Policy paper

HMCTS safeguarding policy

Updated 26 November 2024

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

1. What’s safeguarding?

HMCTS want to make sure staff and service users have a safe and suitable environment to work in or visit.  We sometimes see people in situations where they might be at risk of harm.  There are lots of different ways someone can experiencing abuse or neglect. 

We can’t fix every situation, but we can help.  Safeguarding is doing something to protect vulnerable groups of people from abuse and neglect which goes beyond an immediate response. 

We might need to signpost somebody to information or support that will help protect them.

Anybody under the age of 18 is legally a child and all children are considered vulnerable.  An adult is defined as vulnerable if they meet the three criteria in the Who are we safeguarding section. 

To fall under safeguarding an adult must also need help with one or more of the following 6 broad categories:

• health care
• personal care
• social work
• cash, bills and/or shopping
• managing their own matters
• using transport where that transport is provided because of age, health or disability.

Abuse and neglect are a violation of an individual’s human and civil rights and in the worst cases can result in death.

Abuse and neglect are a violation of an individual’s human and civil rights and in the worst cases can result in death.

Confidentiality must be upheld in line with the Data Protection Act 2018, GDPR and the Human Rights Act 1998.  By law, we cannot share any of the information we’re told without permission from the person telling us unless it “is a necessary and proportionate measure … to safeguard the protection of the individual”. See Data protection: The Data Protection Act - GOV.UK for more information.

That means it’s important to ask for permission to share information about somebody. But if they do not give us consent, we can break confidentiality and share information about them so we can safeguard them. We ask for consent because this empowers the victim, gives them a sense of control and reminds us that safeguarding should be focussed on what the person we’re concerned about wants, needs and thinks.

It’s not always complicated to safeguard somebody. We might signpost to useful information so vulnerable people can get help themselves. Safeguarding might also be taking responsibility for sharing appropriate information with any consultants, contractors, sub-contractors, partners and volunteers working with our users and staff.

Whatever action is needed, we all have a responsibility to safeguard vulnerable people. It’s better to report a safeguarding concern than not. Even if it turns out not to be a safeguarding issue. Your actions could save somebody’s life so don’t wait.

The Care Act (2014) gives lots of information about safeguarding.

In England and Scotland, the Care Act wants us to think about six values when safeguarding. These are:

• empowerment
• prevention
• proportionality
• protection
• partnership
• accountability

There are similar values in Wales in the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014:

• increased citizen engagement and ensuring voice and control for people who need care and support, and carers who need support
• prevention and early intervention
• the promotion of well-being
• co-production – citizens and professionals sharing power and working together as equal partners
• multi agency working and co-operation

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) helps consider if a person’s able to make a decision that’s in their best interests. The most important thing is to make sure the person has a clear understanding of what might happen because of their decision (the consequences). Whether or not someone can do this might be affected by things like:

• an age-related health condition
• a neurodiverse condition such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD, or is autistic
• a neurological condition, such as Parkinson’s disease, dementia, motor neurone disease, multiple sclerosis (MS), a learning disability or cerebral palsy
• an acquired brain injury
• a speech impairment
• a mobility difficulty
• being Deaf or having hearing loss
• being blind or partially sighted
• mental health needs
• a long-standing condition such as cancer, HIV, diabetes, chronic heart disease or epilepsy
• being unable to make their own decisions and needs care and support
• being a young adult, over the age of 18, who has care and support needs and is transitioning from children to adult services
• being a carer (looking after another person with care and support needs)

This list does not include everybody. Other adults might also be adults at risk. Lack of mental capacity could be temporary or related to the safeguarding incident.

2. Why do we need to safeguard staff and users who are at risk?

HMCTS wants to create and maintain a safe and positive environment for everyone.  We’d like:

• to protect the colleagues and users who are in the groups mentioned above
• to do everything we can to see a safeguarding risk early and take the right action
• colleagues and users to be safe and feel they can trust us
• to fulfil our legal responsibility to safeguard people at risk, for example under the Care Act (2014)

But most importantly, it’s the right thing to do.

3. Who are we safeguarding?

The Care Act 2014 2014 explains we should be safeguarding children and adults at risk.

Being ‘at risk’ means staff or users who need care and support to safely live independently. Care and support can include practical, financial and emotional help.

That means, although this policy might not apply to lots of people, we need to safeguard anybody in these groups:

• staff and adult users at risk (because of age, mental health, disability which impacts on their ability to protect themselves from harm or exploitation)
• children and users who are coming through our court and tribunal system

We might think they’re at risk if an adult:

• does not have the mental capacity to understand they’re at risk of abuse of neglect because of the care or support needs
• has needs for care or support
• is experiencing, or at risk of, abuse of neglect

We would need to raise a safeguarding concern if the adult at risk falls into all three criteria in the table above.

There are lots of different types of abuse and neglect which are explained later in this document.

You do not need proof of a person’s care needs to act on a safeguarding concern. This is part of the safeguarding value ‘protection’.

4. Who needs to use this information?

The Ministry of Justice expects high standards of behaviour in everything we do, including the safety of staff and users.

We’ve developed this policy and some guidance to help our staff:

• understand what safeguarding means
• understand who we should be safeguarding
• describe why safeguarding is important in HMCTS
• recognise when a person might be at risk
• clarify the roles and responsibilities of all employees, partners, contracted service providers, their subcontractors and judicial office holders
• signpost to the associated policies, procedures and support available
• deal with, reporting and escalating a safeguarding concern

This policy is for everyone in HMCTS, including agency staff.  If you have a concern about the safety or wellbeing of someone at risk, it’s important to do something about it.  Safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility.  You must not assume someone else will do something about it.  If everybody makes the same assumption, the person at risk might never get the help they need. It’s important you don’t feel afraid to raise a concern.

We all have a duty to report safeguarding concerns to the right agencies.  HMCTS has developed this policy and guidance so all staff are aware of the safeguarding procedures and know what to do if they have a concern. 

We’ll share our policy with consultants, contractors, contracted service providers, partners, volunteers and agency workers who are providing services on our behalf.  This allows our partners to make sure our policy does not interfere with any measures they already have in place and raise any issues with HMCTS. 

For partner organisations whose staff have personal contact with our users, we will require copies of their safeguarding or vulnerability policy.  Other partner organisations will need to provide reassurance these policies are in place.  We recommend all organisations do their own risk assessments when working with our users and report to HMCTS any concerns arising from the assessment.  HMCTS will consider whether safeguarding measures are needed.

We want to make every effort to protect children and adults at risk who come into contact with HMCTS.  So, we’ll work with stakeholders to share relevant information so we can work together to safeguard our users and staff.  This is part of the safeguarding value ‘partnership’.  The people we might work with includes, but is not limited to:

• Human Resources
• mental health allies
• judiciary
• intermediaries
• interpreters
• dock officers and court custody staff
• Prisoner Escort Custody Services
• front of house security services
• in-court loggers and stenographers
• probation
• witness support staff
• Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)
• local authorities
• Youth Offending Teams
• Approved Enforcement Agents (AEAs)
• defence practitioners

We want to be open about the way we help people who might be at risk and make sure our stakeholders help us.

There might be local arrangements in place to cover safeguarding issues but it’s important all employees use this policy and guidance, so staff understand their safeguarding responsibilities.

HMCTS will identify a Safeguarding Lead and Deputy for each site in Operations and each Division in headquarters.  Safeguarding Leads and Deputies will be volunteers from across the business. This network of Safeguarding Leads and Deputies will do more in-depth learning to support this role.

5. What does neglect and abuse mean?

Neglect means someone responsible for giving care and support is not giving the basic physical or psychological care to someone they look after.  Self-neglect is where a person does not look after themselves.

Abuse is when someone giving care and support to someone at risk uses power or control in a way they should not. Self-harm and suicide are also forms of abuse.

Anyone can carry out abuse or neglect.  It’s more likely abuse will be carried out by someone the person being abused knows, especially if they trust them.  People who carry out abuse or neglect can include:

• spouse / partner
• local residents
• other family members
• acquaintances
• neighbours
• friends

Other people that can abuse and neglect someone they’re caring for include:

• people who deliberately exploit adults they see as vulnerable
• paid staff or professionals such as nurses, doctors and carers
• volunteers who do things for us and do not expect anything in return
• strangers who are people we do not know

If we think someone’s affected by abuse or neglect, we need to do something about it. We do not need to decide if the abuse or neglect was done on purpose.

Needing specialist care and support to live independently might put someone at more risk of abuse or neglect.

6. What are the different types of abuse and neglect?

There are several types of abuse and neglect and include any kind of behaviour towards a vulnerable person that deliberately or unintentionally causes them harm. These are:

• physical abuse
• sexual abuse
• domestic abuse
• harassment and stalking
• female genital mutilation
• honour-based abuse
• children witnessing domestic abuse
• psychological abuse
• financial or material abuse
• modern slavery
• forced marriage
• neglect and acts of omission
• coercive control
• discrimination
• organisational
• child sexual exploitation
• mate crime

Abuse and neglect can happen anywhere. More common places for it to happen can be:

• at home
• day or residential centres
• supported housing
• educational establishments
• Nursing homes
• clinics
• hospitals