If something feels unsafe, speak to someone.

Start with safety

Call 999 if someone is in immediate danger. For other concerns, use your training provider’s designated safeguarding lead, often called the DSL, or the alternative contact in its safeguarding policy. This public page does not receive or monitor safeguarding reports.

What can I raise?

You can ask for help with concerns involving harm, abuse, coercion, exploitation, neglect or threats. A concern may relate to learning, employment, home life or online contact. You might be worried about something you experienced, saw, received or were told.

You do not need to decide which category it fits before speaking to someone. Explain the concern in your own words. If you are unsure whether it is a safeguarding matter, say so and ask the safeguarding lead to advise.

How to explain a concern

Use the provider’s approved private reporting route. Give the person enough information to understand the immediate situation, without waiting to assemble a complete account. Useful details include:

• What happened, or what you are worried may happen.
• When and where it happened, including the online service if relevant.
• Who may be at risk and whether the risk is immediate.
• What you directly saw or heard, distinguished from what you think it may mean.
• A safe way and time to contact you, including any contact that could put you at risk.

Do not confront someone or try to collect evidence in a way that puts you at risk. Do not download or forward harmful or potentially illegal material. Describe what you encountered and ask the safeguarding lead or police how to handle any existing messages safely.

What happens to what I share?

Ask who will receive the information and what the next step is. A safeguarding professional may need to share relevant information with people or services who can protect you or someone else. Complete secrecy cannot be promised. Ask for the reasons to be explained, including when information may need to be shared without your agreement.

Your provider’s policy and privacy information should explain its process. Avoid recording a disclosure in ordinary portfolio evidence or asking an AI assistant to manage a safeguarding concern. A named person needs to receive it through the correct route.

If you cannot use the first contact

Use the deputy or alternative contact named in the policy. For a concern about a staff member or the safeguarding lead, use the specific allegations or escalation route instead. If you do not receive a response and remain worried, contact the next appropriate person or service; do not assume a submitted message has been seen.

Concerns about a child can be raised with the local council’s children’s social care team. For an adult with care and support needs who may be experiencing abuse or neglect, the council’s adult safeguarding service can advise. You can approach those services directly; you do not have to wait for a training review.

Other support contacts

• Childline, for under-19s: 0800 1111.
• NSPCC, for concerns about a child: 0808 800 5000.
• Samaritans, for someone to listen: 116 123.
• Refuge’s National Domestic Abuse Helpline, supporting women experiencing abuse: 0808 2000 247.
• Police, for a non-emergency crime report: 101.

Official guidance

Read GOV.UK guidance on reporting child abuse, NHS adult safeguarding information and government safeguarding information-sharing advice. Your provider’s actual policy and contacts remain essential.

A private conversation about work

Suppose a colleague repeatedly contacts you outside work, makes personal demands and says your shifts could change if you do not cooperate. You are unsure whether to tell your manager because the colleague works closely with them. You can describe this to your provider’s safeguarding lead and explain why your usual workplace contact feels difficult to approach.

Ask to agree a safe next step: who will contact you, whether messages can be left, and how workplace contact will be handled. Tell the safeguarding lead if speaking to a particular person could increase the risk. They may need to involve another service or person; ask them to explain what can be discussed with you before that happens. The provider and employer have different responsibilities, so ask who is coordinating the response.

Record the next step without repeating the disclosure

For your own reference, a short note might say when you made contact, who received it, the agreed follow-up and how to reach the alternative contact. You do not need to copy a detailed disclosure into every learning review, attendance note or workplace email.

Ask the person handling the concern what information is necessary and where it should be kept. If a practical learning arrangement follows, such as a different meeting contact, ask whether that arrangement can be recorded without including unnecessary sensitive background. Keep any personal notes somewhere safe, especially if another person can access your device or account.