Safeguarding policy

Our commitment to safeguarding

Ensuring safety is a core aspect of our community work at Made Open. This dedication is mirrored in our business values, guiding and reinforcing all our safeguarding efforts.

Made Open are:

• Respectful
• Inclusive
• Empowering
• Solutions-focused

We believe in treating others with respect and working collaboratively to help them achieve their goals. As a provider of digital services that connect people in communities, we are also committed to reducing the risk of abuse.

Social networking sites can help organisations and groups communicate effectively. But, if used wrongly, they can lead to safeguarding risks and abuse, both online and offline. We're dedicated to reducing these risks.

Guiding principles

• Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility.
• To prevent abuse, our software has built-in safeguards to enhance member safety.
• In general, our software is only available to people aged 16 (and over 18 if using timebanking).
• Our policies and procedures help our staff and clients recognise and respond to safeguarding concerns.
• We'll always be person-centered and respect rights in our safeguarding efforts.
• We'll always be transparent and aim to improve our methods.

Roles and responsibilities

Made Open staff
Everyone at Made Open, regardless of their role, is responsible for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. We ensure everyone understands our safeguarding policy.

Directors
The Directors ensure that safeguarding is considered in their strategic plans, risk assessments and communications. If complex or serious safeguarding issues come up, they'll talk to the relevant client's Head of Safeguarding when needed.

Head of Safeguarding - Made Open
Robert Woolf, the Head of Safeguarding at Made Open, develops and ensures the quality of safeguarding activities across all platforms. He also supports best practices for clients using the Made Open platform.

Reporting process

Platform members wishing to report a concern in relation to a Made Open platform can do so using the form provided on most of our platforms ‘contact us’ pages.

Messages will be sent to the designated Head of Safeguarding from the platform. They will figure out the best plan to address the issue within 48 hours.

If the platform’s Head of Safeguarding cannot resolve the concern, they should notify Made Open’s Head of Safeguarding to discuss appropriate action.

If you have safeguarding concerns not related to our online platform, please contact Made Open at hello@madeopen.co.uk or through our website's contact page to report your concerns.

Allocation levels

We'll use this scale to decide how to respond to each safeguarding concern:

1. No enquiry / misuse of form: No action needed.
2. Low: Handle individually, take necessary actions.
3. Medium: Notify platform admin team, prepare response together.
4. High: Hold a meeting with multiple agencies, including Made Open and any platform licensing partners.

Breaches of policy

If someone doesn't follow Made Open's safeguarding policy, we'll respond based on the incident:

• Local authority-led investigation.
• Police involvement.
• Referral to the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS).
• People & performance disciplinary action.
• Internal or external review as needed

Online safeguarding for timebanking

In addition to our standard safeguarding policy, clients using our timebanking feature have extra recommendations. To join, members must fill out a separate form in their dashboard after registration. This helps platform admins do extra safeguarding checks. After approval, members can use the timebank.

During setup, we help clients create their joining form. They might have their own safeguarding process and questions but, if not, we may recommend these minimum data requirements for basic safeguarding checks.

These are:

• Name
• Surname
• Date of birth
• Address
• Phone number
• Reference check – name, email address and phone number
• DBS number (if they have one)

Alongside the safeguarding questions during timebank registration, each platform with a timebank has its own terms and conditions page. Every member must agree to these terms to post an activity on the timebank.

Handling data

Our privacy policy sets out how we handle data and comply with GDPR rules. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office for data protection purposes (our registration number is Z2818556).

Associated documents

• Made Open’s privacy policy
• Made Open platform terms of use