Welcome to the final day of National Safeguarding Adults Week.  Today's theme is co-production.  Co-production is a collaborative approach. It means that involving those who receive support, along with their family, friends and carers, in the planning and delivering of support.  The focus is to ensure that we hear the voices of those who are at the centre of the support. It’s about respecting their views, wishes and beliefs in order to make their support the best it can be.

Good safeguarding involves putting preventative measures in place to make harm, abuse and neglect less likely, while promoting the wellbeing of any individual who may be at risk.

Respecting a person’s rights in their service delivery can contribute to their wellbeing, resilience, and general happiness. In turn, this can put protective factors in a person’s life. This may make them less likely to be the victims of abuse or harm.  The Care Act’s (2014) principle of Making Safeguarding Personal  is about keeping a person involved in everything related to them, including in a safeguarding situation, and seeing them as the experts in their own life. Co-production echoes this principle along with the disability rights slogan ‘Nothing about me, without me’. It’s about working with, not doing to.

Social Care Institute Excellene (SCIE) have published co-production training and resources aimed at health and social care managers commissioners, frontline practitioners, people who use services and carers. 

The resources aim to improve participation and co-production with people who use services and carers to develop and deliver better social care and health provision.

The aim of today's session is to remind professionals that not everyone speaks the same language, and for anyone involved with services it can feel complex and overwhelming, and sometimes even embarrassing.  Often language and the terms used can have stigma attached.  

This session will explore the importance of the language we use in our everyday lives and the impact both good and bad, it can have on the people we are trying to support.

This session will take place today Friday 24th November 2023 starting at 12 noon aiming to finish by 1pm.  Click here to join the session

Throughout this week, we have delivered lunch and learn sessions to assist safeguarding practitioners and professionals across Cumbria in their important role, protecting adults who are at risk of abuse or neglect.

The sessions, have aligned with National Safeguarding Adults Week themes covering a range of safeguarding areas and topics.

Below you will find a recap on the information shared and themes covered during the week with links to further information and the daily briefing.  

On Monday, we focussed on encouraging you to enhance your knowledge about safeguarding and how this impacts your role.

Safeguarding refers to measures designed to protect the health, wellbeing and human rights of individuals. These measures allow children, young people and adults at risk to live free from abuse, harm and neglect.

How can you make a difference?

• Learn about the different types of harm and abuse
• Discover how to spot the signs
• Record any concerns you have
• Report your concerns to your Local Authorities Safeguarding Board

You can complete the Ann Craft Trust  Safeguarding Adults Checklist to develop your current understanding of safeguarding, and receive free bespoke resources to enhance your practice.  To find out more about what safeguarding adults is, the types of abuse and examples watch this short video,  What is my role in safeguarding?

For more information on this theme and to access the briefing published please click here 

On Tuesday, we focussed our attention on how we can create a safer organisational culture.

This is vital in promoting the wellbeing of staff, volunteers and the people they support.  It is important that organisations create environments where everyone is confident their concerns are welcomed, listened to and addressed appropriately.

We encouraged people to reflect on the culture in their own organisations. What works well in terms of promoting the wellbeing of people within the organisation, and what could be improved? 

We highlighted an excellent initiative, created an implemented by the North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Trust (NCIC) across their organisation, titled ‘How Safe Do You Feel?’  NCIC have integrated this into routine enquiries in efforts to identify people who be being or at risk of abuse, which is often unseen, unheard or untold.

For more information and to access the daily briefing please click here

Wednesday’s theme focussed on the impact trauma may have on people and professionals in a caring role.

Anyone who supports others or engages empathetically with people that may have experienced trauma as part of their day-to-day role can experience vicarious trauma as a result.

Information was provided to practitioners on the steps they can take to ensure that their own wellbeing is taken into account and is appropriately balanced alongside the important safeguarding role they conduct.

On Thursday, we focussed on how to take a Trauma Informed Approached with safeguarding adults.

Trauma-informed practice aims to increase practitioners’ awareness of how trauma can negatively impact on individuals and communities, and their ability to feel safe or develop trusting relationships with health and care services and their staff.

Trauma-informed practice acknowledges the need to see beyond an individual’s presenting behaviours and to ask, ‘What does this person need?’ rather than ‘What is wrong with this person?’.

You can access guidance published by Gov. UK which provides a working definition of Trauma Informed Practice and signposts to other resources.

For more information and to access the published briefing click here