Safeguarding vulnerable people in Greenwich

Everyone in the UK has the fundamental right to live free from harm and abuse. Safeguarding is everyone’s business.   

The Greenwich Safeguarding Team is committed to protecting and safeguarding children, young people and adults at risk. The safety and welfare of children and adults who come into contact with our services either directly or indirectly is paramount and all staff have a responsibility to ensure that best practice is followed, including compliance with statutory requirements.

The team has adopted a ‘think family’ approach including the transition between children and adults, working together to cover such areas as domestic abuse, Modern Slavery, Prevent (part of the UK Counter-Terrorism Strategy, preventing radicalisation of children and adults at risk) and Female Genital Mutilation.

The responsibilities of the CCG Safeguarding Team in Greenwich include:

  • Ensuring that the CCG is compliant with statutory responsibilities
  • Providing assurance that commissioned health providers are meeting statutory responsibilities and relevant standards
  • Supporting healthcare providers, acting as “critical friend” and challenging poor practice and/or escalating risks where necessary
  • Supporting multi-agency working, particularly with the Royal Borough of Greenwich (including community safety), Safeguarding Adult Boards and Safeguarding Children’s Partnership
  • Provide safeguarding supervision
  • Act as subject matter expert

Safeguarding adults

We support adults who are at risk of abuse and neglect. They are often vulnerable because of their mental health, physical disability, age or illness and may find it difficult to protect themselves from abuse.  

We are a statutory partner of the Greenwich Safeguarding Adults Board, the purpose of which is to seek assurance that local safeguarding arrangements and partners act to help and protect adults in Greenwich who meet the following criteria:

  • They have needs for care and support (whether or not the local authority is meeting any of those needs) and;
  • They are experiencing, or at risk of, abuse or neglect and:
  • As a result of those care and support needs they are unable to protect themselves from either the risk of, or the experience of, abuse or neglect.

If you are concerned about the safety and wellbeing of an adult, please contact

If you are seriously concerned about an adult’s immediate safety, dial 999

Safeguarding children

Safeguarding children is everybody’s responsibility so we must report all forms of child abuse.

SEL CCG ensures that the organisations from which they commission services provide safe systems for safeguarding children from abuse or neglect. This entails working closely with our partners and stakeholders 

The CCG is a statutory partner of the Greenwich Safeguarding Partnership, which consist of range of organisations who working together to safeguard children and young people in the borough. 

If you have an urgent safeguarding concern, please contact Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) by telephone (immediately, do not wait to send a referral form).

Telephone: 020 8921 3172 (Out of hours: 020 8854 8888)

Email: MASH-referrals@royalgreenwich.gov.uk

You can find MASH referral form: here

If you are seriously concerned about a child’s immediate safety, dial police:  999 

Find out more information about how to refer a child.

To help you to determine levels of need when making your own assessment, please refer to the threshold document

Working together to safeguard Children: read more