Safeguarding: professional resources
Use this page to find information on useful professional resources on safeguarding.
RCN resources
Safeguarding adults
- Adult Safeguarding: Roles and Competencies for Health Care Staff. This intercollegiate document has been designed to guide professionals and the teams they work with to identify the competencies they need in order to support individuals to receive personalised and culturally sensitive safeguarding.
Safeguarding children
- Safeguarding Children and Young People – Every Nurse’s Responsibility (2021). This guidance is for all nursing staff who are in contact with children and young people. It highlights signs of abuse and includes how to raise concerns about safeguarding/child protection issues.
- Safeguarding Children and Young People: Roles and Competencies for Healthcare Staff (2019)
- Protection of Nurses Working with Children and Young People (2017)
- RCN position statement: the role of the designated nurse for safeguarding children and young people in England (2016)
- Female Genital Mutilation. An RCN resource for nursing and midwifery practice (fourth edition)
Safeguarding adults with mental health problems and financial difficulty
Several types of abuse can cause financial problems for patients, which impact on their health. A carer might abuse their access to bank accounts, or self-neglect could lead to bills getting out of control. Financial problems can also arise as a direct result of mental or physical health problems, therefore patients are at increased risk of financial difficulty even if no abuse has occurred. For example during a period of poor mental health, people can find it very difficult to control their spending or to communicate with creditors. If someone is suddenly admitted to hospital, they may not have time to make arrangements regarding their employment, benefits or outstanding bills, and poor professional practice might mean this is not dealt with.
Any of these issues can quickly lead to spiralling debt and problems with relationships, employment and housing, any of which may significantly affect recovery from physical or mental illness. However, patients are unlikely to bring the subject up due to stigma or believing the situation can’t be helped. Therefore it is important for nurses to be aware of when financial problems may be impacting on someone’s health and proactive in raising the issue and directing people towards appropriate help.
See:
Further resources
Anti-Slavery Commissioner’s (IASC) office & University of Nottingham (2018). . An online toolkit to help local organisations and agencies work better together to tackle modern slavery.
Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse. . These papers will help frontline practitioners and commissioners to provide the best possible responses to child sexual abuse.
Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse. . To effectively deal with a problem as pervasive and important as child sexual abuse requires everyone with a stake in working to prevent child sexual abuse to get involved.
Department of Health and Social Care. . Information about Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS).
Learning Disability Professional Senate. Top tips for trauma informed care (PDF).
Metropolitan Police. . The Herbert Protocol is a form that carers, family or friends of a vulnerable person, or the person themselves can fill in. It contains a list of information to help the police if the person goes missing.
Missing People. .
NICE. .
Nursing and Midwifery Council (2015) . This document provides guidance for nurses, midwives and nursing associates on raising concerns (which includes ‘whistleblowing’).
Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE). .
Safeguarding and COVID-19
Commission for Countering Extremism. .
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Page last updated - 03/07/2023
