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When we engage with communities in health and care research, we have a responsibility to keep our community partners and ourselves safe, and to manage potential risks that arise through the engagement process. Please note that this section contains content related to different types of abuse.
When we engage with communities in health and care research, we have a responsibility to keep our community partners and ourselves safe, and to manage potential risks that arise through the engagement process. Please note that this section contains content related to different types of abuse.
Managing risk
Managing risk
As with any project or area of work, community engagement brings its own set of potential risks that we need to be aware of and mitigate. Some of the risks that may arise when we are doing community engagement work include:
Lone working - either staff members or public partners find themselves working out in the community on their own. This could put themselves or members of the public at risk.
Breach of confidentiality - if a public partner or member of staff breaches confidentiality, for example, of personal data
A staff member or public contributor is harmed during activity - for example, if they receive verbal or physical abuse from members of the public.
A public partner is under the influence of alcohol or drugs - they may cause themselves or others harm. This can also risk reputational damage to the organisation.
A public partner discloses a criminal record - depending on the criminal record disclosed, there could be a risk of harm to the individual or others and a risk of reputational damage to the organisation.
Staff burnout- Community engagement is time-consuming and emotionally engaging work. Without appropriate working practices and boundaries in place, there is a risk that staff leading or supporting the engagement are at risk of burning out.
How can we manage and mitigate risks?
How can we manage and mitigate risks?
Conduct risk assessments for community engagement projects, events and public partner roles. You can use NIHR's template to help you do this.
By conducting a risk assessment, you should have mitigating actions and plans in place for potential risks.
Take time to understand the community you are working with and some of the potential risks specific to this context.
Have a lone working policy, both for members of staff and public partners. NIHR recommends that public partners and, where possible staff, are never working out in community settings alone.
Community engagement work can require activities to take place outside of the 9-5 Monday- Friday traditional working week. Having a flexible working policy can allow staff to make sure they are not working overtime if they need to work evenings or weekends and to recuperate their time.
Community engagement can also be tiring and emotionally taxing work. It’s therefore important that we take care of ourselves as practitioners and set boundaries in this work. The NHS has a set of resources for supporting wellbeing and resilience.
Safeguarding
Safeguarding
What is safeguarding?
What is safeguarding?
Safeguarding means protecting people's health, wellbeing and human rights, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse and neglect (Care Quality Commission). Those most in need of protection include:
Children and young people;
Adults at risk, such as those receiving care in their own homes, and people with physical, sensory and learning disabilities.
Safeguarding is a collective responsibility and NIHR is committed to the safeguarding of all children, young people and adults at risk. All NIHR employees, partners and volunteers have a responsibility to safeguard children and adults at risk of abuse or neglect. This includes our community engagement work. There are a range of ways that you, partner organisations or members of the community may become aware of information about an individual that indicates they may be at risk of harm. For example; a patient, member of the public or public partner disclosing something in a conversation; a carer or relative disclosing something about an individual; witnessing behaviour that causes concern.
What types of harm or abuse might we come across?
What types of harm or abuse might we come across?
Different types of harm and abuse we may come across include:
Physical abuse
Domestic abuse
Discriminatory abuse
Sexual abuse
Psychological abuse
Organisational abuse
Financial or material abuse
Neglect
Self-neglect
Modern slavery
What needs to be in place to safeguard community engagement with research?
What needs to be in place to safeguard community engagement with research?
To ensure that safeguarding concerns are appropriately identified and addressed, the following provisions should be in place:
A safeguarding policy which sets out
(i) Your organisation's commitment to protecting all children and adults at risk
(ii) the more detailed policies and procedures your organisation has in place to keep children and adults at risk safe and respond to safeguarding concerns.
A designated safeguarding lead. This is the person appointed to make sure the organisation adheres to its safeguarding policies. They hold responsibility for referring safeguarding concerns (for example, to the local authority).
Where safeguarding concerns are identified, they should be reported to the designated safeguarding lead immediately in line with your safeguarding policies and procedures, so that they can decide what the next steps are. Make sure that all staff and volunteers know that they are expected to report and record safeguarding concerns, disclosures or allegations, and how to do this.
Wherever you are working with partner organisations (for example, an NHS Trust or community organisation), you will need to agree at the beginning of your partnership who is responsible for leading safeguarding processes, managing reporting of safeguarding concerns, who the designated safeguarding lead will be, and so on.
Staff delivering public or community-facing work should complete safeguarding training, with periodic refresher training (for example, once every two years). NIHR recommends completing at least Level One Adult Safeguarding Training.
Where staff are working with children and young people, training on safeguarding children and young people should also be undertaken in advance of this work to a minimum of Level One Child Safeguarding Training.
For more information, resources, and online safeguarding training, see the further resources section.
Further resources
Further resources
Safeguarding
Safeguarding
NHS England. E-Learning for Healthcare. Safeguarding Adults - Online training courses, Levels 1 -4 (E-Learning for Healthcare log-in needed).
NHS England. E-Learning for Healthcare. Safeguarding Children and Young People - Online training course. Levels 1 - 3. (E-Learning for Healthcare log-in needed).
NCVO. Safeguarding resources section. Resources and guides from the UK National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) to help do safeguarding well.
NCVO. Safeguarding and Volunteers. Includes guidance on what to consider in terms of safeguarding when working with volunteers.
Ann Craft Trust. Types of Harm webpage. An overview of the 14 categories of abuse that may be experienced by adults.
NSPCC Learning. Child Abuse and Neglect. Resources and guidance on the different types of abuse and neglect children may experience and responding to them.
Managing risk
Managing risk
NIHR CRNCC. Public Partner Risk Assessment Template. A template to help you identify potential risks and mitigating actions when working with members of the public, including in community settings.
NCVO: Volunteering and Health and Safety. Provides guidance on managing health and safety with volunteer roles, including managing risk.
NCVO: Solving Volunteer Problems. Highlights some of the risks and problems that may arise when working with members of the public as volunteers, and how to address or mitigate these.
NCVO: Dismissing a Volunteer. Guidance on dismissing a volunteer, for example, due to a serious breach of conduct, or changes to a service.
NHS: Wellbeing and resilience resources. A set of resources for staff to support their own mental and emotional health, wellbeing and resilience.
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