Safeguarding report-handling toolkit

This toolkit provides principles and a description of the core elements of a safeguarding report-handling mechanism.

The elements and principles described in the toolkit can help you to evaluate the safeguarding reporting-handling mechanism you have to identify strengths, weaknesses, or gaps. Well-functioning safeguarding report-handling mechanisms will prevent as well as respond to concerns and incidents because they:

• Increase awareness of safeguarding policies.
• Log concerns for early detection of harm caused by staff, operations, and programmes.
• Demonstrate organisational commitment.
• Increase awareness of how concerns, incidents, and reports are handled.
• Reduce impunity.
• Rapidly respond to stop any further harm.

The toolkit also includes a set of symbols to help you to visually represent the safeguarding report-handling mechanism you have in place in the form of a flowchart. Using pictures and diagrams instead of text makes a flowchart understandable and accessible to the communities who will use it. It enables:

• People sharing concerns or incidents to be clearer about how any issues they raise will be handled.
• People involved in processing concerns or incidents to know their role in the overall mechanism.

There is also a set of case studies and definitions, which can be used to support learning and safeguarding implementation in conjunction with the toolkit. You can also download Symbols [PNGs in zip file].