When a young person makes a disclosure what should staff be mindful of?

Don't promise confidentiality – never agree to keep secrets. You have a duty to report your concerns. Tell the child that you will need to tell some people, but only those whose job it is to protect children. Acknowledge how difficult it must have been to talk.

What is safeguarding when working with young people?

About safeguarding Keeping young people safe should be the top priority of anyone working with them . It's vital that the spaces they are in are safe and that the people they are in contact with are trustworthy. All content for the Safeguarding Hub is created and maintained by our safeguarding and risk experts.

What are the do's and don'ts of disclosure?

Listen carefully and trust that what's being said is correct. Reflect back key phrases of what's been said, to check your understanding. Offer immediate support and reassurance. Record a factual account of the conversation immediately, using the person's actual words wherever possible.

What are the 4 R's of safeguarding?

The 4 Rs of Safeguarding Children is professional practice for how you can recognise, record, report and refer in the situation of child abuse .

How to respond to safeguarding concerns?

Any individual or agency can respond to an adult safeguarding concern raised about an adult. This can include reporting the concern and seeking support to protect individuals from any immediate risk of harm (e.g. by contacting the police or emergency services).

What are the barriers to safeguarding disclosure?

Barriers for the victim: feelings of shame and embarrassment; fear or experience of a negative response to disclosure; attitudes to sexuality, masculinity and gender; uncertainty about what is abusive; and difficulty communicating child sexual abuse.

What not to do when raising a safeguarding alert?

Never directly confront the abuser as this will interfere with the safeguarding process, making it less likely that the child will be protected. In terms of interaction with the child, never put them in a situation where they feel forced to talk about their experiences.

What are your responsibilities for safeguarding children and young people?

Duty of care in child protection and safeguarding Wherever you work, there are things you should do to safeguard and promote the wellbeing of children. For example you should: set up safeguarding policies and procedures . make sure staff and volunteers know how to recognise and respond to abuse.

How would you deal with a safeguarding concern for a young child?

Anyone who has concerns about a child's welfare should make a referral to local authority children's social care and should do so immediately if there is a concern that the child is suffering significant harm or is likely to do so.

What is disclosure management?

Disclosure management refers to the process of identifying, collecting, preparing, and distributing information to stakeholders in a timely and accurate manner . This information may include financial statements, regulatory filings, sustainability reports, and other disclosures required by law or industry standards.

Safeguarding disclosure, how to help staff and young people (2024)

Safeguarding disclosure - We have been looking at how to help your staff and young people with issues regarding peer-on-peer abuse, and safeguarding disclosures. In this issue, we will look at what to do if someone discloses a safeguarding issue, some of the ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ in these situations, and what happens afterwards.

What does a safeguarding disclosure look and sound like?

It is very unlikely (although not impossible), that someone who has been suffering from some form of abuse or neglect, will walk up to you, arrange a meeting and then tell you directly what has been happening. As we learned in the last issues, many victims feel that they are somehow responsible for the abuse they have been suffering and often feel guilty despite it not being their fault. Younger children may not have the words or understanding to explain what is happening, and older young people may feel ashamed or that they are to blame. Many, never disclose anything to anyone, ever!

Whilst a direct safeguarding disclosure may be rare, what is more likely is that the victim may intimate or try to mask the disclosure in an indirect way. This can often take the form of:

Ambiguous verbal statements - such as “I don’t like staying over there because my uncle snores” or “I’m going on a special family holiday for the summer but I don’t really want to go for so long.”
Communication through behaviour – this is a classic way that children show that their needs are not being met or that there is something wrong. It can take many forms which can be confusing to decipher, such as overly friendly behaviour, overtly sexual behaviour, withdrawn behaviour, or large changes in behaviour.
Communicate through non-verbal means – an example of this might be a child who draws only in one dark colour, or is always drawing the same image or who re-enacts things through play with dolls/puppets etc.

So, the real issue here is for your staff to be well trained in how to spot these ways of communicating, ask appropriate questions to try to ascertain if there is a concern, and making sure they take any concerns to the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) if there are.

What NOT to do with a safeguarding disclosure

If someone starts to disclose something, then there are a few hard and fast rules that you must not do:

Do NOT promise to keep anything secret – if there is a safeguarding concern, you have a duty to pass it on to the DSL and/or police/other agencies
Do NOT ask closed or leading questions which could result in any evidence being inadmissible in any subsequent court case. Examples of leading questions are things like “who hit you?” or “did your uncle do this to you?” They are leading questions because there is a presumption on the part of the questioner as to what happened. A non-leading question would be “how did that happen?” or “can you tell me how you got that bruise?”
Do NOT immediately start to write things down in front of the child/young person – this would be very clinical and very disconcerting for them. You need to give them your full attention and support
Do NOT promise things that you cannot know – you cannot say that someone will be brought to justice or that they will end up in prison, for example. This is something you could not know and would depend on many other factors
Do NOT try to talk to the alleged abuser or investigate anything yourself. This is not your remit. Your DSL will know what to do following a disclosure and will contact any other agencies that are necessary such as children services, hospitals or police
Do NOT relay details to other people whether in your organisation or not, other than the DSL. If other people need to know, it is the DSL’s job to inform any relevant parties but there are confidentiality issues surrounding disclosures that need to be upheld

The right things to do if someone discloses abuse/neglect

If someone makes a safeguarding disclosure whether directly or indirectly:

Listen fully, be supportive, take them seriously and offer your full attention
Let the child/young person lead the conversation
Reassure them that it is not their fault
Ask open questions, not closed or leading questions
Reflect back what they’re saying – this is important as it gives them a chance to clarify if you have misunderstood something, and for you to remember what has been said
Be honest that you can’t keep it confidential
Be clear about what you’ll do next and how you can support the child/young person (e.g. “I will speak to the DSL (use their name)”, or “I’ll pass this on to people who can help”
Tell the DSL in person, or in writing in a timely manner
As soon as practical, record the conversation either on a safeguarding log, or on paper in a factual way. Use the young person’s own words as much as possible and avoid conjecture and personal thoughts or assumptions
Take immediate action if someone is in immediate danger such as calling 999

What does a good safeguarding report look like?

A good safeguarding report can be typed directly into a specialist safeguarding software such as MyConcern, or it can be made verbally and in writing to the DSL, typed or hand-written.
To be a good report, it should:

Be made immediately after safeguarding disclosures or incidents
Include the date and time
Say who was there, and where it happened
Describe what happened in as much detail as possible
Be fact based, with no personal interpretation
Include the child’s words, where possible

Think: Who? What? When? Where?

It is the DLS’s job to decide what happens next, which might include different agencies such as the police or children’s services. This can usually include offering them or their family additional help, ensuring the child/young person is in a safe place/situation, or in extreme cases, following through with a prosecution.

If you have been affected by abuse, then help is available here or by calling the police on 121 or in an emergency, on 999.

Take a look at some of our other safeguarding blogs here:

KCSIE updates 2023

Safety and safeguarding: IICSA summary

Safeguarding: self-harm