n. measures put in place to protect the health, wellbeing, and human rights of children and vulnerable adults, thereby securing them from harm, abuse, and neglect. In Britain this includes legislation, official guidance, and standards laid down by institutions and professional bodies. With its emphasis on pre-empting harm and actively promoting welfare, safeguarding takes a more holistic approach than child protection, which focuses on protecting individual children identified as suffering or likely to suffer significant harm (see child protection register). Adults in need of safeguarding may have mental-health problems, physical disability, or learning difficulties or may be elderly and frail.
An executive agency of the Department of Health with the prime function of safeguarding the public health. It ensures that branded and non-branded MEDICINES on the UK market meet appropriate standards of safety, quality and e?cacy. The agency applies the strict standards set by the UK Medicines Act (1968) and relevant European Community legislation.... medicines control agency
a group usually including lay people, medical and health-care professionals, and other experts set up to review health-care practice. There are two types of ethics committee. A research ethics committee reviews research that involves the use of human subjects. It is responsible for safeguarding the rights and welfare of patients by ensuring that they are adequately informed of the procedures involved in a research project (including the use of dummy or placebo treatments as controls), that the tests and/or therapies are relatively safe, and that no-one is pressurized into participating in research. There are legal as well as professional requirements to seek ethics committee approval, e.g. when carrying out clinical trials of drugs. The National Research Ethics Service (see Health Research Authority) coordinates the ethical review and governance of research referring submissions to research ethics committees (RECs) throughout the UK. The second type of ethics committee is a clinical ethics committee, which provides a resource to health-care professionals about ethical issues in clinical practice. There is neither an obligation for trusts to have a clinical ethics committee nor for clinicians to refer cases to such committees where they exist, although clinical ethics committees are an increasing presence in the NHS.... ethics committee
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