Safeguarding Policy

Elemental Health Ltd

Date adopted: 27.7.26 Review date: 27.7.27

Responsible person: Angela McMillan, Director

Applies in: Wales

1. Introduction and Purpose

Elemental Health Ltd wants everyone who uses our services, children, young people, and adults, to be safe. Safeguarding is everyone's job here, not just one person's, and this policy explains how we make sure of that in practice.

This policy covers all one-to-one counselling, supervision, and training that Elemental Health Ltd delivers, whether that is in person or online, from our base in Wales.

2. Who This Applies To

This policy applies to everyone who works for or with Elemental Health Ltd, including directors, employees, associates, and contractors, whenever they are in contact with clients, supervisees, or people on our training courses.

3. The Law Behind This Policy

This policy is based on the following laws and guidance:

The Children Act 1989 and 2004
The Social Services and Well being (Wales) Act 2014, which covers safeguarding of adults at risk and much of the law on children's services in Wales
The Wales Safeguarding Procedures, the official guidance for safeguarding practice in Wales
The Family Law Reform Act 1969 and the idea of Gillick competence, which covers whether a child or young person can make their own decisions about therapy
The Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015, known as the Prevent duty
The Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003
The BACP Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions
UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, which cover how we share information and how people can access their own records

A note on this: guidance written for England, such as Working Together to Safeguard Children, does not apply here. The right guidance for us in Wales is the Wales Safeguarding Procedures, which can be found at safeguarding.wales.

4. What We Are Committed To

Elemental Health Ltd is committed to:

Putting the welfare of children, young people, and adults at risk first in everything we do
Providing a safe space for clients, whether sessions happen in person or online
Responding quickly and properly to any safeguarding concern
Making sure every associate and contractor understands their safeguarding responsibilities
Being open with clients about the limits of confidentiality where safeguarding is involved

5. Who to Go To: The Designated Safeguarding Lead

The Designated Safeguarding Lead for Elemental Health Ltd is Angela McMillan, Director.

If you are a member of staff or an associate and you have a safeguarding concern, raise it with the Designated Safeguarding Lead as soon as you can, and always within 24 hours of the concern coming up.

Contact: contact@ehe.org.uk

6. Consent for Children and Young People

Where a client is under 18, here is how we decide whether they can consent to therapy themselves:

A 16 or 17 year old is usually treated as able to give their own informed consent to therapy, in the same way an adult would.
A child under 16 may still be able to consent for themselves if they are what the law calls Gillick competent, meaning they are mature and understanding enough to make this particular decision. This depends on the situation, not just their age, and should be talked through with a supervisor if there is any doubt.
If a child is under 16 and is not Gillick competent, then someone with parental responsibility for that child needs to give consent instead.
Whoever makes this decision should jot down briefly how they reached it, especially if the client is young or the decision is a close call.

One thing to be careful of: not every parent automatically has parental responsibility. If there is any doubt about who holds it for a child client, this should be sorted out before starting work with them.

7. Spotting a Safeguarding Concern

A safeguarding concern might come from something a client tells you, something you notice yourself, or other things said during a session. This can include, but is not limited to:

Physical, emotional, or sexual abuse
Neglect
Domestic abuse, whether the person experienced it directly or witnessed it
Self harm or a risk to life
Exploitation, including criminal or sexual exploitation
Radicalisation or the risk of being drawn into extremism, under the Prevent duty
Risk to, or from, an adult at risk
Female genital mutilation, or the risk of it (see section 14)

This is not a complete list. If you are ever unsure, use your judgement and talk to your supervisor or the Designated Safeguarding Lead.

8. What to Do If a Concern Comes Up

If a safeguarding concern comes up, follow these steps:

Stay calm and listen without judging. Do not promise total confidentiality.
Write down what was said or what you noticed as soon as you can, using the client's own words where possible, and note the date, time, and just the facts.
Think about how serious and how urgent the risk is, whether the client can consent to a referral, and whether it would be right to share information even without their consent.
Tell the Designated Safeguarding Lead within 24 hours, or sooner if someone is at immediate risk.
If someone is at immediate risk of serious harm, call the emergency services straight away, then tell the Designated Safeguarding Lead as soon as you can afterwards.
Where needed, the Designated Safeguarding Lead will refer the concern to the local authority safeguarding team through the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub, known as MASH, or to the police. In Wales, you can find the right route to take at safeguarding.wales/en/.
Tell the client what has been shared and with whom, as long as this would not put them or anyone else at more risk, and would not be against the law or get in the way of a police or safeguarding investigation.
Keep a written record of when information was shared, who with, what was shared, whether the client agreed to it, and if not, why it was shared anyway.

A note on clients based in England: if a client lives in England rather than Wales, the referral should be made using the local authority safeguarding team for where the client lives, not Cardiff. This means using the local MASH for their area, and the relevant contact is called LADO rather than DOS. The guidance that applies to that specific referral is Working Together to Safeguard Children, not the Wales Safeguarding Procedures.

9. Confidentiality and Sharing Information

What clients tell us is confidential, but confidentiality has limits. As set out in our contracts with clients, we may need to share information if there is a risk to the client's safety or someone else's, or where the law requires it, for example under the Prevent duty or where a serious crime is involved.

Wherever possible, we will talk to the client about this first. We will only share information with people who genuinely need to know, and only as much as is needed.

For clients under 18, if someone with parental responsibility asks to see the child's records, there are some situations where we can say no. This includes cases where showing the records could cause serious harm to the child or someone else, or where the records contain information about child abuse, as defined by the Data Protection Act 2018. If this comes up, speak to the Designated Safeguarding Lead or get legal advice before responding.

10. Concerns About a Practitioner or Associate

This section is about concerns or allegations involving someone who works for Elemental Health Ltd, a director, employee, associate, or contractor, rather than concerns about a client.

In Wales, this is handled under Section 5 of the Wales Safeguarding Procedures, through the local authority's Designated Officer for Safeguarding. This role is sometimes still called by its English name, LADO. This process covers a wide range of concerns, not just proven wrongdoing, including anything that might suggest someone is not suitable to keep working with children or adults at risk.

Because Elemental Health Ltd is small and does not have layers of management, and because our associates work as contractors rather than employees, here is how this works for us:

A concern about the Designated Safeguarding Lead, or about a self-employed associate, should go straight to the local authority's Designated Officer for Safeguarding, since there is no internal manager above them to raise it with first.
A concern about any other associate should be raised with the Designated Safeguarding Lead first, who will then refer it to the Designated Officer for Safeguarding.
Do not share information about the allegation with the person it concerns until you have had advice from the Designated Officer for Safeguarding or the police about what can be said.
Keep a written record of the allegation, what was done about it, who did it, and why those decisions were made.
Think about whether the practitioner can safely keep working while the matter is being looked into, and write down that decision.
The person the allegation is about should still be given proper welfare and wellbeing support while this is going on.

11. Checking People Before They Start Work

Before anyone, associate, contractor, or employee, starts work involving contact with children, young people, or adults at risk, Elemental Health Ltd requires:

An enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check, at a level appropriate to how much contact they will have with vulnerable clients
Confirmation of their professional qualifications and, where relevant, their registration with a professional body
Proof of appropriate professional indemnity insurance
A signed confirmation that they have read and understood this policy

12. Working Safely

Elemental Health Ltd expects everyone who works with us to:

Keep clear professional boundaries with clients, including keeping personal and professional social media and messaging separate
Hold appropriate professional indemnity insurance
Attend regular clinical supervision, in line with what BACP requires
Complete safeguarding training relevant to their role, and keep it up to date
Make reasonable adjustments so disabled and neurodivergent clients can access our services

13. Access to Records

A client who is able to make their own decisions has the right to see their own records. If a client cannot make their own decisions, whoever holds parental responsibility for them usually has the right to see their records instead, except in the situations described in section 9.

We handle personal information in line with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. If a decision about sharing or withholding information is not straightforward, check the Information Commissioner's Office guidance, including its ten step guide to sharing information to safeguard children, at ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/data-sharing/a-10-step-guide-to-sharing-information-to-safeguard-children/.

14. Female Genital Mutilation

Female genital mutilation, or FGM, is illegal in the UK under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003. If you are working with families, stay alert to the risk of FGM. Any concern that a girl under 18 may be at risk should go straight to the Designated Safeguarding Lead, and you should also consider reporting it directly to the police.

Under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003, someone who has frequent contact with a girl under 18 may have a legal duty to help protect her from FGM. If you are unsure whether this applies to your working relationship with a client, ask the Designated Safeguarding Lead or get legal advice.

15. Keeping Records

Any safeguarding concern, and anything done about it, should be written down factually in the client's record on WriteUpp, following Elemental Health Ltd's data retention policy. Records are kept securely for at least seven years after therapy ends, or until a young person turns 25, whichever is later.

16. Who Is Responsible

Ange McMillan, as Director, is responsible overall for making sure this policy is put into practice, understood, and reviewed. Every associate and contractor shares responsibility for raising concerns promptly and honestly.

17. Reviewing This Policy

This policy will be reviewed every year, and updated whenever the law, official guidance, or how we work changes.

Elemental Health Ltd | Safeguarding Policy