Safeguarding Policy

MICA Safeguarding Policy

Policy Aims

This policy establishes safeguarding our staff, all stakeholders and beneficiaries to:

– Promote the welfare and safety of all children, young persons and adults.

– Protect them from harm.

– Effectively manage cases when there are incidents of harm.

Commitment

MICA is committed to acting ethically and with integrity to safeguard colleagues and the people we work with, including affected and vulnerable people. We do not tolerate any form of abuse or exploitation.

We have put in place and enforce measures and controls that demonstrate our commitment to see that abuse and exploitation are not taking place in our projects and within our business. We are committed to complying with legal requirements in the countries we work in and undertake to refer concerns about potentially criminal behaviour to the relevant authorities and to our clients.

Responsibilities

– Ultimate responsibility for implementing the policy rests with the Directors of the Company.

– The Directors are responsible for incorporating safeguarding standards in projects.

– The principles of good standards of behaviour and respect are embedded in the MICA's values of Responsibility, Commitment, Integrity, and Excellence and communicated via our employee handbook, office manual and QMS systems.

– Project Architects are responsible for their teams meeting our safeguarding standards day-to-day and for monitoring compliance.

Approach

We seek to safeguard those we work with through our recruitment, selection and vetting processes, including background checks, disclosure statements and references for new colleagues, business partners and our supply chain.

Staff who are working on projects which involve young persons have undertaken DBS checks where necessary, to ensure our clients feel our team are suitable for them to work with children.

Employees, contractors, suppliers and affected persons are encouraged to raise concerns without fear of reprisal, either through directors, employee representatives and our office manager.

We investigate all concerns raised related to safeguarding with independent teams that are committed to maintaining confidentiality of reports. We seek to take swift action to support and protect vulnerable people where concerns arise regarding possible abuse or exploitation.

We seek, through implementation of this policy, to continue to raise awareness, to prevent and learn from incidents, and to collaborate with clients and partners to ensure ethical and safe working environments.

This policy has been reviewed and endorsed by the directors of MICA Architects and will continue to be reviewed internally on an annual basis and approved by our external UKAS assessor as part of our ISO9001 QMS.

Approved Date 01.09.2025

Lilian Swanson, Associate Director and Internal Auditor

Gavin Miller, Director