Safeguarding Policy for the UK Living Kidney Donation Buddy Support Service on behalf of the Robert Dangoor Partnership for Living Kidney Donation
This policy is operational as from 1st November 2024.
This policy has been approved by the Executive director of income generation and communications at Kidney Research UK.
The policy owner is the Programme Lead for the Robert Dangoor Partnership for Living Kidney Donation.
This policy will be reviewed every two years by the Programme Lead for the Robert Dangoor Partnership for Living Kidney Donation.
The Programme Lead for the Robert Dangoor Partnership for Living Kidney Donation is responsible for monitoring compliance to this policy.
This policy applies to all volunteers of the UK Living Kidney Donation Buddy Support Service.
In this policy the following words and phrases shall have the following meanings:
The term Volunteer constitutes any volunteer that has accepted an agreed role within the Robert Dangoor Partnership as a Living Kidney Donation Buddy.
This policy sets out the duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of all those using the UK Living Kidney Donation Buddy Support Service.
To develop procedures and good practice within The Robert Dangoor Partnership for Living Kidney Donation to ensure that every volunteer can demonstrate their understanding of the duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of those using the buddy support service.
There is a duty to make appropriate arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of those using the UK Living Kidney Donation Buddy Support Service.
Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and all volunteers who, during the course of their duties have direct or indirect contact with persons, or who have access to information about them, have a responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of persons.
Definitions
The Robert Dangoor Partnership for Living Kidney Donation works to the following principles (as outlined in the Department of Health publication “No Secrets”):
The main forms of abuse are divided into the following categories:
Representatives will respond appropriately when they see or are concerned about abuse:
Our main policy objective is to ensure that we promote safeguarding as the moral norm so that it becomes everybody’s business.
For this policy to be effective, it is essential that each volunteer understands what safeguarding means in practice, knows that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility, knows the signs and symptoms of potential harm, how to access safeguarding information, advice and guidance, and is committed to making an informed contribution to safeguard.
Equality is based on a commitment to fairness whilst recognising that everyone is different, and diversity is about the ways in which people differ and recognising that differences are a natural part of society. The Robert Dangoor Partnership for Living Kidney Donation expects that all those using the UK Living Kidney Donation Buddy Support Service to treat them as individuals and make them feel respected and valued, as an essential part of our commitment to safeguarding.
The Robert Dangoor Partnership for Living Kidney Donation will:
The Executive Team will champion safeguarding at a corporate level on behalf of The Robert Dangoor Partnership for Living Kidney Donation and ensure all teams are involved in policy shaping, safeguarding training, programme development and learning from serious case reviews.
All policies, procedures and services must take account of the need to safeguard and promote the welfare anyone using the buddy support service;
The Robert Dangoor Partnership for Living Kidney Donation will ensure that all volunteers are aware of how to safeguard others and themselves, as well as how to handle confidential and sensitive information.
All volunteers have access to support and advice in this context and will have an induction and ongoing training so that they know the appropriate procedures and the identity and contact details of relevant personnel, for reporting concerns around safeguarding.
Robust procedures are in place to ensure that volunteers using the UK Living Kidney Donation Buddy Support Service can use the service safely.
This means:
This procedure is guidance on how to report a concern that has taken place whilst using the UK Living Kidney Donation Buddy Support Service as part of the Robert Dangoor Partnership.
If the volunteer has a concern about someone they are speaking to, it is important they know how to report that concern. The concern could be around, but not exclusively to, the user’s reason for donation, mental health or inappropriate behaviour on the call as well as any other concerns they feel they may need to raise.
All concerns should be reported to the Living Kidney Donation Relationship Manager at enquiries@donateakidney.co.uk including but not limited to:
The volunteer or user can terminate the call at any point they feel uncomfortable and report the incident to the Living Kidney Donation Relationship Manager. If concerns are emailed outside office hours, these will be picked up the next working day.
If the volunteer feels the issue is urgent and there is an immediate danger to themselves or the individual, they can signpost the individual to the relevant organisation or emergency services for support.
Whether you’ve already decided to donate a kidney, or you are interested in finding out more about the process and what it involves, we’re here to answer any questions you might have.