Notes for the designated safeguarding person (DSP) and their backup We are a small organisation run mainly by volunteers. While we have named a set of people (normally two) to act as DSP and backup, we do not expect or intend you to be professional experts in the field of child, young person or vulnerable adult safeguarding, this would be disproportionate in the light of the way we work. What is required is that you know how to contact authorities that are experts in the relevant fields. AACT works in partnership with other organisations and our policies include this note: AACT is a small charity, currently with no premises or staff of its own. All our work is done in partnership with other organizations and our contact with beneficiaries and the public will occur on others’ premises and normally under the supervision of a member of the partner organization. In these cases it is important that you follow any safeguarding policies in place at the host organization, for example reporting any concerns to their designated person. If this is impossible in practice, then AACT’s Designated Safeguarding Person should be contacted. Should you be contacted about a safeguarding issue, you should follow this procedure: 1. Make a written record of what you have been told, including dates and times, names and any other available information that might be relevant, including any other organisation or individuals involved. 2. Check with the person contacting you whether they have reported the issue through a partner organisation. 3. If possible, contact any partner organization concerned to liaise on reporting (but do not wait to do this if any allegation makes it possible a person is in immediate danger, in that case the safest route is to contact the police without delay) 4. If no other suitable authority is reporting the incident/allegation then you should do so to the relevant body. These can be found on the Berkshire Child Protection Procedures website (at the time of writing this can be found at:  http://www.proceduresonline.com/berks) 5. Records must be stored and information kept confidential in accordance with the Data Protection Act. 6. HOWEVER, safety issues (particularly for children) override confidentiality. If you believe someone is in danger, alert authorities immediately, do not wait for permission to override confidentiality. These notes last updated July 2011

working with AACT volunteer agreement template volunteer agreement volunteer induction check list Responsibilites and duties of trustee-directors Notes for DSP Memorandum of Association

accessibility policy child protection policy fundraising policy Health and safety policy information policy Policy on Equal Opportunities Diversity and arassment Policy on paying for work volunteer policy vulnerable adult protection policy

This version was adopted by the Board at its Winter 2010-11 meeting The next review is due on or before Winter 2013-14 Our Volunteer Policy AACT is absolutely delighted to be helped by volunteers. In fact, almost all of us are volunteers. It is especially important to our beneficiaries that as volunteers we feel cherished and at ease within the organization. This policy is intended to help those thinking about volunteering as well as volunteers already with us to understand how volunteers fit into AACT. What is AACT? We are a young charitable company focusing on the use of ICT to help people who have communication difficulties. Our charity exists to seek out ways that they can use IT to help them interact with others. You can find out more about us at www.aact.org.uk. AACT stands for Access-ability Communications Technology. We have a particular focus on helping children and are known in this role as AACT for Children. AACT is sometimes pronounced as ‘Act’. How we work We raise funds, coordinate expert consultants and volunteers, run projects and work with other organisations, encouraging children and their supporters to try new ways of communicating. We will publish any useful information that comes from this work. What sort of volunteering help do we need? Our volunteering opportunities so far have ranged from back-office support to help with a bric a brac sale to fundraising by writing grant applications to researching IT-related techniques with children to setting strategy as a trustee. In future we see ourselves also needing increasing amounts of help from people in the field of communication disabilities as well as those with IT-knowledge. How do we make our volunteer needs known? We will keep our volunteering opportunities up-to-date on our website and will also advertise the longer-term roles through other agencies as appropriate, for example Reading Voluntary Action (www.r-v-a.org.uk). If you would like to make a general enquiry about volunteering, or have a suggested role you would like to play, we’d also be delighted to hear from you. Just email or write to us. Our contact details are available on our website. How do we select volunteers? Apart from one-off community-support type of volunteering (e.g. a friend helping out at a sale), normally a potential volunteer will be asked to send us a short CV with an outline of why they would like to join us. We ask for the names of two referees and will normally take up at least one reference to check out information relevant to the volunteering role. At this point we will hold your personal details, including CV and reference(s) on our system. If there seems to be a volunteer role for you that would suit both of us, we will normally invite you to have a chat with us at a convenient location. During the chat we will explore together how best you might help us. When we have together agreed a way forward, we will email you a Volunteer Agreement (you can see an example agreement on our website). If you are happy with your Agreement then the volunteering can begin as agreed (subject to CRB check, see below). If there is something you feel should be altered in your agreement, you must let us know and we’ll do our best to accommodate any changes to suit us both. If we can’t immediately find a suitable opportunity we will keep your details from about a year in case another opportunity arises. And of course, we encourage you to keep an eye out for opportunities on our website. Starting to volunteer A named person will be your main Contact within AACT. They will be responsible for your induction, agreeing times/places of work and defining your role and the tasks you will carry out in consultation with you. There is a short induction list (which can be found on our website) which you can use with your Contact to check you have the information you need. While you are volunteering Once you start volunteering, you and your main Contact will stay in touch (often by email, sometimes by meeting and working alongside each other). During this time, we will keep some information on you, but only that necessary for your volunteering role. The minimum information we will hold is your given- and family-names, your email address and the email we sent you with your Volunteer Agreement. If you would like us to, we will also hold: your address and/or details of next of kin (in case of an emergency). We will not hold any other data unless it is relevant to your Volunteering Role, and you can ask to see what information we are holding (subject to any conditions in English law). Expenses A volunteer does not receive payment or other reward for volunteering (this includes training unless it is relevant to the agreed volunteer role). However, we do recognize that it may be difficult for someone to volunteer if they are going to be left out of pocket. We therefore have a policy that travel expenses can be reimbursed if the volunteer wishes at a rate no greater than the standard train or bus-fare for travel from normal place of residence to wherever your Contact has agreed you should be. All expenses must be agreed in advance with the main Contact. As a small organization with a small income, we unfortunately may have to decide that if the requirement for expenses is too great, we will have to terminate the agreement. We do not normally reimburse subsistence and regret that we cannot afford to help with caring costs. Expenses must be claimed in writing within 3 months of being incurred and will only be paid against valid receipts. Currently payment will be by sterling cheque, but we are investigating more on-line methods. Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks AACT’s policy is to get CRB checks done when it is necessary. We do not have a blanket policy of CRB checking as this is disproportionate, costly, and potentially takes unnecessary time. Thus, those volunteering for back-office roles where they are not in contact with vulnerable persons will not be checked. However, anyone who will come into contact with vulnerable people in their volunteering role may not undertake those parts of their role before AACT has verified with them by email exchange that a satisfactory check has been received. When a CRB check is required, the Volunteer Agreement will make this plain. Insurance AACT holds both Employer’s and Public Liability Insurance. Details can be found on our website. Note that as a volunteer you will have some cover under the Employer’s Liability Insurance but note in particular that you may not be covered if you undertake tasks that have not been agreed. We are not able to take responsibility for your personal effects and suggest you do not bring anything valuable with you other than equipment you may be using in your role. You should keep such equipment with you, or organize a place to store it with us which you are happy with. Complaints If you are not happy with some aspect of your volunteering, please discuss this informally with your main Contact. If you feel this is not possible, or you feel the discussion does not lead to a satisfactory outcome, please contact a trustee (their names can be found on our website, and an email addressed to firstname.lastname (usual at sign) aact.org.uk will be automatically forwarded to them). If matters are still not resolved, the Chair will be asked to consider the situation and decide on a way forward. The Chair’s decision will be final. If AACT feels dissatisfied with your performance or conduct, your main Contact will discuss the issue informally with you first. If you fail to find a mutually satisfactory way forward, your Contact will ask a trustee to look into the matter. If this fails to find a solution, the Chair will be asked to consider the situation as above. The Chair’s decision will be final. Stopping volunteering As a volunteer you are free to stop volunteering with us at any time. If you wish to stop volunteering for us, we would be grateful if you could let us know as far in advance as possible so we can make alternative arrangements. We are likewise free to ask you to stop acting as a volunteer at any time. We will endeavour to give you as much notice as possible. When you stop volunteering with us, we will delete your personal information from our system at the end of the calendar year after the one in which you stop (this is to allow you to easily re-apply to volunteer with us if your circumstances change in the meantime) but we will remove your information before that if you ask us via email. There may be exceptions to this, for example if we are legally obliged to keep records of those working with vulnerable people. If we need to keep more information, we will let you know when you stop volunteering by email what information we are keeping, for how long and why together with details of how we aim to keep the information up-to-date and relevant. References AACT as an organization keeps minimal information on a volunteer, even while they are actively volunteering. If you would like a reference from AACT as an organization please feel free to ask but its detail might be confined to the type of tasks you are doing and the date you began. It is up to individual Contacts whether they feel able to give a more in depth individual reference. Please do not cite AACT or your Contact as a referee without first clearing this with them. If you think you might like to ask us for a reference after you have stopped volunteering, please keep copies of any Volunteer Agreements and make a note of the dates of volunteering. As we do not ourselves keep information on past volunteers indefinitely we ask you to understand that a reference might be dependent on your Contact still being involved with AACT and being personally willing to give a reference. Equality and diversity We value our volunteers for the help they can give AACT in its aims to help beneficiaries. What are important therefore are the skills and willingness a volunteer can bring to their role. Our policy is therefore not to ask you for information that is not relevant to your proposed role. We may need to ask you to fill in an equality/diversity form for monitoring purposes but the information is not linked to your personal data on our system. If you do not have access to the internet or an email address but feel you would like to contribute as a volunteer, do get in touch and we will discuss whether we can set up alternative means of communication and working with you. We regret however that due to costs we are not normally able to fund personal equipment or internet connection for use at home. Very often, volunteering roles can be undertaken at flexible times to suit the volunteer and we will always try our best to accommodate personal preferences and changes in circumstance. However, there are some roles which may need a volunteer to work in a certain place and/or at a certain time. Such requirements will be stated in the Volunteer Agreement or made clear by your Contact. Health and Safety While volunteers might not come under all the regulations pertaining in law to an employee, we expect them to follow the same health and safety policies where relevant, practicable or required by law. Our Health and Safety Policy can be found on our website. Volunteers are particularly asked to note that they may be undertaking their volunteer roles at premises which are controlled by a third party. For example, our registered office is in premises owned and managed by the University of Reading. Volunteers should ensure they are familiar with any policies pertaining to the area they are working in. This is something you main Contact should discuss with you on induction, or when your place of volunteering alters.

Vulnerable adult protection policy Policy statement AACT acknowledges it has a responsibility for the safety of vulnerable adults. It also recognises that good safeguarding policies and procedures are of benefit to everyone involved with AACT’s work, as they can help protect them from erroneous or malicious allegations.   AACT is committed to practices which protect vulnerable adults from harm. The people covered by the policy include not only any employees but also those contracted to do work for the charity and those standing in a voluntary capacity. All those who have unsupervised access to or contact with vulnerable adults (both in person or remotely through electronic media) are required to:   • recognise and accept their responsibilities • develop awareness of the issues which can cause vulnerable adults harm • report concerns following the procedure below.   AACT will endeavour to safeguard vulnerable adults by:

• adopting safeguarding procedures for all who work on behalf of the organisation
• reporting concerns to the authorities
• following carefully procedures for recruitment and selection of employees, contractors and volunteers.

  AACT will review its safeguarding policies as part of its formal annual cycle of policy reviews.   It is AACT’s policy that:   1. All those working on behalf of AACT accept responsibility for the welfare of vulnerable adults who come into contact with AACT in connection with its tasks and functions, and that they will report any concerns about the person’s or somebody else’s behaviour, using the procedures laid down.   2. There is a Designated Safeguarding Person (DSP) within AACT who will take action following any expression of concern and the lines of responsibility in respect of safeguarding are clear. They may be contacted through the telephone numbers given on the website or by email to dsp@aact.org.uk   3. The DSP knows how to make appropriate referrals to relevant agencies.   4. Information relating to any allegation or disclosure will be clearly recorded as soon as possible, and there is a procedure setting out who should record information and the time-scales for passing it on.   5. AACT’s policies will be referred to or included in recruitment, training, moderation and policy materials where appropriate, and the policies are openly and widely available to everyone and actively promoted within the organisation.   6. All volunteers and anyone in paid or unpaid work on behalf of AACT with unsupervised access to vulnerable adults will be vetted appropriately.   7. Anybody who encounters concerns in the context of their work on behalf of AACT will be supported when they report their concerns in good faith.   Designated safeguarding person AACT has appointed a Designated Safeguarding Person (DSP) who is responsible for dealing with any concerns about safeguarding.  Contact details are available on the www.aact.org.uk website. In the context of vulnerable adults, the role of the DSP is to   1. Know which outside agency to contact in the event of a concern coming to the notice of AACT.   2. Provide information and advice on safeguarding within AACT.   3. Ensure that appropriate information is available at the time of referral and that the referral is confirmed in writing under confidential cover.   4. Liaise with appropriate agencies.   5. Keep relevant people within AACT informed about any action taken and any further action required; for example, disciplinary action against a member.   6. Ensure that a proper record is kept of any referral and action taken, and that this is kept safely and in confidence.   7. Advise AACT of safeguarding training needs.  
  Procedure for reporting concerns People could have their suspicion or concern raised in a number of ways, the most likely of which are:  

1. the conduct of a member of AACT or someone working, volunteering or contracting for AACT

 

1. a person “disclosing” abuse

 

1. bruising or evidence of physical hurt

 

1. unusual behaviour for the person

  If someone has such concerns they should be reported to the DSP.   If the concerns relate to the conduct of a member of AACT these should be reported to the DSP immediately. Steps will be taken to fully support anyone who in good faith reports his or her concerns about a colleague and every effort will be made to maintain confidentiality for all parties whilst the allegation is considered.   The DSP will consider the report and either refer this immediately to the authorities or, after taking appropriate advice, decide not to refer the concerns to the authorities but keep a full record of the concerns.   Note for volunteers and contractors AACT is a small charity, currently with no premises or staff of its own. All our work is done in partnership with other organizations and our contact with beneficiaries and the public will occur on others’ premises and normally under the supervision of a member of the partner organization. In these cases it is important that you follow any safeguarding policies in place at the host organization, for example reporting any concerns to their designated person. If this is impossible in practice, then AACT’s Designated Safeguarding Person should be contacted.   AACT also tends not to have long-term persistent contact with the same individuals. It is quite possible therefore that you will not ‘officially’ know that someone you are talking with is classified as a vulnerable adult. If you have any concerns about the safety of an individual you should report them as outlined below, whether or not you are certain of their ‘official’ vulnerable status, leaving it to professionals in the field to decide on further action.         APPENDIX A   Recruitment and selection procedures   AACT has adopted appropriate recruitment and selection procedures for volunteers and consultants in the context of safeguarding and these include the following:   1. A clear definition of any role so that a suitable appointee can be identified.   2. Identification of key selection criteria.   3. Confirmation of the identity of the applicant.   4. Requirement to declare previous convictions and obtain CRB disclosure for those candidates whose work will bring them into unsupervised contact with children or vulnerable adults or who will have a management responsibility in relation to those whose work does bring them into such contact.   5. A clear guarantee that disclosed information will be treated in confidence and not used against applicants unfairly, including adherence to the Criminal Records Bureau code of practice.   6. Use of several selection techniques to maximise the chance of safe recruitment, eg interview, references, checks.   8. At least one representative from AACT meeting personally with every applicant, and an exploration of their attitudes towards working with vulnerable people.  
  APPENDIX B   Responding appropriately to someone making an allegation of abuse   1. Stay calm.   2. Listen carefully to what is said.   3. Find an appropriate early opportunity to explain that it is likely that the information will need to be shared with others – do not promise to keep secrets.   4. Tell them that the matter will only be disclosed to those who need to know about it.   5. Allow them to continue at her/his own pace.   6. Ask questions for clarification only, and at all times avoid asking questions that suggest a particular answer.   7. Reassure the person that they have done the right thing in telling you.   8. Tell them what you will do next, and with whom the information will be shared.   9. As soon as possible, record in writing what was said/communicated, using the person’s own words. Note the date, time, any names mentioned and to whom the information was given and ensure that the record is signed and dated.   10. It is important to remember that the person who first encounters a case of alleged abuse is not responsible for deciding whether abuse has occurred. That is a task for professionals, following a referral from the Designated Safeguarding Person in the organisation.  

Agreed by the Board Winter 2010-11. Next review due on or before: Winter 2013-14 AACT does not have its own employees. Rather, it is helped towards achieving its aims by people holding various other types of role. The aim of this short document is to list the Charity’s policies relating to: trustee-directors, volunteers, paid consultants, student interns, organizations. The documents giving further information relating to each role are named here. They are published through the Charity’s website. While the roles differ, all outputs must relate directly to AACT’s mission and priorities. Anyone doing work for/on behalf of AACT should enter into an appropriate agreement including to abide by any relevant AACT policies. Trustee-Directors Directors are elected by the members of the Company as detailed in the Memorandum and Articles, simultaneously becoming a trustee of the Charity. All must follow the agreed policies documented in Responsibilities and duties of Trustee-Directors. Volunteers The Charity and the Volunteer must abide by the policies documented in the Volunteer policy. Apart from ad hoc one-off help (e.g. help at a fundraising sale) there must be a Volunteer agreement in place which lists the activities the Volunteer will undertake. The agreement must have the approval of a Trustee-Director before any activity commences. Paid consultants Individual’s circumstances differ and there will be occasion when special contractual conditions will apply. However, the type of agreement we normally require with a self-employed consultant is shown in the Consultancy agreement template. The outcomes expected from the consultancy and the payment terms must be clearly agreed and the agreement signed by a Trustee-Director on behalf of AACT and by the Consultant before work commences.  Student interns An individual associated with AACT may be prepared to take on a student intern. The situation will differ from that of a volunteer in that there will be some agreement with the student’s host institution (for example: on giving feedback on performance). Whether the individual concerned is prepared to spend the time on supervision, monitoring etc required is a matter for them but as in other cases, any agreement with both student and institution must be clearly understood and agreed by a Trustee-Director before commencement. Particular care will be exercised in making any agreement on accepting an intern to ensure all parties understand there is no payment associated with the role and to be clear that the student’s institution covers insurance issues appropriately. Organizations We understand that organizations providing goods or services may have their own form of contract and we therefore do not have an AACT ‘standard’. Any contract must clearly state the goods or services to be provided, must be clear on matters such as insurance and must be agreed and signed by a Trustee-Director before commencement of delivery of any of the goods or services.