If you believe someone’s life to be in danger, please dial 999 and report it to emergency services.
Queen Mary University of London has a duty to protect its students and staff and to make appropriate referrals to local safeguarding agencies. The University has a legal and moral responsibility to act on concerns to protect children and adults in need of safeguarding so that the University and/or appropriate agencies can then make inquiries and take any necessary action to protect them.
Allegations are not, however, the only form of disclosure. Safeguarding concerns may arise when someone reports something said by a third party, a suspicious occurrence, or something they have overheard. Such information needs to be reported and handled appropriately by either the Local Safeguarding Officer(s) or Lead Safeguarding Officer (or deputy), who has been trained to handle allegations and other disclosure information.
Concerns, incidents or allegations relating to poor practice, bullying or abuse should always be referred as quickly as possible to the relevant Local Safeguarding Officer who will decide with the Lead Safeguarding Officer (or deputy) the route a referral will take (e.g, whether this will be managed internally or referred out to the statutory agencies).
All concerns relating to potential abuse should be referred externally as quickly as possible to ensure that people with the correct expertise undertake any subsequent investigation as this is not the responsibility of the University or its staff.
Our University safeguarding policy is available to download in accessible formats:
If you have any questions about the welfare of a child or young person, or any wider queries about safeguarding please contact Chris Shelley (contact details on tab below).
Safeguarding is defined as ‘protecting an adult’s right to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect’ (Care and Support statutory guidance, Chapter 14). Adult safeguarding is about preventing and responding to concerns of abuse, harm or neglect of adults. Staff should work together in partnership with adults so that they are:
The welfare of the child or young person is always paramount. At Queen Mary we will work with young people in multiple different settings and in all of them we have a duty to put the welfare of the child or young person at the forefront of all activity. This means that we have a duty to act where we are made aware of a safeguarding concern regarding children or young people, including those that are not students of the University. If you have any concerns that a child or young person is at risk of harm it must be raised with one of the safeguarding officers listed in the section below without delay.
Further information on safeguarding is available at safeguarding in the Westfield Nursery.
Our admissions policy for under-18s also provides further information.
The Care Act statutory guidance states that the safeguarding duties apply to an adult who:
For children, the duty is simpler: if they are under the age of 18 and at risk of abuse or neglect, then we have a responsibility to report this as a concern.
General indicators of abuse and neglect which may suggest signs of abuse and neglect include:
For more information about what constitutes abuse and neglect, please refer to appendix two of the Queen Mary University of London Safeguarding Policy (Word) [DOC 98KB] which provides indicators of both abuse and neglect.
Contact details of the University’s safeguarding team are as follows. The University’s policy specifies that we have a Lead Safeguarding Officer, a Deputy Lead Safeguarding Officer, and Local Safeguarding Officers, as deemed necessary by our Schools, Institutes and Directorates:
If you are unsure who to contact, or one of the named contacts above is away, please send your concerns to safeguarding@qmul.ac.uk.
Please send an email to the Lead Safeguarding Officer, the Deputy Lead Safeguarding Officer or Local Safeguarding Officer with the words “Safeguarding concern” in the subject title. NB: Please do not make referrals through MS Teams, as they are very easy to miss. If you are not sure, make the referral anyway — the relevant officer will discuss the case with you.
A good tip is to ensure that you use clear, objective language.
Safeguarding Essentials training is designed to enable you to understand what 'Safeguarding' is all about and who might be at risk of harm or abuse.
It will take you through some of the language and information that guides us, help you recognise situations that should trigger further action, and will signpost you to what you should do if you have any Safeguarding concerns.
The Suicide Safer Strategy [PDF 497KB] is based on UUK guidance and forms one part of our approach to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of our students as well as our plans to sign up to the University Mental Health Charter.
The death of a student is fortunately a very rare occurrence but naturally very distressing for all those involved, and not least the deceased’s family and friends. The Guidelines for Responding to the Death of a Student [PDF 187KB] document provides guidance to ensure that processes followed are as effective and sensitive as possible to the family of the deceased and students/staff who are affected, and includes details of support which is put into place and made available within Queen Mary.
It is very important when news of a death of a student is received that this guidance is followed, so please refer to it in the event that you are informed of such news.