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Abuse and Neglect

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What's on this page?

How to use this policy

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This is an easy-to-read version of our Abuse and neglect policy.

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Hireup wrote this policy. When you see the words ‘we’ or ‘us’, it means Hireup.

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We have written some words in bold. We explain what these words mean in the word list.

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You can ask for help to read this policy.

A friend, family member or support person may be able to help you.

What is this policy about?

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A policy is a plan for how we should do things. Policies are where rules come from.

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This policy explains:

  • what abuse is
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  • what neglect is
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  • what we do to keep people with disability safe from abuse and neglect.

What is abuse?

A montage of two images: a fist icon for violence and a person standing over another person, who is on the ground being threatened

Abuse is when someone:

  • hurts you
  • treats you very badly.
A woman thinking of different types of abuse

There are different types of abuse.

An icon of a person with their arm in a sling and a bandage on their head. There is a fist icon net to them

Physical abuse is when someone treats you badly and tries to hurt your body.

A person touching another person who does not want to be touched

Sexual abuse is when someone makes you do sexual things you don’t want to do.

A montage of three images: a woman looking down holding her stomach, a man threatening a woman an d an icon of a person looking sad

Emotional abuse is when someone:

  • makes you feel bad
  • tells you bad things will happen to you
  • hurts your feelings.
A montage of three icons: a hand holding money , a person sending money and a person standing over another person with a dollar sign next to them

Financial abuse is when someone:

  • takes your money
  • uses your money
  • controls how you spend your money.
A montage of three images: medicine with a cross, a woman holding medicine and a woman hlding a lot of medicine with a cross

Chemical abuse is when someone:

  • doesn’t give you medicine you do need
  • gives you too much medicine
  • gives you medicine you don’t need.

What is neglect?

An icon of a person looking down holding their legs

Neglect is when someone does not help you or care for you in the way they are supposed to.

A woman thinking about neglect

There are different types of neglect.

A montage of five images - food, a house icon, clothes on a clothesline, medical workers and icons for dental care

Physical neglect is when someone doesn’t give you enough of the things you really need, such as:

  • food
  • shelter
  • clothing
  • medical care or treatment
  • dental care or treatment.
A woman supporting another with her hand on the other woman shoulder. There is a safely icon with a cross above them

Physical neglect can also happen when someone doesn’t give you the care or support you need in a safe way.

A woman with a thought bubble. There is another woman in the thought bubble, putting her hand up to say something, with a cross next to her

Passive neglect is when someone doesn’t give you the care or support you need because they:

  • don’t know enough about you and your needs
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  • haven’t had the right training
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  • don’t understand the best way to do things.
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Emotional neglect is when someone doesn’t give you enough support for your:

  • emotional needs
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  • social needs – time you can spend with other people such as your friends or family
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  • wellbeing.

Why do we need this policy?

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Abuse and neglect can happen:

  •  once
  • many times over a long period.
A man raising his hand to say something. There are icons for abuse and neglect next to him

Sometimes it can be clear that someone is being:  

  • abused
  • neglected
A man in a thinking pose. There are icons for abuse and neglect next to him

At other times, it can be harder to know if someone is being:

  • abused
  • neglected
A woman with one hand raised and the other pointing at herself. There are icons for work and hospitals next to her

People with disability are more likely to experience abuse and neglect because they:

  •  live, work and spend time in places where many people need a lot of care and support
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  • might need physical support from other people
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  • might need support from other people for their private and personal care
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  • can have trouble communicating
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  • can’t connect with the help they need.

Telling someone about abuse or neglect

A boy with his finger up to his lip to say to be quiet. There are icon for abuse and neglect next to him

There are many reasons why people with disability don’t tell anyone if they have been:

  • abuse
  • neglected
2 women: one is looking down with her hand on her head, the other is pointing to herself. There are icons for learning above them

These reasons can include:

  • they aren’t given the same chances to learn as other people
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  • they are left on their own a lot
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  • they feel too afraid to say anything
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  • things have happened to them before
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  • they can’t communicate well
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  • people’s attitudes – what they think and believe about people with disability
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  • what people think and believe about the sexual lives of people with disability.
A woman holding out her hand to stay stop. She has a policy icon with a zero tolerance policy on it next to her

We have a Zero Tolerance policy towards abuse and neglect.

A montage of two images: a woman frowning with thumbs down and an icon of a person sad with a cross

A Zero Tolerance policy means abuse and neglect:

  • are never ok
  • must never happen.
A woman with one hand up in a 'stop' sign, with icons for sadness and isolation behind her

We play an important part in preventing:  

  • abuse 
  • neglect.
A woman holding her hand out to say stop

If you prevent something, you stop it from happening.

2 women shaking hands

To prevent abuse and neglect, we need to:

  • make sure we properly check everyone who uses Hireup
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  • make sure everyone who uses Hireup knows what abuse and neglect are
A man looking down with his hands on his face. There are icons for abuse and neglect next to him
  • watch out for signs of abuse and neglect
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  • take away anything that stops people from telling us about abuse or neglect
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  •  take any reports of abuse or neglect seriously
Clock icons with lines to show it is going fast
  • do something quickly when we find out about abuse or neglect
Fairness and balance icon with thumbs up
  • treat everyone fairly if they are part of a report about abuse or neglect
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  • support anyone who has told us about abuse or neglect
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  • tell the government about reports of abuse or neglect we get.

What you need to do

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When you join our Hireup community, we need to work together.

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We must all make sure our supports are safe for our users.

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As a Hireup user, you need to understand how important it is to keep our users safe

A montage of three images: a man pointing to himself , an eye and an ear

You need to help us prevent abuse and neglect by telling us about things you:

  • experience 
  • see
  • hear
Report documents icon with icons for abuse and neglect

You need to help us find out more when we get reports of abuse or neglect

A woman handing a folder to another woman, with an icon for safety above them

You need to give us feedback about how well we’re doing at keeping users safe.

Protecting our users

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We have come up with some ways to make sure we can:

  • protect our users
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  • prevent abuse and neglect
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  • handle reports of abuse or neglect quickly and well
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We protect our users with:

  • user screening
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  • user education
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  • user wellbeing checks.

User screening

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We check all our users to make sure it is safe for them to be part of our Hireup community.

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Our users get detailed plans for their support

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Our users talk to our Community Support Team about their:

  • goals
  • needs
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We check to make sure our support workers meet the standards for being part of our team.

A montage of 3 images - a police record with a tick, an icon of an adult and a child, and a working with vulnerable people check with a tick

We make sure all our support workers have an up-to-date:

  • police record check
  • Working with Children Check
  • Working with Vulnerable People check.
2 business people with a phone icon

We contact 2 people our new support workers have worked for before to find out more
about them.

User education

Icon for abuse and neglect

We teach our users about:

  • abuse
  • neglect.
A montage of 4 images- a community event in the park, training on a computer, speech bubbles on a computer and a man and a woman standing together

We do this through:

  • community events
  • online training courses
  • webinars – online talks where people can interact with each other
  • 1-on-1 support.

User wellbeing checks

A man smiling with thumbs up, with a safety icon next to him

We check in with our users to make sure they:

  • feel safe
2 women standing together
  • feel supported
A woman talking to another woman
  • can tell us about any worries they have
Icons for abuse and neglect

They can tell us about anything that has happened to them that could be:

  • abuse 
  • neglect

Giving us feedback

A montage of 3 images - a feedback document icon with a tick and a cross, a woman raising her hand to say something and a man raising his hands to make a complaint

We have different ways for our users to:

  • give us feedback
  • tell us about their experiences
  • make complaints.
A montage of two images: A man raising his hands to make a complaint and a problem document icon with a tick

A complaint is when you tell someone about:

  • something that has gone wrong
  • a problem you want fixed.
A montage os 2 images - an Incident report on a computer and a post booking feedback form with a tick and cross

Our users can fill out our:

  • online incident report form
  • Post Booking Feedback Form.
A montage of 2 images - A woman frowning with thumbs downs and an icon of a person with their arm in a sling and bandage on their head

An incident is when:

  • something bad happens
  • someone gets badly hurt.
A man supporting antoher man, withhis hands on his shoulder

We check in with our users about how things are going.

Icons for abuse and neglect

We have an incident response team who deal with reports we get about:

  • abuse 
  • neglect
Calendar icon with 7 days and a clock with 24 next to it

The team is available:

  • 24 hours a day
  • 7 days a week.
A montage of 3 - a woman writing on a clipboard, a clock icon and a woman with her finger up to her moth to say be quiet

When this team does their work, they are:

  • careful 
  • quick
  • private
Incident response policy document icon

You can read about our incident response team in our incident response policy.

Word List

A montage of 2 images- a fist icon for violence, and a person standing over another person, who is on the ground

Abuse

Abuse is when someone:

  • hurts you
  • treats you very badly
A montage of 2 images - a man raising his hands to make a complaint and a problem document with an icon tick

Complaint

A complaint is when you tell some one about:

  • something that has gone wrong
  • a problem you want fixed.
A montage of 2 images - a woman frowning with thumbs down and an icon of a person with their arms in a sling and a bandage on their head.

Incident

An incident is when:

  • something bad happens
  • someone gets badly hurt

An icon of a person looking down, holding their legs

Neglect

Neglect is when someone does not help you
or care for you in the way they are supposed to.

A policy document icon

Policy

A policy is a plan for how we should do things. Policies are where rules come from.

A woman holding out her hand to say stop

Policy

Prevent

If you prevent something, you stop it from happening.

A montage of 2 images - a woman frowning with thumbs down and an icon of a person looking sad with a cross

Zero Tolerance policy

A Zero Tolerance policy means abuse and neglect:

  • are never ok
  • must never happen.