Policies and governance

Where professionals differ in their opinions, and matters cannot be resolved internally, the Boards encourage the use of the issue resolution policy.

If you need to make a complaint, please contact the independent chair of the Board in the first instance.

If you wish to make a complaint against one of our partner organisations, please refer to their individual complaints policy. If a complaint cannot be resolved, you are open to escalate this to our independent chair of the Board as above.

Per GDPR, we request members of the Board, Executive and sub-groups dispose of all papers and reports after the meeting has taken place.

We will keep documents in the following situations:

1. The Board's coordinator will hold a central copy of all Board papers and reports for an agreed retention period
2. The group's co chair holds a copy of all sub-group reports for an agreed retention period.

How long is my data held

Retention of all information relating to both the Children and Adult Safeguarding Boards are as follows: 

• information for the management of the Boards - six years
• minutes from the Boards and Executive - six years
• policies and procedures - six years
• audits - six years
• learning reviews - 15 years
• information collected for a Serious Case Review (SCR) or a Safeguarding Adult review report (this includes organisations’ Independent Management Reports (IMRs) - 15 years
• action plans resulting from a Serious Case Review and Safeguarding Adult Reviews - 15 years
• Serious Case Review and Safeguarding Adult Review final reports - 15 years

All Board members are covered by their organisation’s indemnity insurance. Lay members are exempt from coverage. 

Please note that whilst we value the opinions and professional judgements of our lay members, they are exempt from taking any decisions arising from the Boards and its sub-groups.