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Safeguarding Policy

  • Chichester Area Talking News (CATN) provides a fortnightly recorded news service and a quarterly review for blind and partially sighted people of all ages living in West Sussex. This is recorded on USB memory sticks and CDs which are delivered to and returned by listeners in plastic envelopes, free of charge, by the Royal Mail. The information provided to our listeners through our recorded local news and our help desk aims to assist in relieving their disability; to keep them safe; and to enable them to lead more comfortable and enriched lives.
  • There are two trustees who are themselves visually impaired and who ensure that the trustees are kept regularly informed of the needs and welfare of our visually impaired listeners.
  • The service to listeners and their needs are discussed at each trustees’ meeting and at regular meetings of the volunteers who provide support both in the studio and office at St Richard’s Hospital and those who are Area Helpers who visit the listeners in their homes to help set up the equipment and deal with any issues. These meetings are also attended by our visually impaired trustees.
  • We also ensure, as far as is practicable, that all our volunteers are fully safeguarded through this policy and our Health and Safety Policy which applies to all aspects of the service including work in our recording studio, office, and our volunteers who carry out area support and home visits.
  • CATN is run entirely by volunteers who are all made aware of our responsibilities as an organisation involved with vulnerable people and the need to support them and protect them from harm.
  • The volunteers meet with the listeners at the Annual General Meeting and at the annual Listeners’ Lunch. A regular newsletter informs volunteers of developments in provision for visually impaired people and the current support provided for our listeners.
  • Our listeners are supported by home visits and through contact with the CATN Office which is staffed during part of every weekday.
  • Trustees are recruited, having regard to the needs of the organisation, to cover the range of skills and expertise required. Trustees and those volunteers visiting listeners in their homes have been the subject of Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks.
  • Our objective at CATN is to provide the best possible service to our vulnerable visually impaired listeners. On joining the service listeners are asked to provide CATN with the details of a family member, or if that is impracticable, a trusted friend or neighbour, whom our volunteers can contact in an emergency. If the matter is an emergency requiring urgent immediate assistance the volunteer should dial 999.
  • Before visiting, the volunteer should wherever practicable telephone to make an appointment and suggest that if possible another adult is present in the house at the time of the visit. The volunteer should have CATN identification and it may also be helpful for the volunteer to agree with the listener a one-off password to be used by the volunteer on arrival as additional identification.
  • If a volunteer becomes aware of any serious issue of concern affecting the safeguarding of one of our listeners they should also inform the Listeners’ Admin Team or the Chairman, who if appropriate following further discussion, will contact the West Sussex Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB) on 01243 642121.
  • All members of CATN are aware of these procedures.
  • This Policy should be read in conjunction with the CATN Health and Safety Policy, both of which will be regularly reviewed and updated as appropriate.

Last updated 16 September 2019