Safeguarding at Safe Passage
At Safe Passage International, our vision is a world in where the people who need it most have safe passage to a place of safety, welcome and hope.
As an organisation committed to ethically and radically championing refugees' rights to journey to a place of safety, welcome and hope, we believe every person has the right to be safe: safe with their family, rebuild their lives and be safe from all forms of harm and abuse.
Safe Passage International’s Safeguarding Principles
We are committed to always putting the safety and welfare of children and people in vulnerable situations first. We promote and practice a proactive response to keeping children and people in vulnerable situations safe.
We believe that those most affected should be involved in decisions that impact them and this belief is at the heart of our safeguarding work. As such we seek to encourage the active participation of children and people in vulnerable situations in keeping themselves and others safe, and in developing our safeguarding policies and practices.
We aim to develop a trusting and respectful relationship with those we work with, and in doing so to provide them with a safe environment so that they know they will be safe, listened to and supported.
No-one should be discriminated against through being a child, or on grounds of gender, race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or culture. All safeguarding decisions should be considered on the risk level and specific situation of the individual, but personal characteristics will not determine the level and nature of our response.
Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility throughout Safe Passage International and does not just sit with one individual.
Safe Passage International recognises the guiding principles for organisations working to protect children and people in vulnerable situations internationally, as outlined in the Minimum standards for child protection in humanitarian action.
What is safeguarding?
Safeguarding is the action that is taken to promote the welfare of people and protect them from harm1. It is about realising safety for everyone.
This includes:
Protecting people from abuse and maltreatment.
Preventing harm to health and development.
Effectively responding to situations of harm and abuse.
The overall promotion of people’s welfare and best interests.
Layers of our safeguarding work
1. Ensuring no harm comes to anyone through their contact with Safe Passage International.
Our activities to prevent harm and abuse include:
Safer Recruitment Processes.
We ensure we meet best practices for safer recruitment. This includes full application, shortlisting, and interview processes that must include relevant safeguarding questions. Successful candidates are only offered jobs with Safe Passage Internationalsubject to receipt of satisfactory references and, where relevant, criminal record checks. The onboarding and induction process includes signing safeguarding and confidentiality agreements and full safeguarding training for all roles. We are also members of the Interagency Misconduct Scheme.
Safer working practices
All staff and volunteers sign our Safeguarding Code of Behaviour which outlines the highest standards of ethical and professional standards expected from all team members. This includes a commitment to justice and participation and to not abuse the power or influence afforded by their position over the lives and wellbeing of others.
Beyond that Safe Passage International aims to be continuously learning how better to safeguard people, build capacity in their staff through training and ensure best practice in safeguarding.
Safer programming
Safeguarding is central to the design of our programmes and activities here at Safe Passage International. We invest in our programming to make our activities as safe as possible and mitigate and safeguarding risks that harm may come to our staff, programme participants or the wider community.
Community Reporting mechanisms and reporting mechanisms
Victims and survivors of abuse often do not know how to report abuse, find it difficult to report. Therefore, Safe Passage International aims to produce young-person friendly, easily digestible information on safeguarding in multiple languages explaining what and how they need to report.
We also have a number of different ways in which participants, families and members of the public can report concerns, including through our website and by emailing donoharm@safepassage.org.uk. The variety of ways in reporting concerns means people can choose which is the most comfortable or accessible way for them.
Please find our child-friendly information explaining what safeguarding is and how they can report concerns in multiple languages here.
Whistleblowing policy:
All staff and volunteers are trained to know how to handle a disclosure and identify and report suspected wrongdoing.
We encourage staff to report inappropriate behaviour either to our Designated Safeguarding Lead or Board of Trustees or to take the issue directly to the appropriate organisation or body, e.g. the Police, the Charity Commission, Health and Safety Executive or Social Services Department.
2. Responding to harm and abuse experienced by those we work with.
We work with people in incredibly vulnerable situations and the overwhelming majority of safeguarding concerns Safe Passage International encounters occur within the wider community and are not caused by their interaction with SPI. We are committed to ensuring we have an effective protection response when this occurs, which includes:
Collaborating with other agencies- We cannot effectively safeguard those we come into contact with unless we collaborate with statutory safeguarding agencies and other organisations to realise safety for people.
Referring and Signposting- Although experts in what we do, we are not a specialist safeguarding agency and we cannot meet all needs of those we work with. Therefore an effective safeguarding response will often require referring or signposting people to reputable organisations which are able to meet those needs and where the person is located.
Participatory working with children and families- As well as working closely with other agencies we will do so with children, young people and families who are impacted by safeguarding concerns. Families are ‘informal’ safeguarding systems and often those best placed to safeguard their members, so we utilise families wherever possible. We will continue to support them and ensure their views are heard in any safeguarding responses we take.
3. The overall promotion of welfare
Safeguarding goes beyond responding to concerns but also includes supporting the overall welfare of a person. This includes working in a way that understands the impact of traumatic experiences and discriminatory systems on people, providing information about their rights, or having discussions with young people about issues ranging from education to healthy relationships.
Designated Safeguarding Leads
As Safe Passage International’s International Safeguarding and Protection Manager, Phil Spencer, is the Designated Safeguarding Lead for the whole organisation. For any questions regarding safeguarding, or to report any concerns you can contact Phil at donoharm@safepassage.org.uk or on +447761740598.
Jasmin Bukic, Head of Operations and People at Safe Passage International, is the Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead.