Ceredigion County Council website

If you believe a child or adult is in immediate danger, do something straight away - contact 999 and tell the operator what is happening.

Safeguarding protecting children and adults from abuse or neglect. It is also about making sure children and adults enjoy good health, develop well and take a full and active role in their communities.

Who is responsible for safeguarding?

We are all responsible for ensuring that children and adults at risk are kept safe.  

This means every one of us should ensure that we know what safeguarding is and when we need to do something to stop the abuse happening.

How do we protect and safeguard?

• Recognise the different types of abuse
• Recognise the signs, symptoms and behaviours that may indicate a child or adult is being abused or is at risk of harm
• Understand what to do if we are concerned about a child or adult at risk
• Understand our responsibility with regard to suspicion or disclosure of abuse
• Understand our duty to report a concern or incident when we become aware of it

What does abuse look like?

Abuse and neglect are forms of ill-treatment of an individual – either a child or an adult. These include:

Physical Abuse

• May involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning or suffocating or otherwise causing physical harm to a child or adult.

Sexual Abuse

• Forcing or enticing a child or adult to take part in sexual activities, whether or not they are aware of what is happening. This may involve: 
• ​physical contact, including penetrative or non-penetrative acts;
• non-contact, such as involving a child or adult in looking at, or in the production of pornographic material or watching sexual activities; or 
• encouraging children or adults to behave in sexually inappropriate ways.

Neglect

• Neglect is the persistent failure to meet a child or adult’s basic physical and/or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of their health or development.
• It may involve a parent, family member or carer failing to provide adequate food, shelter and clothing, failing to protect a child or adult from physical harm or danger, or the failure to ensure access to appropriate care or treatment.
• It may also include neglect of, or unresponsiveness to, a child or adult’s basic emotional needs.

Emotional Abuse

• The persistent emotional ill-treatment of a child or adult such as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on their emotional and behavioural development.
• It may involve telling the child or adult that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate, or valued only in so far as they meet the needs of another person.
• It may involve causing children or adults to feel frightened or in danger, for example witnessing domestic abuse within the home or being bullied, or by exploitation or corruption.

Financial Abuse

• Money or property stolen
• Being defrauded e.g. scams
• Being put under pressure to pay for things for someone else’s benefit 
• Someone else using their money as their own
• Children who earn money via entertainment events not having the money placed in trust  
• There are other forms of abuse that could take place such as bullying, forced marriage, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), modern slavery, sexual exploitation and radicalisation.  

Domestic Abuse

• Controlling/coercive abuse, physical violence, emotional abuse

Online Abuse 

• Grooming - Grooming is a process that "involves the offender building a relationship with an individual, and sometimes with their wider family, gaining their trust and a position of power over the person, in preparation for abuse."

Controlling and coercive behaviour

Adult/Child Trafficking

• Child trafficking is child abuse. It's defined as recruiting, moving, receiving and harbouring children for the purpose of exploitation.  

Substance Misuse

• Individuals who consume harmful amounts of alcohol (for example if their drinking is leading to alcohol-related health problems or accidents), are dependent on alcohol, use drugs regularly and excessively, are dependent on drugs.

Radicalisation

• Radicalisation is the process through which a person comes to support or be involved in extremist ideologies. It can result in a person becoming drawn into terrorism and is in itself a form of harm.

If you believe a child or adult is being abused then you must tell someone.

To Report any Safeguarding Concerns Contact 01545 574000