Safeguarding Statement

1.        Introduction

• At YMCA England & Wales, we believe that:
  1. Children, young people and vulnerable adults should never experience abuse of any kind;
  2. We have a responsibility to promote the welfare of all children, young people, and vulnerable adults to keep them safe.
• Some of our staff carry out roles that require them to work with children and vulnerable adults. We carry out Disclosure & Barring Service checks for all staff and have designated people who can deal with safeguarding concerns and disclosures.
• We have a robust safeguarding policy to ensure everyone is treated properly, and a grievance and whistleblowing policy so people can raise any concerns they have.
• We have a zero-tolerance approach to breaches of our safeguarding policy and thoroughly investigate all alleged breaches.

2.                 Our commitment

• We are committed to creating a positive and safe environment where people enjoy working, shopping, and volunteering.
• To achieve this, we take proactive steps to ensure:
  1. We regularly review our safeguarding policy, which aims to improve the knowledge and understanding of staff and volunteers, irrespective of their position, as we believe safeguarding is everyone’s role;
  2. We make sure all staff know how to escalate safeguarding concerns;
  3. We provide Safeguarding Training to all staff;
  4. We follow a Safer Recruitment approach, ensuring all necessary checks are made;
  5. We have effective complaints and whistleblowing measures in place;
  6. We provide a safe physical environment for our staff and volunteers, by applying health and safety measures in accordance with the law;
  7. We endeavour to build a safeguarding culture where staff and volunteers treat each other with respect and are comfortable about sharing concerns;
  8. We are continually maintaining the highest standards of safeguarding, we monitor guidance from Government, the Charity Commission and The Charity Retail Association on procedures and protocols for safeguarding.

3.                 Further Information

• To report a concern, please do this via your line manager or Human Resources, or read our full Safeguarding Policy.

This statement has been approved by the Board of Trustees and is signed by Denise Hatton, CEO & National Secretary.

Denise Hatton

Chief Executive & National Secretary

30 January 2024