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About Us

Every person has a right to be safe and the Suffolk Safeguarding Partnership work with lots of different organisations including care homes, fire, health, housing associations, police and probation, schools, social workers and the voluntary sector, to make sure that they are all working together and doing what they can to keep children and young people and adults at risk safe from any type of harm or neglect. We want Suffolk to be a safe place for children and young people to grow up and adults to live in.

Any person can be at risk of harm or abuse, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or religion.

As a partnership we work to:

  • Prevent abuse and neglect from happening

  • Listen to people with lived experiences, learning lessons from them that help improve Suffolk systems

  • Promote wellbeing and safety

  • Hold our partners and other agencies to account for undertaking safeguarding duties and scrutinise safeguarding actions and outcomes

  • Inform, teach, support, advise, and be part of the safeguarding network in Suffolk

For more information see Safeguarding explained: report by Anthony Douglas.

The Legislation

There are two important pieces of legislation covering children and young people, and adults, and this legislation underpins the work of the Suffolk Safeguarding Partnership. 

Children and Young People

Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018, set in legislation that the three safeguarding partners, Local Authority, Chief Officer of Police, and Clinical Commissioning Groups (what we like to call more simply as social care, police, and health), must work together with relevant agencies to safeguard and protect the welfare of children in Suffolk. This replaces legislation for Local Authorities to have Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs).

Adults

The Care Act 2014 came into effect from 1 April 2015 to help to improve the independence and wellbeing of adults. It makes it clear that local authorities must provide or arrange services that help prevent people developing needs for care and support or delay people deteriorating such that they would need ongoing care and support.  The Care Act 2014 also aims to bring about the personalisation of care services, putting the person at the centre of the process.

Sections 42, 43, and 44 of the Act underpin the work of the Suffolk Safeguarding Partnership, and set out ours and our partners collective responsibilities around;

  • Protecting individuals and investigating instances of abuse

  • The role of Safeguarding Adults Boards, and

  • Conducting Safeguarding Adults Reviews

Inclusion

The Suffolk Safeguarding Partnership (SSP) is committed to helping people in Suffolk understand what we mean by ‘safeguarding’. It means preventing abuse or neglect, as far as that can be done. In our work as a Partnership, we will help people to understand in plain language how the safeguarding system works and how people can seek help for themselves or for someone else.