Immediate reaction and reporting the incident

What to do immediately after an incident

Once you are physically safe:

1. Make sure immediate needs are addressed

Seek medical attention if you or someone else has been injured.

If police, medical or other emergency services are required and have not already been contacted, contact them.

2. Inform Iguality

Contact your programme/activity coordinator and/or a member of the safeguarding contact persons as soon as reasonably possible.

Serious incidents should be communicated immediately once the volunteer is in a safe position.

3. Do not personally try to resolve the incident

Following a serious threatening or violent incident, the affected volunteer should not be expected to contact the beneficiary to:

• explain what happened;
• negotiate future sessions;
• obtain an apology;
• investigate the incident;
• communicate Iguality's decision;
• attempt to repair the relationship.

Iguality will coordinate any necessary communication.

4. Preserve relevant information

Where possible, keep any relevant messages, emails, photographs or other information connected to the incident.

Do not share details of the incident unnecessarily in group chats, social media or with people who do not need the information.

Reporting the incident

Violence and aggression fall within Iguality's existing safeguarding reporting framework.

A volunteer can report the incident through the channels established in the Safeguarding Policy, including:

• directly to the Designated Safeguarding Lead;
• to a Safeguarding Support Lead or another member of the Safeguarding Committee;
• through Iguality's confidential online safeguarding reporting form.

If a volunteer initially reports the situation to their programme coordinator, the coordinator should ensure that a safeguarding report is made when the incident falls within this protocol.

What should be reported?

Report:

• physical violence;
• attempted violence;
• threats;
• significant intimidation;
• aggressive behaviour that caused you to fear for your safety;
• serious damage to property connected to aggressive behaviour;
• stalking or threatening communication;
• repeated patterns of aggressive behaviour;
• significant near misses.

What is a near miss?
A near miss is an incident in which nobody was physically harmed but there was a realistic possibility of harm.

For example:

• someone attempted to hit a volunteer or other participant but missed;
• another participant intervened before an assault occurred;
• someone punched a wall next to a volunteer;
• a volunteer was able to leave immediately before the situation escalated;
• someone made a credible threat but did not act on it.

Near misses should be reported because they can reveal risks or patterns that may otherwise remain unnoticed.

What should the report contain?

Where possible, record:

• date and approximate time;
• location;
• people involved;
• witnesses;
• what happened immediately before the incident;
• what you saw and heard;
• specific threatening words where remembered;
• physical actions;
• whether anyone was injured;
• whether emergency services were involved;
• any relevant messages, photographs, police or medical report, or other evidence;
• whether previous concerns involving the same person are known; and
• whether you currently have any concern about further contact or retaliation.

Reports should distinguish observations from assumptions.

For example, write:
“He stood in front of the door and told me that I was not allowed to leave.”
rather than:
“He completely lost control and became crazy.”

Immediate safety pause

Where a reported incident indicates a credible risk of violence, threats or serious intimidation, direct contact between the affected volunteer and the person concerned will normally be paused until an initial safety review has taken place.

This means that:

• the volunteer should not be expected to attend the next scheduled session;
• the volunteer should not be asked to contact the beneficiary directly;
• no assumption should be made that the existing volunteer-beneficiary relationship will automatically continue;
• Iguality should decide whether interim safety measures are required.

The pause is a protective measure, not a disciplinary conclusion.

It allows Iguality to understand what happened before deciding what happens next.