SAFEcic Audit Services - Free Quotation. Please email us with your contact details for further information and quotations.
Desktop Audits are entirely on-line via phone, email and video conferencing. They include comprehensive policy reviews, recruitment and record keeping processes, personnel interviews and safeguarding walks to audit premises, activities and services.
On-site audits are vital to cross reference and check that the organisation's safeguarding policy and procedures are being implemented correctly, effectively and practically at all levels.
The expert SAFEcic team has been providing safeguarding audits and pre-inspection audit services for over 20 years. We offer them for a wide range of organisations including charities, businesses, faith groups, leisure, health and education. These services are dedicated to raise standards for safeguarding children and/or adults and also assist managers in benchmarking the safeguarding arrangements in their organisation. Read a Review.
SAFEcic audits are based upon the SAFEcic multi agency team’s many years of experience and are designed to reflect the requirements of;
The Children Acts 1989 and 2004
Working Together to Safeguard Children
What to do if you're worried a child is being abused
The Care Act 2014
associated statutory guidance
All country equivalents in Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Ireland and the Channel Isles
The relevant criminal record regimes including the DBS, Disclosure Scotland, AccessNI and Garda National Vetting Bureau (GNVB)
CQC, Ofsted and other regulators across the UK and Ireland
The Charity Commission, Office of the Scottish Regulator (OSCR), The Charities Regulator, Charity Commission for Northern Ireland
plus local requirements of boards, partnerships and committees.
and are based upon the seven SAFEcic standards for safeguarding:
- Nominating and training appropriate personnel as safeguarding leads
- Circulating current and accurate safeguarding policies and procedures
- Managing the safer recruitment and supervision of staff
- Adopting and implementing a staff training strategy
- Circulating relevant associated polices including Online Safety and confidentiality
- Producing evidence of essential legal requirements including insurance, health & safety and relevant compliance with the relevant sector regulators
- Carrying out safeguarding risk assessments and “hot spotting” activities such as one to one work, sports, transport and photography
What does the Audit Service Involve?
On-Line Audits
All policies and procedural documentation associated with Safeguarding are sent to SAFEcic electronically and scrutinised by the assigned auditor and feedback is given. Video meetings and inspection tours are then arranged with specific personnel and live documentation (personnel records, single central record etc) are checked for consistency and correct record gathering, plus actual records are "dip sampled" via screen sharing. A virtual safeguarding walk also takes place via live video link. Throughout the process SAFEcic will signpost and advise methods and resources to address any issues that arise. If there are any "quick fixes" available, those can be put in place and the final report will recognise these.
A full report is then prepared (in consultation with the customer) and future actions prioritised and agreed. Successful organisations are then presented with the SAFE Award which can be used to reassure parents and carers that every possible step has been taken to safeguard the children and adults in their care.
On-Site Audits typically take three days, but can take longer for larger complex organisations or those with multiple sites.
The SAFEcic audit team carry out onsite visits, meet staff (and customers if relevant), scrutinise paperwork to evidence standards, inspect premises and produce thorough reports. These reports include the evidence seen and highlight any actions required to meet the standards.
Actions are graded for priority and are followed up afterwards. Successful organisations are then presented with the SAFE Award which can be used to reassure parents and carers that every possible step has been taken to safeguard the children and adults in their care.
Both On-Line and On-Site audits include a Single Central Record (SCR) audit (also available separately, without a full audit).
SCR audits can be delivered either on site or remotely and typically take one day and involve dip sampling the SCR and a minimum of 12 associated HR files for a range of posts including senior management, staff, volunteers and contractors recruited over time. All evidence is triangulated comparing the information in the HR files against the details recorded on the SCR throughout the entire recruitment process in line with the requirements, as relevant to the organisation, of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (as amended 2013, 2020 and 2023), Part 5 of the Police Act 1997, Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, Child Care Act 2006, Section 128 of the Education and Skills Act 2008, The Immigration Act 2014, Ofsted, the CQC and other regulators
For more information please email us here with your contact details. Prices range from £650 per day for small charities and £999 for larger organisation.
Is a SAFEcic Safeguarding audit worthwhile? This is just one of our audit reviews;
Excellent service from start to finish. I am an Education Consultant working in Further Education, largely for Independent Training Providers / Apprenticeship Providers.
I recommended the audit for one of my clients to review the providers safeguarding of direct and subcontracted provision, and boy, was it a thorough review! Policies, procedures, insurance levels, training needs analysis all carried out.
A detailed and comprehensive RAG rated action plan and report was provided. Formative feedback as the process unfolded enabled actions to be implemented, or underway, so so by the time we got to the final feedback, we had put in place much of the actions, so this was highly beneficial.
It was exceptionally good value, considering the depth the audit, and potential benefit and impact. We now feel we have not only got good systems to safeguard individuals, but that we also are more confident about our processes for Ofsted.
We also have become members so have accessed discounted training and access to policy templates. The membership fee for this service is very good.
Rosie was the auditor and she is highly professional, incredibly knowledgeable, and does the review with a 'critical friend approach'. I would definitely recommend this audit, service and the company as a whole.
Lynn Hart
