Safeguarding

Find out what safeguarding children and young people involves and our work to help protect them and promote their welfare.


What is safeguarding?

The Government defines safeguarding as: "The process of protecting children from abuse or neglect, preventing impairment of their health and development, and ensuring they are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care that enables children to have optimum life chances and enter adulthood successfully."

Our role in safeguarding children

Although we are not the lead agency for safeguarding children in England, we work closely with organisations involved in child protection. We also check that the healthcare providers we regulate have procedures for protecting children and for identifying any concerns.

Our report "Safeguarding children and young people – a shared responsibility" explains our responsibilities, with information about the work we have carried out, what we have learnt from it, and other key agencies that we work with in this important area.

Reporting on how well England safeguards children

We are one of eight inspectorates that together are responsible for monitoring the effectiveness of England’s arrangements for keeping children safe. Every three years we publish a joint report that looks at:

  • The effectiveness of the country’s systems and frameworks for safeguarding children.
  • The wider role of public services in safeguarding children.
  • Targeted activity to safeguard vulnerable groups of children, including children seeking asylum, children in secure settings, looked after children and children treated by healthcare services.
  • How well agencies are identifying and responding to child protection concerns.
  • Improvements made since the last joint chief inspectors’ report.

You can read the previous reports we have helped produce.

Other work to promote safeguarding of children

We have a board which meets quarterly to consider the needs of children, young people and vulnerable adults, including any concerns that we receive from members of the public or professionals regarding their welfare.

In addition, we also have four regional leads that provide support, advice and assistance to our staff and to local healthcare organisations on safeguarding children and young people.

Protocol

It has become apparent that CQC, as the single health and social care regulator for England, needs to develop its own approach to safeguarding and the role we will play in local arrangements.

Our protocol is the start of this work. It is aimed primarily for CQC staff but we recognise that as safeguarding depends on effective multi-agency cooperation, it will be relevant to other agencies in particular local authorities, police and registered services.

Concerns over a child's welfare

If you have a concern about the welfare of a child or vulnerable adult using a healthcare service, please contact the appropriate local authority's social care service in the first instance.

If you experience difficulty doing this or want to report a different issue, please call our helpline on 0845 601 3012. The helpline is open 9am - 5pm Monday to Friday, except for bank holidays.

We can also provide access to language line and Typetalk services.