INSO believes that everyone we come into contact with, regardless of age, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation or ethnic origin has the right to be protected from all forms of harm, abuse, neglect and exploitation.  

We are fully committed to ensuring that our policies and procedures comply with our principles and duties and reflect current guidance and best practice in safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. We will take all reasonable steps to prevent harm, particularly sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment from occurring; and to protect people, especially vulnerable adults and children, from that harm; and to respond appropriately when harm does occur.

Our safeguarding policy applies equally to the board of trustees, all staff contracted by INSO (under any contractual mechanism) and associated personnel whilst engaged with work or visits related to INSO. We commit to addressing safeguarding throughout our work using the three pillars of prevention, reporting and response:

Prevention:

INSO will:

• Ensure all staff have access to, are familiar with and know their responsibilities concerning our Safeguarding policy;
• Undertake our operations in a way that protects people from any risk of harm that may arise from their coming into contact with INSO; 
• Implement appropriate safeguarding procedures when recruiting, managing and deploying staff and associated personnel;
• Ensure staff receive orientation on safeguarding at a level commensurate with their role in the organisation;
• Appoint a Designated Person to ensure that safeguarding is given a high priority within INSO;
• Follow up on reports of safeguarding concerns promptly and according to due process.

Reporting:

INSO will ensure that safe, appropriate, accessible means of reporting safeguarding concerns are made available to staff and those we come in to contact with. To enable this, INSO has appointed the Director of Operations as the named safeguarding Designated Person who is responsible for ensuring that safeguarding is given high priority within INSO and that all safeguarding reports are dealt with in a timely manner.

Response:

INSO will:

• follow up safeguarding reports and concerns according to policy and procedure, and legal and statutory obligations.
• apply appropriate disciplinary measures to staff found in breach of policy. It is INSO policy to report all crimes to the relevant law enforcement authorities unless doing so may pose a risk to anyone involved in the case.
• Within its means, INSO will offer support to survivors of harm caused by staff or associated personnel, regardless of whether a formal internal response is carried out (such as an internal investigation).

Full details of INSO’s Policy on Safeguarding and its Code of Conduct can be accessed here.