for themselves. It can result from carelessness, indifference, unwillingness and abuse.

There are several types of neglect:

• Physical neglect is the failure to provide necessary food, clothing, hygiene care, and shelter and inappropriate or lack of supervision.
• Medical neglect is the failure to provide necessary medical or mental health treatment.
• Educational neglect is failing to educate a child or provide for special education needs.
• Emotional neglect is the failure to meet a child's emotional needs and provide psychosocial support or permit the child to use alcohol or other drugs.

Prevent

Prevent is about safeguarding and supporting those vulnerable to radicalisation. 

Preventing is one of the four elements of the Government's counter-terrorism strategy. It aims to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.

Radicalisation

Radicalisation refers to the process of how a person comes to support terrorism and extremist ideologies associated with terrorist groups.

The Government has defined extremism in the Prevent strategy as:

"vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs"

Terrorist groups often draw on extremist ideology. Some people who join terrorist groups have previously been members of extremist organisations and have been radicalised by them.

Who is vulnerable to radicalisation?

All children and young people are at risk, regardless of age, social class, religion, ethnic or educational background. However, certain groups are more vulnerable to radicalisation, including those who are:

• struggling with a sense of identity and belonging
• becoming distanced from their cultural or religious background
• questioning their place in society
• having family issues
• presenting with low self-esteem
• having difficulty in interacting socially and lacking empathy
• don't understand the consequences of their actions

And those experiencing:

• a traumatic event
• mental ill-health
• racism or discrimination

Modern slavery

Modern slavery is the severe exploitation of other people for personal or commercial gain. Modern slavery is all around us but often out of sight. 

From the outside, it can look like a typical job. However, people are being controlled. They can face violence or threats, be forced into inescapable debt, or have had their passport taken away and threatened with deportation. Many have fallen into this oppressive trap simply because they were trying to escape poverty or insecurity, improve their lives and support their families. Now, they can't leave.

40 million people are estimated to be trapped in modern slavery worldwide

• 1 in 4 of them is children
• 71% are women and girls
• over 10,000 were identified as potential victims by the authorities in the UK in 2019

Forms of slavery

Modern slavery takes many forms. The most common are:

Human trafficking

The use of violence, threats or coercion to transport, recruit or harbour people to exploit them for forced prostitution, labour, criminality, marriage or organ removal.

Forced labour

People are forced to do any work or services against their will under the threat of punishment.

Debt bondage or bonded labour 

In the most widespread form of slavery, people trapped in poverty borrow money and are forced to work to pay off the debt, losing control over their employment conditions and the debt.

Descent–based slavery

Many people are born into slavery, where people are treated as property, and their slave status is passed down the maternal line.

Slavery of children

The exploitation of a child for someone else's gain can include child trafficking, child soldiers, child marriage and child domestic slavery.

Forced and early marriage

When someone is married against their will and cannot leave, most child marriages can be considered slavery.

Report a concern

Concerned about an adult

Report a concern or call 0344 800 8020 - text relay number for people with hearing or speech impairments is 18001 0344 800 8020, if you or an adult you know is being abused or may be at risk of any form of mistreatment or neglect.   

Concerned about a child

Report child safety concerns or call 0344 800 8020 if you are concerned about a child in Norfolk and want to speak to someone.  

You can choose to remain anonymous.

Call 999 in an emergency