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Safeguarding

Young person sitting isolated against a wall hunched over with their head down.

We have a responsibility to keep our tenants safe from harm. This includes working with our tenants, their families and partner agencies to deal with any safeguarding concerns that come to our attention. It is a priority for us that our tenants feel safe and secure in their homes. Find out how you can report a safeguarding concern to us.

We work with teams within Two Rivers Housing as well as partner agencies and tenants themselves to make sure abuse, neglect, harm or risk of harm are being addressed in a proactive, preventative and person-centred way.

Our safeguarding work also includes working with tenants and their households who may have additional needs or vulnerabilities, to try and offer additional support and take into consideration any reasonable adjustments that they might need. Our Safeguarding Children and At-Risk Adults Policy outlines our approach to safeguarding children, young people and adults who are being abused or neglected or are at risk of being abused or neglected.

Safeguarding concerns can relate to:

  • Safeguarding children and young people
  • Safeguarding adults with care and support needs
  • Child sexual or criminal exploitation
  • Self neglect
  • Unmet care and support needs
  • Domestic abuse and/or coercive control including physical, financial, sexual, psychological or emotional abuse*
  • Stalking*
  • Forced marriage and honour based violence
  • Modern slavery

*Domestic Abuse and domestic violence does form part of our safeguarding work, but we also have a separate policy for this.

We take our safeguarding responsibilities seriously and will work with our partners to ensure that any concerns raised are reported and dealt with appropriately.

Reporting safeguarding concerns

If you believe that a child or adult is in immediate danger you should call emergency services on 999. Two Rivers Housing is not an emergency service and cannot respond as one.

If you have any concerns about a tenant or anyone associated with Two Rivers Housing, you can report to us confidentially in the following ways:

  • In person at our office – our address is Rivers Meet, Cleeve Mill Lane, Newent, Gloucestershire, GL18 1DS. See How to find us.
    • Our opening hours are 8.30am – 5.00pm Monday – Friday, but on a Thursday, we open later at 10.30am. Our office is closed on public holidays.
  • By post – at the address above
  • By email – customerservices@2rh.org.uk
  • By phone – 0800 316 0897
    • When the office is closed, calls will be transferred to our 24/7 out-of-hours service. Please note all calls may be recorded for training and/or monitoring purposes.

How we respond to safeguarding reports

Reports are kept confidential, however we are legally required to pass on serious safeguarding concerns to the police and/or social care where there they are deemed to be high risk. This legal duty for high-risk cases overrides any consent from reporting parties or involved parties.

Please be aware that if we receive anonymous reports, this may limit the action we are able to take because we are not able to get back in touch with you to gather additional information or provide updates.

We will always advocate for our tenants and their families. We will work in a person-centred way and, where necessary, we will use local escalation procedures to try to achieve the best possible outcomes for our tenants and to hold our partners accountable. We of course encourage our partner agencies to do the same in return.

We have homes in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire. Each county has their own safeguarding partnerships for Adults and Children. You can find more information and also report concerns to them directly by following the links on the right of this page.

More safeguarding support

If you believe that a child or adult is in immediate danger you should call emergency services on 999.

If you are concerned that a child or adult may be experiencing or is likely to experience abuse or neglect, and they are not in immediate danger, contact your local adult or children’s social care team using the links on the right of this page. Alternatively, you can report non-urgent concerns to the Police by calling 101.

If you are concerned that a child is or may be experiencing abuse or neglect and they are not in immediate danger, you can also contact:

The NSPCC – Help for adults concerned about a child

Call: 0808 800 5000

Childline – Help for children and young people

Call: 0800 1111