Safeguarding
The Students’ Union through its student officers, representatives and volunteers, and staff offer hundreds of opportunities every year for 1000s of our students.
Safeguarding at LUSU includes all the groups who are part of the wider Students’ Union family: our affiliated sports clubs and societies. Many other people also benefit from our community engagement. We have people of all ages, backgrounds and cultures involved with our activities and services including children and young people under 18 and some who may be vulnerable.
As a Students’ Union we are also a charity and believe that safeguarding is everyone’s business – we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the wellbeing of all children and adults, and expect all Trustees, staff, and volunteers to share this commitment and protect our people from harm.
All our staff and volunteers working in activities which are regulated activity are DBS checked, as well as other staff who potentially may have contact with vulnerable people. We will also ensure that any of our contractors share our values and approach.
Safeguarding at LUSU
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It's your duty to report ALL safeguarding concerns as a matter of urgency following the correct process. Our reporting policies and procedures are briefly outlined below. If you are not sure whether to report or raise a concern, report it. Better safe than sorry. Please remember that if you believe a person to be in immediate danger of significant harm please contact the relevant emergency service i.e. police or ambulance via 999. You can inform us afterwards.
Please raise a concern by emailing su.safeguarding@lancaster.ac.uk. Emails to this address are monitored by the Safeguarding Team every day of the year (including university closure days). Your role is to refer any concern and supply basic facts - you do not need to investigate it. You can give us details about a safeguarding concern by completing our safeguarding concerns form.
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This role is held by an external trustee of the students’ union Trustee Board.
Any concerns will be dealt with confidentially in the first instance. However, safeguarding leads maybe under a duty to refer concerns on to other agencies based on the nature of the concern. The students’ union will appropriately share information with safeguarding leads within the university where it is in the person’s vital interests or is within the legitimate interests.
We are aiming for all students’ union career staff to have level 1 safeguarding training and for all our student volunteers and staff to have basic safeguarding training and awareness.
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Not all concerns raised will be deemed as statutory safeguarding matters however this doesn’t mean that they don’t require looking into or dealing with. We expect that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect. The students’ union adopts the university’s Bullying and Harassment Policies and Procedures which cover both staff and students, but can also take action under the students’ unions’ own Members’ Code of Conduct which is a behaviour code for all of our students.
Bullying and harassment has no place in our activities and groups whether it is face to face, or online. Behaviour which is deliberate and intended to hurt others (either physically or emotionally) is bullying. This can take many forms including:
an individual is excluded from a group or subjected to frequent criticism
receives inappropriate ‘banter’ or name calling
is expected to undertake activities by other members which is coerced, demeaning or degrading
The students’ union expects all group leaders to know and understand their responsibilities, and role model at all times positive behaviours and inclusivity. Like staff they are in a position of power and trust.
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There are many ways you can report incidents to the University . The university and students’ union jointly launched a reporting app via iLancaster which enables first and third-party anonymous reporting of hate incidents. This can be downloaded from the app store.
If you cannot raise a concern directly please report using the app. We can only tackle issues in our university community if we are aware of them.
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If you are in any doubt what to do during 9-5pm Monday to Friday, you can contact our Safeguarding Team. Ordinarily you should contact the Designate Safeguarding Lead (DSL) in the first instance. The following individuals have the appropriate knowledge and training to support you:
Designate Safeguarding Lead
Chris Cottam
Advocacy and Governance Manager
su.safeguarding@lancaster.ac.uk
07376427552
Vicki Greenwood
Senior Adviser