Gett is fully committed to the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults. This policy deals with the arrangements for home to school transport for drivers, guidelines for drivers and call centre staff.
Gett’s Safeguarding Policy is adopted based on guidelines and legislation outlined in the following documents;
- The Safeguarding vulnerable groups Act 2006 (Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 2009
- Protecting children in your organisation 2009
- The independent Safeguarding Authority Guidance 2010/2011
- Equality & Diversity statements
- Vetting and Barring Scheme Guidance.
- The National Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Children
- ‘No Secrets’ guidance 2000
- Data Protection Act 1998
Aim
The aim of this policy is to be proactive by putting measures in place to ensure the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults, which is paramount to Gett. All who work with vulnerable adults and children have a responsibility to safeguard their well being. This policy, combined with the associated procedures, provides guidance to staff and sub-contractors that are involved in the transport of children and vulnerable adults.
The safeguarding policy reflects the wider responsibility for Health and Safety and prevention of harm coming to children and vulnerable adults whilst in transit.
This document applies to;
- Drivers
- Escorts / Passenger Assistants
- Control room staff responsible for the allocation of journeys specifically for children and vulnerable adults.
Who is a Vulnerable Adult?
For the purpose of this policy, a “Vulnerable Adult” is defined as a person aged 18 or over:
“who is or may be in need of community care services by reason of mental or other disability, age or illness; and who is or may be unable to take care of him or herself, or unable to protect him or herself against significant harm”. (No Secrets, DoH 2000)
This may include:
- People with a learning disability;
- People who experience mental ill health;
- Disabled people;
- Older people;
- People who are experiencing short or long-term illness.
However, it is important to note that inclusion in one of the above groups does not necessarily mean that a person is implicitly vulnerable.
What is Safeguarding Children?
This means to prevent the impairment of children’s health and development, ensuring children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care, as well as protecting children from maltreatment.
What is abuse of a vulnerable adult or child?
For the remainder of this document vulnerable adults and children will now be referred to as a vulnerable person.
The table below outlines some examples of abuse; however the list is not exhaustive and is given for guidance.
| Type of abuse | Definition | Signs of abuse / examples |
| Physical | Physical contact that results in an injury, pain or discomfort | Hitting, slapping, pushing, and shaking. Bruising, finger marks or inappropriate use of restraint. |
| Verbal | Remarks or comments by others that cause distress | Demeaning, disrespectful, humiliating, racist, sexist, discriminatory or sarcastic comments. Condescending tone of voice, excessive or unwanted familiarity, shouting, swearing, name calling. |
| Psychological or emotional abuse | Action or inaction by others that causes mental anguish | Inflexible routines, lack of choice. Mocking, denying privacy, and threatening behaviour, bullying, intimidation, harassment, deliberate isolation. |
| Sexual abuse | Coercion or force to take part in a sexual act | Inappropriate touching. |
| Financial abuse | Misuse of money, valuables or property | Unexplained withdrawals from vulnerable persons account. Unexplained shortfall in money. Theft, fraud, pressure in connection with wills or inheritance. |
| Information abuse | Failure to adhere to relevant data protection guidance and lack of appropriate information about care | Breach of confidentiality or inappropriate disclosures of information |
| Institutional abuse | Failure to recognize individuality and rights as a citizen | Inflexible, regimented routines and lack of choice. Communal clothing, overuse of wheelchairs leading to loss of independence, lack of individuality. |
| Abuse by omission | Failure to identify and / or meet care needs of the individual | Untreated medical needs. Poor hygiene, dirty clothes, insufficient food or drink, ignoring a vulnerable person’ requests. |
Responsibilities
The Senior Management Team takes full responsibility for:
- Ensuring that subcontractors take account of safeguarding in their activity.
- Ensuring that relevant Gett staff have read and understood this policy
- Ensuring that Gett meets its legal responsibilities
- Ensuring that we continuously update our practices with the most recent information and guidance
- Ensuring it does not employ an ISA-barred individual in regulated activity and takes the relevant precautions for controlled activity.
- Referring relevant information about individuals to the ISA who have caused harm to a child or vulnerable adult.
- Disciplining and ultimately dismissing staff who have caused harm to a child or vulnerable adult in accordance Gett Disciplinary policy. Recruit, train and supervise employees so as to adopt best practice to safeguard and protect vulnerable people from abuse, and themselves against allegations.
- Respond to any complaints about poor practice or allegations of abuse.
- Review policies and procedures on a regular basis, provide updates to reflect any changes in legislation, changes in governance of Transport for London (TfL) regulations, feedback from consultation or the direct action resulting from an incident that may arise
- Confidentiality should be upheld in line with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Human Rights Act 2000.
Gett staff will;
- Accept the moral and legal responsibility to implement procedures to provide a duty of care for vulnerable people, safeguarding their well-being and protect them from abuse when in their care.
- Respect and promote the rights, wishes and feelings of vulnerable people.
- Recognise the additional vulnerability of some vulnerable people and the barriers they face to getting help because of their racial origin, barriers to communication, gender, age, religious belief, disability, sexual orientation, social back ground and culture.
Implementation
Gett will work towards all policy and procedures in association with carriage of child and young adults to be adopted in accordance with the United Kingdom Child Protection Regulations and fully address the considerations of the disability Discrimination Act 2005/ 2010.
Recruitment
Gett takes all responsible steps to ensure safe recruitment of drivers and staff. All drivers must have a TfL license prior to commencement of work. To acquire a TfL license drivers checks are required through the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) at an enhanced level.
All applicants, full or part time Operations positions, are required to complete an application form which has been designed to elicit necessary information. e.g. Contact details of two written references. A formal interview is then conducted by Human Resources in conjunction with the Operations Manager. All offers of employment are initially conditional and dependent upon the employee being able to prove eligibility to work and provide two satisfactory references.
Training
Appropriate training opportunities will be provided for staff and drivers who are in contact or involved in the planning and managing school transport.
Appropriate training will enable individuals to recognise their responsibilities with regard to their own good practice.
Monitoring and Appraisal
Gett Call Centre Staff are formally appraised during a monthly one to one meeting with their line manager, this allows feedback to be given and training needs and new objectives to be set.
Drivers are required to report to Gett Driver Services on matters of training and vehicle inspection. All other matters are the responsibility of the Operations Manager.
Complaints and disciplinary procedures
All complaints from staff, sub-contractors or customers are dealt with as per company procedures and policies.
Gett expects our employees, Passenger escorts and drivers never to engage in any form of abuse. If an allegation of abuse is made against one of our employees or drivers we would fully investigate the matter. If proven this is considered a gross misconduct offence for employees. For Drivers we would not use their services going forward. Where appropriate, the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and the police will be informed.
The driver’s code of conduct/ induction programme also includes guidelines in relation to safeguarding.
Safeguarding guidelines when transporting vulnerable people
When you come into contact with a vulnerable person it is important that you treat them in an appropriate way
You should never;
- Engage in any of the definitions of abuse outlined in this policy
- Engage in rough play, physical or sexual provocative games, including horseplay;
- Allow or engage in any form of inappropriate touching;
- Allow passenger to use inappropriate language unchallenged;
- Allow allegations made by a vulnerable person to go unchallenged, unrecorded or not acted upon;
- Do things of a personal nature for a vulnerable person that they can do for themselves.
- Where abuse or harm has been committed against a vulnerable person by a driver or Escort, we will not continue to use this person’s services.
When communicating with a vulnerable person you should;
- Be clear, concise and polite in your communication
- Never use offensive language, such as swearing
- Never use slang, jargon or complicated words
Guidelines for drivers on how to deal with a distressed vulnerable person
If a vulnerable person becomes distressed while you are driving your cab, please use the following guidelines
- Stay calm
- Ask the passenger assistant if they are ok and if they need any assistance
- Inform the passenger assistant that you are going to pull over
- Pull over as soon as it is safe to do so
- Assist the passenger assistant where you can. The passenger assistant is professionally trained to calm down the passenger so please do not interfere in this process unless the assistant asks you for assistance. Under no circumstances would it be appropriate to restrain or use abusive language to the passenger.\
- Keep the car doors locked unless the passenger assistant asks for them to be opened. Please tell the passenger assistant this.
- It maybe that the passenger needs to get out of the car, if so you would only open the doors if the passenger assistant asked you to
- Wait until the passenger is calm before proceeding on the journey and this could take some time
- After the event report the incident to driver services
Reporting Procedure;
In the event of any of the following incidents;
- If you accidentally hurt a passenger;
- If the passenger is distressed in any manner;
- If the passenger appears to have misunderstood or misinterpret something the driver or escort has done;- If a passenger informs you directly that he/she, or another young person, is concerned about someone’s behaviour towards them. This is termed disclosure;
Responding to discloser, allegation or suspicion;
- React calmly, take what the vulnerable person said seriously, and do not make promises of confidentiality if they can’t be kept.
- Reassure the vulnerable person that she/he has done the right thing by telling you.
- Record in writing exactly what has been said using the vulnerable person words where possible.
- Document statement will then be forwarded to appropriate authorities.
- Call centre staff should immediately inform their line manager
- Passenger Assistants should inform their manager or agency
- Drivers should inform drivers services
- Remember doing nothing is not an option
Safeguarding guidelines for call centre staff
- Call centre staff must not engage in any of the definitions of abuse outlined in this policy
- If any caller discloses to you an allegation or suspicion about a vulnerable person you should follow the ‘Responding to discloser, allegation or suspicion’
- You should inform your line manager of the conversation immediately after the call has finished
- Refer to the incident reporting procedure for more information
- Failure to do so could result in disciplinary action being taken against you
- Gett will discipline staff in accordance with the Gett Disciplinary policy, which could result in dismissal, where abuse or harm has been committed against a vulnerable person.
Safeguarding guidelines for Passenger Assistants
- Stay calm and follow the Safeguarding training that has been provided for you.
- Passenger assistants must not engage in any of the definitions of abuse outlined in this policy
- If any students, adults, parents, school or centre staff disclose to you an allegation or suspicion about a vulnerable person you should follow the ‘Responding to discloser, allegation or suspicion’
- You should inform your manager or agency of the conversation immediately after the journey has finished, or a soon as possible
- Failure to do so could result in disciplinary action being taken against you
- RTG will discipline staff in accordance with the RTG Disciplinary policy, which could result in dismissal, where abuse or harm has been committed against a vulnerable person.
- Refer to the incident reporting procedure for more information.
Records and Information
Every effort must be made that confidentiality is maintained when an allegation or discloser has been made and is being investigated.
Information will be stored in a secure filing cabinet with limited access to designated people in line with the “Data Protection Act 1998”.
If you have any questions about this policy please speak to your line manager or Driver Services.