Safeguarding means protecting children and adults at risk from harm, abuse and neglect. We are committed to ensuring that all our patients are cared for in a safe environment, treated with respect and given the support they need.
Health services have a duty to safeguard all patients and to take extra steps to care for patients who are less able to protect themselves from harm, abuse and neglect.
Report abuse or neglect
If you suspect abuse, neglect or exploitation, please use the links below to reach someone who can help
Newcastle
Gateshead
Safeguarding children
Safeguarding is action that is taken to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm.
Safeguarding means:
- Protecting children from abuse and maltreatment
- Preventing harm to children’s health or development
- Ensuring children grow up with safe and effective care
- Taking action to enable all children and young people to have the best outcomes
If you suspect abuse, neglect or exploitation of a child or young person
- Report concerns about a child or young person – Newcastle
- Report concerns about a child or young person – Gateshead
Keeping children and young people safe
Child abuse is any form of maltreatment of a child. Somebody may abuse or neglect a child by inflicting harm, or by failing to act to prevent harm. Children may be abused in a family or in an institutional or community setting by those known to them or, more rarely, by others. Abuse can take place wholly online, or technology may be used to facilitate offline abuse. Children may be abused by an adult or adults, or another child or children.
Children can experience more than one type of abuse which can have serious and long-lasting impacts on their lives.
More information
- You can also find help and advice from the NSPCC website or by calling 0808 800 5000
- Young Minds supports children, young people, and their parents or carers, with their mental health
- Babies cry, you can cope: help for parents and professionals
Legislation and guidance
- UNICEF’s summary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
- Working Together to Safeguard Children – the Government’s guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children
- Information sharing – the Government’s advice for practitioners providing safeguarding services to children, young people, parents and carers.
Safeguarding adults
Safeguarding means protecting an adult’s right to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect. It’s about people and organisations working together to prevent and stop both abuse and neglect, and promoting the person’s wellbeing.
Adult safeguarding duties apply to an adult who:
- Needs care and support (whether or not the local authority is meeting any of those needs)
- Is experiencing, or at risk of abuse and neglect
- As a result of their care and support needs, is unable to protect themselves from the risk of abuse or neglect
If you suspect abuse, neglect or exploitation
Legislation and guidance on safeguarding adults
- Factsheet on The Care Act – protecting adults from abuse or neglect
- Care and support statutory guidance, issued under the Care Act 2014
- Hourglass – a charity tackling abuse of older people
Domestic abuse
Domestic abuse means any incident (or pattern of incidents) of controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over, who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality. This can include – but is not limited to – these types of abuse:
- Physical abuse
- Emotional abuse
- Psychological abuse
- Sexual abuse
- Financial abuse
More information
- Refuge: For women and children. Against domestic violence. You can also call the 24-hour freephone helpline on 0808 2000 247
- Safe Lives – a charity dedicated to ending domestic abuse
- Women’s aid – working together against domestic abuse
- Respect – men’s advice line
- ManKind – helping men escape domestic abuse
‘Honour’ based abuse and forced marriage
In some communities, the idea of ‘honour’ is seen as extremely important. To compromise a family’s ‘honour’ is to bring dishonour and shame, and this can have severe consequences. The punishment can be emotional abuse, physical abuse, being disowned by your family, and in some cases even murder.
In most honour-based abuse cases there are multiple perpetrators from the immediate family, sometimes the extended family and occasionally the wider community. Mothers, sisters, aunties and even grandmothers have been known to conspire in honour crimes.
Arranged marriage and forced marriage: what’s the difference?
An arranged marriage is when both partners give their full consent and enter the marriage willingly.
A forced marriage is when one or both of the partners enter the marriage without giving their consent. They go through with the wedding under duress from their families.
Forcing someone into marriage is a criminal offence in the UK.
More information
- Karma Nirvana – a charity helping victims of honour-based abuse and forced marriage
- Refuge: For women and children. Against domestic violence. You can also call the 24-hour freephone helpline on 0808 2000 247
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons. It’s also known as female circumcision or cutting.
The age at which FGM is carried out varies. It may take place when a female baby is born, during childhood or adolescence, just before marriage or during pregnancy.
More information
Exploitation
Young people may also experience significant harm outside their family. It can take place in their neighbourhood, school or online. Exploitation means being groomed, forced or coerced into doing something you don’t want to do, for someone else’s gain.
It is a complex and often hidden issue, and can include:
- Criminal gangs and organised crime groups (‘county lines’)
- Extremism leading to radicalisation
- Trafficking and modern slavery
- Sexual exploitation
- Online abuse
More information
- Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command (national crime agency)
- Parents against child exploitation
- Safeguarding children at risk (The Children’s Society)
- Criminal exploitation and ‘county lines’ (The Children’s Society)
- County Lines Parents & Carers Leaflet
- Criminal exploitation and gangs (NSPCC)
- NWG (a charity tackling child exploitation)
- Let’s Talk About It – working together to prevent terrorism