Everyone has the right to live in safety, free from abuse, neglect, and from the fear of abuse from other people. Some people are at greater risk of harm because they are affected by disability, mental disorder, illness, or physical or mental infirmity. ‘Safeguarding’ simply means helping to prevent people being harmed so they can life in safety. Playlist for Life has a legal and moral duty to do that and everyone working for Playlist for Life has a responsibility to ensure the charity meets that duty.
Responsibility for safeguarding in the UK lies with local safeguarding teams. If you have concerns that someone may be at risk of abuse or neglect the local safeguarding team for that area should be contacted. The information below should help you find the appropriate safeguarding team.
If you believe someone is an immediate danger of serious harm, you must call the police. In an emergency call 999.
England & Wales
In England and Wales, every local authority has an adult safeguarding team. Find the website of the appropriate council team in link below then find the contact details for the safeguarding team on the website of the individual council. Alternatively, call the main council switchboard and ask to be put through to the adult safeguarding team
England & Wales local authority directory: www.local.gov.uk/our-support/guidance-and-resources/communications-support/digital-councils/social-media/go-further/a-z-councils-online
In Scotland each local council has a contact for reporting adult protection concerns. The Scottish Government’s Act Against Harm website maintains a directory of contacts for each council: www.actagainstharm.org/getting-help/find-your-local-contact
In Northern Ireland each Health and Social Care Trust provides an Adult Protection Gateway Service to which concerns can be reported. The Health and Social Care Board lists contact details for each here: www.hscboard.hscni.net/niasp/niasp-contact2/#adult
Identifying someone’s council
Here are some ways to identify the correct local authority:
- If you know a postcode you can find the relevant council here: www.gov.uk/find-local-council
- If you know an address, or part of it, but not a postcode you can find a postcode here: www.royalmail.com/find-a-postcode
- If you know someone’s village or town but nothing more you can find their local authority on this (unofficial) gazetteer: http://gazetteer.org.uk/