Part One – Safeguarding Policy

1. Policy overview

   Safeguarding is a shared responsibility that extends beyond direct work with children and families. Through Dr Billy Smythe Limited, I provide consultation, supervision, and training to professionals who support children and young people, often in the context of trauma, loss, or complex care. While I am not directly involved in those children’s lives, safeguarding remains central to my practice. This policy outlines how I maintain that focus, how I respond when concerns arise, and how I uphold the professional standards that keep people and organisations safe.

2. Commitment to Safeguarding

   I am committed to promoting a culture of safeguarding in all areas of my practice.
   This includes:

   • Prioritising the safety and welfare of children and young people in every professional context.
   • Operating within the guidance of:
     • Working Together to Safeguard Children (2023)
     • Keeping Children Safe in Education (2024)
     • Children Acts 1989 & 2004
     • Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act (2006)
   • Upholding the ethical and professional standards of the HCPC and DDPI Worldwide
   • Creating psychologically safe, respectful, and inclusive spaces in which safeguarding can be explored openly.
   • Remaining curious and reflective about the organisational systems that influence children’s safety.

   Safeguarding sits alongside my separate Health and Safety Policy (2025), which details physical and emotional well-being considerations during training and consultation delivery.

3. Training and Professional Development

   I have completed Advanced Safeguarding and Designated Safeguarding Lead training, recorded in my CPD file. I continue to update my safeguarding knowledge and awareness through supervision, peer reflection, and continuing professional development.

4. Pre-Consultation and Training Safeguarding Discussion

   Before entering an on-going training or consultation relationship, from October 2025 organisations will be required to complete my Pre-Contract Organisational Disclosure Form.
   This ensures:

   • Transparency about regulatory and inspection status.
   • Clear identification of the safeguarding leads and our agreed escalation pathways.
   • A mutual commitment to ethical, inclusive, and safe practice.
   • Agreement to share new safeguarding or regulatory information if it arises during our work together.

   This due-diligence step ensures that safeguarding responsibilities are understood and shared before any work begins.

5. Safeguarding within Consultation and Training

   Much of my work involves training and consultation across multi-agency networks — including social care, health, education, and voluntary-sector professionals. Although these children are not directly known to me, I recognise that safeguarding issues can arise within these reflective spaces. All consultation and supervision will be undertaken through a safeguarding lens. Although I am not directly responsible for individual cases, discussions often relate to the lives of children and families. I do not assume that a child is safe simply because they are “held” within a service.
   My role is to:

   • Support practitioners and organisations to hold safeguarding responsibility in mind.
   • Notice when systemic pressures, staff overwhelm, or organisation culture issues may create risk.
   • Encourage curiosity, transparency, and appropriate escalation when worries emerge.
   • Ensure that consultation does not collude with inaction or minimise concern.

   Safeguarding is a shared duty. Consultation spaces can and should strengthen that shared responsibility.

6. Creating a Safe and Open Learning Environment

   • I clarify ground rules for respect, inclusion, confidentiality, and safeguarding at the start of each session.
   • Where needed, I remind participants of their own organisational safeguarding responsibilities and the routes available for disclosure or support.

7. Responding to Safeguarding Concerns

   When safeguarding concerns are raised during training, supervision, or consultation, I will:

   1. Acknowledge and Clarify – Listen carefully, validate the concern, and ensure clarity about the facts shared.
   2. Confirm Reporting Pathway – Encourage and, if needed, support the individual to act through their organisational safeguarding procedure.
   3. Record and Reflect – Keep a concise factual record of the concern and action advised.
   4. Follow Up / Escalate if Necessary – If I believe the concern has not been addressed or that a child remains at risk, I may: 
      • Contact the organisation’s senior safeguarding lead or director. 
      • Seek guidance from the local safeguarding partnership. 
      • Make a direct referral to Children’s Social Care if I believe a child is at risk of significant harm.
   5. Supervision Review – Discuss the matter in my professional supervision to ensure accountability, proportionality, and reflective learning.

8. Patterns of Concerns

   Safeguarding is not only about individual incidents it’s also about noticing the patterns that can form within teams and organisations. When I work alongside professionals over time, themes sometimes emerge that may indicate wider safeguarding risks — such as chronic stress, unsafe cultures, or systems that unintentionally leave children’s needs unmet or cause harm. I see it as part of my safeguarding responsibility to stay attentive to these patterns, to hold them reflectively in supervision, and to raise them with the commissioning organisation when they may have implications for children’s safety or well-being.

   If ongoing work highlights concerns that, when taken together, suggest a potential organisational or systemic safeguarding issue, I will:

   • Communicate concerns in writing to the lead commissioner or designated safeguarding lead, summarising the themes observed, the rationale for concern, and any actions already discussed within consultation.
   • Encourage collaborative reflection and action, offering to support the organisation to review and strengthen its safeguarding culture.
   • Maintain a written record of communications and responses as part of my safeguarding documentation.
   • Escalate concerns if I believe appropriate action is not being taken. This may include contacting:
     • the organisation’s senior leadership,
     • the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) if a professional’s conduct may pose a risk to children, and/or
     • the local safeguarding partnership for further advice or formal referral.

   These actions are consistent with Working Together to Safeguard Children (2023) and the HCPC Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics, particularly Standard 7 (“Report concerns about safety”) and Standard 9 (“Be honest and trustworthy”).

9. Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO)

   If a concern relates to the behaviour or conduct of a professional toward a child, I know how to contact the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) in the relevant area and will follow local procedures in collaboration with the commissioning organisation.

10. Confidentiality and Information Sharing

    Information shared in consultation, supervision, or training is treated confidentially and stored securely. Confidentiality may be overridden if a child’s safety is at risk or if I am required by law or professional duty to share information. Any sharing is done on a “need-to-know” basis and, wherever possible, transparently with those involved.

11. Supervision and Governance

    Regular supervision provides me with ethical oversight and reflective space for safeguarding dilemmas. I also supervise other practitioners and supervision arrangements will be described in a Supervision Contract. This helps ensure that if ethical, safeguarding, or professional issues arise, everyone knows where accountability sits and how to act.

12. Record Keeping and Review

    Safeguarding records are factual, proportionate, and stored securely.
    This policy is reviewed annually, or sooner if legislation, local procedures, or professional learning indicate change.

Part Two – Professional Behaviour and Conduct Policy

1. Purpose

   This section sets out the professional values, standards, and boundaries that underpin all work carried out by Dr Billy Smythe Limited.
   Professional behaviour is integral to safeguarding; how I conduct myself shapes the safety and trust within every relationship.

2. Core Values

   My practice is guided by PACE — Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy — and by principles of integrity, transparency, inclusion, and respect.
   These values support safe, attuned, and ethical professional relationships.

3. Professional Standards

   • Adhere to the ethical frameworks of the HCPC and DDPI Worldwide
   • Maintain an anti-discriminatory stance and attend to intersectionality.
   • Keep accurate and confidential records.
   • Declare conflicts of interest promptly and manage them transparently.

4. Boundaries and Relationships

   • Maintain clear professional and digital boundaries.
   • Clarify purpose, limits, and expectations at the outset of all work.
   • Work with sensitivity to power, difference, and cultural context.

5. Communication and Collaboration

   • Communicate clearly, respectfully, and in a way that supports mutual understanding.
   • Address disagreement or misunderstanding through curiosity rather than defensiveness.
   • Model openness and compassion in all professional exchanges.

6. Reflective Practice and Accountability

   • Engage in regular supervision and reflective dialogue to maintain ethical clarity.
   • Welcome constructive feedback from colleagues, commissioners, and participants.
   • Record continuing professional development, including safeguarding updates, within my CPD portfolio.

7. Health, Well-being, and Fitness to Practise

   I recognise that caring for my own health and well-being is essential to safeguarding others.

   “I commit to taking care of my own health and well-being in order to most helpfully support others.”

   If circumstances arise that could compromise my ability to practise safely, I will seek support and, if necessary, inform relevant professional bodies.

8. What to do if you would like to share a concern

   If you have a concern or worry about my conduct or professional practice, I encourage you to please raise it and talk directly with me in the first instance so that we can seek to resolve it promptly and transparently.

   If you prefer to raise your concern formally, or feel unable to address it with me directly, you may contact the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), who regulate practitioner psychologists in the UK.
   Website: www.hcpc-uk.org

   I am also certified with the Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy Institute Worldwide (DDPI), which has an Ethics and Professional Standards Committee that can be contacted via email: standards@ddpnetwork.org

   Both organisations can offer guidance on how to raise concerns appropriately, confidentially, and in line with professional standards.

9. Review and Associated Documents

   This policy will be reviewed annually, or sooner if learning, legislation, or organisational development requires revision.
   It can be read alongside:

   • Dr Billy Smythe Limited Health and Safety Policy (2025)
   • Organisational Disclosure Form (Pre-Contract Information Sharing)
   • Example Supervision Contract
   • Dr Billy Smythe Limited - Training Register