We are committed to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults and to protecting them from harm. Our dental team accepts and recognises our responsibilities to develop awareness of the issues which may cause harm to children and vulnerable adults.

The Child Protection and Adult Safeguarding Leads at our practices are Roxanne Woolfenden, Rebecca Evans and Vanessa Pirga.  They are the relevant points of contact for raising concerns. They also have responsibility for ensuring that our policies and procedures for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults are kept up-to-date and operated correctly.

We will endeavour to safeguard children and vulnerable adults by:

• developing an awareness of safeguarding issues;
• promoting good safeguarding practice through all our practice policies and procedures;
• following the guidelines set out below;
• making team members and patients aware that we take child and vulnerable adult protection seriously and respond to concerns about the welfare of children and vulnerable adults;
• sharing information about concerns with agencies who need to know and involving parents and children appropriately;
• following carefully the procedures for staff recruitment and selection (including referencing and DBS disclosure); and
• providing effective management for staff by ensuring access to supervision, support and training.

This policy is underpinned by the following principles:

• patients have access to information and knowledge to ensure that they can make an informed choice
• patients are given the opportunity to consider the various treatment options available to them and are encourage to fully participate in their care at the practice
• patients are supported to make their own decisions and to give or withhold consent to treatment – unless provided for otherwise by law, no-one can give or withhold consent on behalf of another adult
• information about patients held by the practice is managed appropriately and all members of the team understand the need for confidentiality
• the individual needs of the patient are respected
• the background and culture of all patients is respected
• practice procedures ensure the safety of patients at all times
• recruitment and selection procedures at the practice are followed routinely and ensure that all required checks are carried out.

We review this policy, further policies and guidance annually.