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Key Takeaways

• Safeguarding is everybody's responsibility: non-clinical pharmacy workers play an important Level 2 role in recognising, responding, recording, and escalating concerns.
• You do not need proof or a full picture before raising a concern; timely action and factual recording matter more than certainty.
• Children and adults at risk may show subtle signs in ordinary pharmacy contact, including fear, withdrawal, controlling relationships, unexplained injuries, repeated unmet needs, or difficulty speaking freely.
• Immediate danger requires urgent action first; other concerns should be shared promptly through the safeguarding lead or local safeguarding route.
• Good safeguarding practice includes professional curiosity, respectful communication, lawful information sharing, and clear awareness of your boundaries.

Children and Young People

• Safeguarding children: Protect children from abuse, neglect, exploitation, and other harms, and act in ways that promote their welfare.
• Warning signs: Fearfulness, poor hygiene, repeated injuries, developmental concerns, withdrawal, sexualised behaviour, troubling adult-child interactions, or explanations that do not fit.
• Higher-risk situations: Exploitation, grooming, county lines, online harm, domestic abuse in the household, missing episodes, disability, care experience, and neglect.
• Voice of the child: Notice the child's behaviour, presentation, and opportunities to speak, even when adults dominate the interaction.

Adults at Risk

• Adult safeguarding: Protect adults who may be at risk because of abuse, neglect, dependency, frailty, disability, ill-health, coercion, or unequal power.
• Key principles: Empowerment, prevention, proportionality, protection, partnership, and accountability.
• Possible abuse types: Physical, psychological, sexual, financial, discriminatory, domestic abuse, organisational abuse, self-neglect, modern slavery, and abuse by someone in a position of trust.
• Mental Capacity Act 2005: Start by presuming capacity, remember capacity is decision specific, and seek advice rather than making assumptions yourself.

Recognising Concerns in Pharmacy Practice

• Concerns may arise at the medicines counter, reception desk, over the telephone, during repeat visits, or on deliveries.
• Look for patterns such as one person speaking for another, restricted privacy, fear, injuries, repeated missed collections, chaotic medicine use, or signs of neglect.
• Be alert to specific safeguarding issues such as domestic abuse, coercive control, FGM, forced marriage, honour-based abuse, trafficking, modern slavery, and vulnerability to radicalisation.
• Professional curiosity means noticing what feels inconsistent, asking yourself what might be happening, and not being reassured too quickly by surface explanations.

Responding Safely

1. Consider immediate safety: if someone is in urgent danger, act without delay.
2. Listen calmly and do not investigate, challenge aggressively, or promise absolute secrecy.
3. Record what you saw, heard, and did, separating fact from opinion.
4. Escalate through the safeguarding lead, manager, or emergency/local safeguarding route as appropriate.
5. Escalate further if you believe the concern is not being taken seriously.

Recording and Information Sharing

• Write records as soon as possible and keep them factual, specific, and relevant.
• Include dates, times, who was present, what was said, and what action was taken.
• Record the wishes and views of the adult where appropriate, without losing sight of risk.
• Share information lawfully with the right people when this is needed to protect a child or adult at risk.

Preparing the Pharmacy

• Make sure safeguarding policies, escalation routes, and contact details are easy to find.
• Support regular training, clear boundaries, and safe ways to offer brief private conversations.
• Think about lone working, deliveries, colleague concerns, and how the team will respond in real situations.
• A safer pharmacy culture is one where staff feel supported to speak up and act promptly.