Policies and procedures

Equality is one of our main values. We strongly believe that no person should be treated less favourably because of race, sex, sexual orientation, disability, age, beliefs or offending history. All services produce a diversity strategy that provides information on the ways in which the service will meet the diverse needs of customers as well as monitoring who applies for our support and ensuring that all applications are dealt with fairly.

Our services are regularly assessed to ensure they provide equal opportunity for all. Translation services are provided for customers whose first language is not English. Equality Impact Assessments are also carried out on new policies to ensure that they will not adversely affect any customer group.

A file is held for each of our customers, which includes information such as their referral form, assessments, support plan and any correspondence. Customers have the right to look at their file at any time. If you would like to see your file please write to us and we will get back to you within five days to make an appointment.
All new customers will be asked to complete a communication consent form on joining one of our services. This outlines with whom we have your consent to share information about you. In most circumstances anything you tell us about yourself will be kept confidential within the staff team and we will only share information with other agencies with your permission.
The only situation in which we may need to share information with other professionals without your consent is if you tell us something that leads us to believe that you or someone else is at risk. In this case information may be shared with professionals such as the police or health and social services. We will tell you if this happens and will only do it if we think it is absolutely necessary.

We welcome any comments, suggestions or complaints you have about our services. These can be made in writing, by phone, or verbally to any member of staff. If you live in a supported housing project there are also suggestion boxes where you can leave a written comment, suggestion or complaint. All comments, suggestions and complaints are investigated and we will always let you know what the outcome is.
Details of how to make a complaint can be found here.

If someone threatens, hurts, exploits or neglects you, then this is abuse.
All One Support staff are expected to behave properly towards you and we have a number of policies which are designed to protect you while you are receiving support from us.
If you feel you have been abused please let us know as soon as possible. We will investigate the matter and take the appropriate action. If you do not feel safe for any reason please let your support officer or another member of staff know immediately and they will support you.
There are many types of abuse:

• Physical – being rough with you, hitting, bullying
• Emotional – shouting, humiliating or threatening you
• Financial – stealing your money or pressuring you to handover money to someone when you don’t want to
• Neglect – placing you at risk by not providing the support you need
• Misuse of medicine – forcing you to have medicine you don't need or withholding your medicine
• Sexual – unwanted sexual contact, including sexual conversations or comments
• Discriminatory – name calling or treating you less well because of your culture, ethnicity, disability or gender

Who abuses? It could be anybody who you should be able to trust, such as:

• A member of your family
• A friend
• Your doctor
• Your teacher
• Your social worker
• Your carer
• A One Support staff member
• Somebody working or volunteering at an organisation you attend.

Talk to your support officer. They are trained to know what to do and will help and support you. We have policies relating to safeguarding and protecting our customers which set out how we deal with any allegation or suspicion of abuse.
If you don’t want to talk to your support officer for any reason please contact us on 0300 123 99 66 and ask to speak to a senior manager at One Support.

There are many types of anti-social behaviour, including graffiti, threatening or abusive letters or phone calls, verbal abuse, vandalism, physical violence or threatening behaviour. Anti-social behaviour can occur in your local area, or in the house where you live.