Safeguarding information

What to do if you have concerns over the safety of a child or vulnerable adult.

Safeguarding children

Children and young people have the right to be protected from harm – this is a UK legal requirement within the Children Act 2004 and is explicit in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which has been in force in the UK since 1992. The Children and Social Work Act (2017) and Working Together to Safeguard Children (2023) underpin all Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire safeguarding activities.

Children are vulnerable to four main types of abuse:

physical
emotional
sexual
neglect.

We all have a responsibility to keep children and young people safe and to work in ways that protect them. By working together, we can help protect children at risk and find ways to prevent child abuse.

Reporting a concern

If you are worried a child is in immediate danger, ring 999 emergency services and ask for the police.

If you are concerned about the safety of a child or young person because of child abuse or potential child abuse, please follow the guidance, policies and procedures of the local authority where the child or young person lives.

It is good practice to let the child’s parent or carer know that you are making a child protection referral. However, do not inform them if your concerns relate to:

Child sexual abuse
Fabricated or induced illness (FII) or perplexing presentations.

You can find the child protection policies and guidance for all three Safeguarding Children Partnerships on the local authority websites.

Bristol City Council
North Somerset Council
South Gloucestershire Council.

Revised Safeguarding Children arrangements

Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 was published in December 2023. This guidance outlines what organisations and agencies must and should do to help, protect and promote the welfare of all children and young people under the age of 18 in England. It also illustrates the roles and responsibilities of statutory safeguarding partners, for which the Integrated Care Board is one of three key agencies.

Amendments made by the Children and Social Work Act 2017 to the Children Act 2004 strengthened this already important relationship by placing new duties on the police, integrated care boards (ICBs) and the local authority, as statutory safeguarding partners.

Safeguarding partners are under a duty to make arrangements to work together and with other partners locally, including education providers and childcare settings, to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in their area.

Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board are a member of three children partnerships, and each of these partnerships published their multi-agency safeguarding arrangements as per the ask of the statutory guidance in early 2025.

Statutory Safeguarding Reviews, including Child Death Reviews

A review is conducted when a child comes to significant harm and/or dies in our area. Lessons from these reviews are considered in our future service commissioning and public health work in order to improve outcomes for children and their families.

Statutory Safeguarding Reviews are commissioned and undertaken under the Working Together to Safeguard Children (2023) statutory guidance.

There is also a statutory requirement for ICBs to have a robust Child Death Overview Process (CDOP). Arrangements in our area have been in place since 2008. Our current CDOP is made up of engagement from the following partners:

Bristol City Council
South Gloucestershire Council
North Somerset Council
Avon and Somerset Constabulary
The Integrated Care Board.

Read about statutory guidance on child death reviews

Safeguarding adults

Everyone has a responsibility to report abuse or suspected abuse of adults at risk and to adopt and implement the legislation set out in the Care Act (2014).

An adult at risk is a person aged 18 years or over “who has needs for care and support (whether or not the local authority is meeting those needs) and is experiencing, or at risk of, abuse or neglect and as a result of those care and support needs is unable to protect themselves from either the risk of, or the experience of abuse or neglect.” (Care Act 2014).

Abuse may be one or a combination of different types of abuse e.g. physical, verbal, psychological, neglect, self-neglect etc.

For more information on the different forms of abuse, please see the Safeguarding Adult Board/Partnership websites:

Reporting a concern

If you have immediate concerns about your own or someone else’s safety, call the police on 101 or in an emergency, call 999.

If you have a concern about an adult, you can make a safeguarding referral to the appropriate Local Authority Adult Social Care team (where the individual lives):

Bristol: 0117 9222 700
South Gloucestershire: 01454 868007
North Somerset: 01275 888801
Out of hours: 01454 615165

Safeguarding training resources

Information on local safeguarding training:

If you are a professional working in primary care, please visit the Remedy website.

Safeguarding annual reports

The below reports set out how the ICB Safeguarding Team has satisied its statutory responsibility to safeguard the welfare of children and adults through collaborative working across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

Safeguarding Annual Report 2022 to 2023 Safeguarding Annual Report 2023 to 2024