Duty of Care Guidance

Reports with personal details

When using City St George's Report + Support platform to report a concern, only staff members dealing directly with your report would usually see a copy. However, there may be circumstances where reports will be shared with other authorised City St George's staff members on a need to know basis, for the purposes of handling the matter at hand.

City St George's will ordinarily only carry out an investigation or make a report of the complaint to an external third party with your consent following receipt of a formal complaint, and in accordance with the relevant student or staff policies and procedures.

However, there are certain circumstances where City St George's has a legal responsibility and duty to investigate or make an external report, even where you do not provide consent for City St George's to do so. Information will not be shared unless there is a clear and lawful justification to do so, and sharing will be restricted only to those who need to know the information and who are trained and understand their confidentiality obligations.

In addition, City St George's may need to take action in relation to a report without seeking your consent where it can be reasonably inferred that not doing so could put any individual in danger, interfere with a City St George's or third party investigation, lead to the destruction of relevant information, or where City St George's is under a statutory obligation to disclose any such investigation or report.

Any action taken by City St George's will be dependent on the nature and quality of information provided in the report. As such, it is not possible to provide an exhaustive list of all the circumstances in which City St George's may take action. However, at a minimum, this would include any situation in which there is evidence of illegal or criminal activity, there is an actual or perceived threat to the health and safety of any individual, or that failure to act would put City St George's in breach of a regulatory or statutory duty, including its duties to staff and students as an employer and a university.
 
In addition to the above, City St George's may need to investigate or report on any safeguarding matter which could affect the welfare of children or vulnerable adults. 

 

City St George's, is committed to providing a safe and secure learning and working environment for all students, staff and visitors and has statutory safeguarding responsibilities to ensure that its students, young persons and adults at risk accessing its services and facilities or involved in activities such as research or 'Taster' weeks, are safeguarded against abuse. 

 

City St George's also recognises that young persons and adults at risk may suffer harm from sources outside City St George's control. Where signs of such harm are apparent City St George's will ensure that there are mechanisms in place to provide appropriate advice and support, and where required for concerns to be reported to the appropriate external agency.

Details of the most likely circumstances in which City St George's will carry out an investigation or make a report in relation to safeguarding are set out below. This list is not intended to be exhaustive, and the actions taken by City St George's will depend on the specific circumstances of each case.
 
Where allegations have been reported about inappropriate behaviour by a staff member or student towards an individual who is under the age of 18, City St George's may need to do the following:

 

 

2.   Notify City St George's Designated Safeguarding Lead  and the Local Authority Designated Officer, including where the case meets the reporting threshold for a safeguarding allegation relating to a child.

 
3. Investigate the matter further in accordance with City St George's internal policies and procedures. In deciding whether to investigate in such circumstances, City St George's will consider, for example, the seriousness of the incident, or where multiple allegations have been made against an individual.
 
Where allegations have been reported about inappropriate behaviour by a staff member or student towards an adult at risk, City may need to do the following:

 

1.     Report the matter to adult social care, and/or to the Police, including if an adult at risk is in immediate danger or is at risk of harm, a crime is in progress, has occurred or may occur, or life is at risk.

2.     Refer to adult social care if, on the basis of the information available, it appears to City St George's that the following three criteria are met: 

 2.1  a person has care and support needs (regardless of the level or seriousness of those care and support needs);
 
 2.2  they are experiencing, or are  at risk of, abuse and neglect; and
 
 2.3  they are unable to protect themselves from that abuse and neglect because of those care and support needs.
 
 If an adult at risk refuses intervention to support them, or requests that information about them is not shared with other safeguarding partners, a referral to a third party may be made by City St George's on a case by case basis including if:
 
 2.4  the adult at risk lacks the mental capacity to make that decision. This must be properly explored and recorded in line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005;
 
 2.5  other people are, or may be, at risk, including children;
 
 2.6  sharing the information could prevent a crime;
 
 2.7  the alleged abuser has care and support needs and may also be at risk;
 
 2.8  a serious crime has been committed;
 
 2.9  the adult at risk has the mental capacity to make that decision but they may be under duress or being coerced;
 
 2.10 the risk is unreasonably high and meets the criteria for a multi-agency risk assessment conference referral; and/or
 
2.11 a court order or other legal authority has requested the information.
 
 3.   Investigate the matter further in accordance with City St George's internal policies and procedures. In deciding whether to investigate in such circumstances, City St George's will consider, for example, the seriousness of the incident or where multiple allegations have been made against an individual.

Where allegations have been reported about inappropriate behaviour by a staff member or student towards an individual over the age of 18, City St George's may need to do the following:
 
1.   Report the matter to the Police, including if a crime is in progress, has occurred or may occur, or life is at risk.  Referral to the Police will be on a case by case basis and will be dependant on the level of risk or criminal activity that has been reported. Any external report to the Police will be managed in accordance with the advice and guidance from the Information Assurance Team and the Centralised Safeguarding Team.  

2.   Formally investigate the matter further, in accordance with City St George's internal policies and procedures. In deciding whether to investigate in such circumstances, City St George's will consider, for example, the seriousness of the incident or where multiple allegations have been made against an individual. City St George's will not begin an formal investigation if the Police are investigating a reported crime in relation to a member of our student or staff community, until the Police investigation has concluded.

Reports without personal details
 
If a report is received without personal details that contains identifiable information, City St George's may decide to take any of the above actions on a 'no names' basis.
 
Definitions
 
A child is anyone who has not yet reached their 18th birthday. The fact that a child has reached 16 years of age, is living independently or is in further education does not change their status or entitlements to services or protection.
 
An adult with care and support needs or an adult at risk to whom safeguarding duties apply is a person aged 18 or over who:

A safeguarding allegation relating to a child is an allegation that a person has:

If you have any questions on the escalation circumstances please contact the Central Safeguarding Team at safeguarding@city.ac.uk.