Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will set out how the Department’s planned reforms to enhance staff awareness of safeguarding roles and responsibilities will integrate new safeguarding frameworks into its organisational culture and operations, including guidance and training materials are accessible to staff with disabilities, provided in multiple formats, and include clear, direct routes to designated safeguarding leads.

Safeguarding is a priority for DWP. Year One of our multi-year strategy is about building strong foundations - raising awareness, strengthening capability, and deepening partnerships. This is not just a process change; it’s a fundamental culture shift to make safeguarding part of everyday business.

The Department already operates a tiered system of support for vulnerable customers. All staff are trained to recognise vulnerability and respond appropriately, with specialist help available for complex cases.

Frontline colleagues have access to guidance that supports them to refer individuals to external agencies with statutory responsibilities to protect people from harm, abuse or neglect when they identify safeguarding concerns.

The Department has committed to embedding Level 1 safeguarding training across the organisation. This provides employees with the knowledge and skills to recognise potential safeguarding concerns and to know what action to take and who to report to if they have concerns. We are offering this training to all DWP staff.

In addition, we have embedded Level 3 adult and child mandatory safeguarding for all clinicians across the organisation.

Our focus remains on making our training accessible. Design standards and design tools for DWP technical learning support a comprehensive range of learner needs, and DWP Service Delivery role based technical learning is fully compliant with the requirements of the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. Alternative formats are provided, and arrangements are made to support learners’ reasonable adjustments.

We will continue to enable colleagues to complete Safeguarding training as part of their professional development, and we will track progress.