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The Forward Trust is proud to stand by our equality (equity), diversity and inclusion (EDI) values in all aspects of our service delivery and communications.  As with physical spaces, our online communities have important guidelines to ensure our community feels safe to listen, learn and engage with our content. 

The Forward Trust on social media 

Our official social media profiles for The Forward Trust are:

The social media accounts for The Forward-led 'Taking Action on Addiction' campaign are:

We also oversee a number of regional and dedicated serviced-led social media accounts for The Brink, Clouds House and Southend STARS. These guidelines apply to all of these platforms.

Our Social Media guidelines  

When engaging and commenting across Forward’s social media platforms, please:

  • Respect others and their differences.

  • Debate any differences of opinion or experience with kindness and compassion.

  • Adhere to confidentiality (especially service users or loved ones).

  • Do not share or attempt to use our community spaces for your own financial gain or unrelated promotions or campaigns.

Moderation and escalation – clarity over appropriate posts and content

In alignment with our EDI Strategy 2024-2027, we will ensure any posts or/and comments that do not adhere to the values of The Forward Trust will be removed and escalated as appropriate.

As such, discriminatory language or offensive words/terms involving another person or a person's protected characteristics (as per the UK government's Equality Act 2010) will be removed.

Protected characteristics are:

  1. Age.

  2. Disability.

  3. Gender reassignment.

  4. Marriage and civil partnership.

  5. Race.

  6. Sex.

  7. Religion or belief.

  8. Sexual orientation.

  9. Pregnancy and maternity.

Posts that will be reviewed by our moderator team include, but are not limited to:

  • Hateful language or posts that incite violence or aggression.

  • Threatening language – whether direct or indirect to specific individuals or groups.

  • False information – especially content that could harm others, that contravenes our own service delivery or other credible/reputable guidelines (e.g. NHS).

  • Belittling or provocative behaviour (put-downs, unjust sarcasm, or derogatory comments).

  • Libelous or defamatory posts.

Moderation process – remove, block, and escalate 

In the event of encountering any social media comments or posts that contravene our Social Media Guidelines, our moderators may:

  • Remove and/or delete posts as necessary.

  • Block any users through in-platform tools.

  • Take screenshots as evidence.

  • Report any users within each respective social media platform.

  • Contact the Police or other law enforcement agencies where there is a concern of risk and safety in not doing so.

Privacy 

You can find out more about how we use personal data in our Privacy Notice.

Serious welfare concerns  

If you are worried about the safety of someone else, you can address these using the below advice.

The Forward Trust is not a crisis service. 

Suicidal risk and serious mental health worries 

To ensure the most effective route to support, we advise that you contact:

Clients and service users

You can email info@forwardtrust.org.uk or, if you know which service you are trying to contact, you can reach them confidentially using the contact details for our regional hubs and services.

Staff

If you have concern over a member of staff, please report this confidentially to us by emailing:

Safeguarding@forwardtrust.org.uk or call 020 3981 5525 (ask for Safeguarding / Governance department) 

Process for raising complaints and compliments 

If you have positive feedback, concerns or other matters to query about our work please do so through the formal processes, as listed in our FAQs.