Safeguarding policy

Definitions

• The Foundation is the “Royal Merchant Navy Education Foundation”. The Foundation supports children and young people at any stage of their educational development, from birth through to their professional career-entry qualifications.
• The Trustees are the Members of the Foundation.
• A Foundationer is any beneficiary of the Foundation.

Introduction

RMNEF is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults. This policy outlines our approach to ensuring a safe environment for all individuals who interact with the Foundation.

Policy statement

At the RMNEF, we believe that everyone has a responsibility to promote the welfare of all children and young people, to keep them safe, and to practise in a way that protects them. We are committed to creating an environment where children feel valued, respected, and empowered to speak up about concerns.

We are dedicated to promoting equality and anti-discriminatory practice. We will give equal priority to keeping all children and young people safe regardless of their age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.

We recognise that some children are additionally vulnerable due to the impact of discrimination, previous experiences, their level of dependency, communication needs, or other factors. RMNEF is committed to ensuring that these children receive the support and protection they need.

Purpose and Scope

This policy applies to all staff, trustees, and anyone working on behalf of RMNEF. It aims to:

• Protect children, young people, and vulnerable adults from harm.
• Provide guidance on identifying and reporting safeguarding concerns.
• Ensure compliance with legal and regulatory safeguarding obligations.

Legal framework

This policy is based on relevant legislation and guidance, including but not limited to:

• The Children Act 1989 & 2004
• The Care Act 2014
• The Equality Act 2010
• The Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance
• Local safeguarding board policies and procedures.

Safeguarding responsibilities

• Trustees: Ensure safeguarding measures are in place and reviewed regularly, including appointing a trustee with lead responsibility for safeguarding. Trustees are also required to have a current DBS certificate.
• Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL): Oversees safeguarding matters, deals with disclosures and concerns, manages allegations against staff, records and shares concerns appropriately, and ensures compliance with safeguarding procedures. The DSL also has training on an annual basis.
• Staff: Follow safeguarding procedures and report any concerns. All staff are also required to have a current DBS certificate.

Recognising and reporting concerns

Signs of abuse may include physical injuries, behavioural changes, or disclosures from individuals. All concerns must be reported to the DSL, who will assess and, if necessary, escalate to relevant authorities.

Potential risks to Foundationers

Foundationers may be exposed to various risks, including:

• Physical abuse: Infliction of physical harm, such as hitting, shaking, or burning.
• Emotional abuse: Persistent emotional maltreatment, such as belittling, bullying, or excessive criticism.
• Sexual abuse: Involvement in sexual activities without consent or understanding.
• Neglect: Failure to provide basic needs, including food, shelter, and medical care.
• Online abuse: Exposure to inappropriate content, cyberbullying, or online
• exploitation.
• Peer-on-peer abuse: Harm caused by other children, including bullying or sexual
• harassment.
• Radicalisation: Grooming by extremist groups aiming to exploit children.
• Exploitation (including criminal and sexual exploitation): Forced involvement in illegal activities or coercion into sexual acts.

Meeting our commitment to keeping our Foundationers safe

RMNEF is dedicated to ensuring the safety and well-being of our Foundationers through the following measures:

• Listening to our Foundationers and respecting them: Creating an environment where they feel valued, heard, and empowered to speak up about concerns.
• Appointing safeguarding leads: Designating a DSL (Diana Pearson), a deputy (Rose Osborn) and a trustee (Rodney Owen-Jones) responsible for safeguarding at the highest level of governance.
• Developing clear safeguarding procedures: Establishing detailed safeguarding and child protection procedures that outline how to prevent, identify, and respond to concerns. This will be emailed to all new families, and current Foundationers on an annual basis.
• Ensuring staff compliance: Making sure all staff understand and adhere to safeguarding procedures through regular training and guidance.
• Engaging with families and communities: Informing our Foundationers and their families about RMNEF’s safeguarding policies and how they can raise concerns.
• Fostering a safeguarding culture: Encouraging an organisational culture where all staff and Foundationers feel safe, know the expected standards of behaviour, and are confident in reporting concerns.

We will seek to keep our Foundationers safe by:

1. Valuing, listening to, and respecting them.
2. Appointing a nominated child protection lead for children and young people, and a lead trustee for safeguarding.
3. Adopting child protection and safeguarding best practices through our policies, procedures, and code of conduct for staff.
4. Developing and implementing an effective online safety policy and related procedures.
5. Providing effective management for staff through supervision, support, training, and quality assurance measures so that all staff know about and follow our policies, procedures, and behaviour codes confidently and competently.
6. Recruiting and selecting staff safely, ensuring all necessary checks are made. All staff have completed training and will hold a DBS certificate.
7. Recording, storing, and using information professionally and securely, in line with data protection legislation and guidance (more information available from the Information Commissioner’s Office: https://ico.org.uk/fororganisations).
8. Sharing information about safeguarding and good practice with our Foundationers and their families. This will automatically be sent to new families as well as current families annually.
9. Making sure that the Foundationers and their families know where to go for help if they have a concern.
10. Using our safeguarding and child protection procedures to share concerns and relevant information with agencies who need to know, and involving children, young people, parents, families, and carers appropriately.
11. Using our procedures to manage any allegations against staff appropriately.
12. Creating and maintaining an anti-bullying environment and ensuring that we have a policy and procedure to help us deal effectively with any bullying that does arise.
13. Ensuring that we have effective complaints and whistleblowing measures in place.
14. Ensuring that we provide a safe physical environment for our Foundationers and staff by applying health and safety measures in accordance with the law and regulatory guidance.
15. Building a safeguarding culture where staff, Foundationers and their families treat each other with respect and are comfortable about sharing concerns.

Confidentiality and information sharing

Information related to safeguarding concerns will be shared only with those who need to know, following legal and ethical guidelines.

Policy review and training

This policy and training will be reviewed annually or sooner if necessary to remain compliant with safeguarding best practices.

Contact details

For safeguarding concerns, contact:

Designated Safeguarding Lead: Diana Pearson
Email: dianap@rmnef.org.uk
Phone: 01488 567890

Designated Safeguarding Deputy: Rose Osborn
Email: roseo@rmnef.org.uk
Phone: 01488 567890

Trustee for safeguarding and child protection: Dr Rodney Owen-Jones
Email: rodneyoj@rmnef.org.uk
Phone: 01488 567890

NSPCC Helpline: Phone: 0808 800 5000

We are committed to reviewing our policy and good practice annually. This policy was last reviewed in: April 2025.

Date 22 April 2025