Are you a professional whose role involves safeguarding?

Healthwatch is an independent organisation, and their role is to ensure that all voices are heard by gathering people’s experiences of health and social care services. Healthwatch will use this information to influence positive change within the health and social care system.

Healthwatch Cumberland want to know your thoughts about safeguarding in Cumbria and whether it is truly person-centered and informed.

Please take a moment to fill in their survey here.

Winter can be a difficult time - existing pressures can be heightened when we have to deal with keeping warm, the costs of Christmas and possible health challenges. Cumberland Council and Westmorland & Furness have put together some ways you can find support.  

Listed are organisation's standard opening hours. These could change over Christmas and new year, so please get in touch directly to check festive opening hours before you visit a venue.

Active Cumbria invite you to a face-to-face event that will provide a learning and development space for partners and providers across Cumbria who share the mission to improve the health and quality of life of Older Adults.

This is an opportunity for you to reflect on the importance of behaviour change theory and develop skills for relational rather than transactional communications with Older Adults around physical activity and movement. 

Please note that spaces are limited at this event and priority will be afforded to practitioners based in Cumbria.

Wednesday 26th February 2025, Castle Green Hotel, Kendal, Cumbria, 9am - 4pm.

To book your free place, please click here. 

Hourglass (Safer Ageing), are proud to bring you a new short film, ‘Arthurs Story’. Released as part of #SaferAgeingWeek2024, this short film is inspired by a real case reported to them through their helpline. The film describes Arthurs experience of financial abuse. Click here to watch the short film.

Hourglass (Safer Ageing), are proud to have partnered with Burnetts Solicitors as part of their #GiveanHour scheme, providing their helpline to callers in Cumbria and the North East with free, expert legal advice. 

Burnett's are proud to have recently joined forces with national charity Hourglass to support its work to end the economic harm, abuse and exploitation of older people in Cumbria, the North East and across the UK.

The launch of their new partnership coincides with Hourglass’s 2025 Safer Ageing Week, themed ‘Take Note’ which is shedding light on the financial abuse of older people — a hidden epidemic that has led to devastating financial losses. With a rapidly ageing population, the economic abuse of older people is set to worsen. Hourglass is urging communities and professionals to ‘Take Note’ and join the movement against this deeply personal and pervasive form of harm.

To find out more about Hourglass and its free helpline, please click here or for more information on how Burnett's can help in cases of economic abuse, please click here. 

This training has been adopted as a practice standard across the partnership in Cumbria. In order to keep this consistent standard, which was highlighted as an example of good practice in the recent SafeLives System Review,  Strategic Leads on Domestic Abuse Mary-Claire Telford and Alison Goodfellow are approaching members of their partnership to increase their training pool.

Prospective Trainers should express an interest by email to Mary-Claire Telford and Alison Goodfellow confirming that they have the support of their line manager who should be copied in. Training will be delivered 27^th January 2025 with assessment on 3^rd February, these are face to face sessions in Carlisle. Each prospective trainer will be asked to deliver a section of the training.

Cumbria Addictions Advice & Solutions (CADAS) are offering a free open training session all about drug, alcohol and gambling related harms.

The interactive and inclusive course is aimed at people who will work or volunteer with people who may be at risk of experiencing substance or gambling related harms.  

Edge Training are hosting a new free course for families and informal carers.  The course will be run by trainer Sara-Jayne Williams and the course will cover:

• What is the Care Act 2014?
• General duties, including advocacy and accessible information & advice
• The care and support journey (assessment, care and support planning and review)
• Meeting eligible need
• Financial assessments - paying for care
• Adults at risk - safeguarding

Wednesday 29th January 2025, 10:30am - 1:30pm, via Zoom.

The event is aimed at families and carers, click here to book your free place now.

At the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group (VODG), have been working in partnership with Partners in Care and Health and the Department of Health and Social Care to develop guidance for decision-makers, when a person is refusing hospital investigation and treatment, and is assessed by professionals as unable to make this decision, even with support.

VODG are co-producing this guidance with Inclusion North’s Stop People Dying Too Young Group and want to set up working groups across health and social care to help develop it, to include the following:

• People who draw on care and their families.
• Ambulance staff.
• Care home, supported living staff and advocacy organisations.
• Legal practitioners.
• Local authority and health authority practitioners involved in care coordination, e.g. Social Workers, Occupational Therapists and Continuing Health Care Assessors.
• GPs/Primary care health teams.

If you fall into any of these categories, and would be interested in attending short online workshops please contact claire.webster@scie.org.uk

Ever wondered what a day in the life of a senior practitioner would be like working with teams to tackle a growing number of referrals while helping students reverse unsafe hospital discharges?

Click here to read Ruth Hare's "a day in the life of a hoarding practitioner".  

You can read CSAB's Hoarding Protocol & Toolkit here. There is also a Clutter Image Rating Tool for use when risk assessing hoarding behaviours.