Monday 20 November 2023
What’s my role in safeguarding adults?
This week is Safeguarding Adults Week. During this week, we'll be sharing daily bulletins with you, related to the Ann Craft Trust themes.
The theme for today is 'what's my role in safeguarding adults?', specifically in relation to how you, and your organisation, can protect yourself and others from abuse and neglect. For many of us, safeguarding the adults that we work with is at the forefront of our minds, but this week we'll also be considering how we can look after our own wellbeing, and keep ourselves safe while we're working to safeguard others.
For today's theme we're thinking about how we can raise awareness of adult safeguarding, including how it applies to everyone, in all sectors.
As staff working across the partnership, we're often very aware of the signs of abuse and what to do if we spot them, but are all staff in your organisations and networks aware? Delivery drivers, tradespeople, community volunteers, and friends and family, could be the first people to spot the early warning signs of abuse or neglect. If we can raise awareness of adult safeguarding, we can support everybody to help keep adults with care and support needs safe from abuse and neglect.
We have a number of resources available to support understanding of adult safeguarding, and to raise awareness.
What is safeguarding?
Our 'Introduction to safeguarding' and 'Types of abuse' webpages provide an introduction to the scope of adult safeguarding, including what care and support needs are, and the types of abuse included within the Care Act 2014.
On these pages, you will also find the following learning resources:
Making Safeguarding Personal
For an overview of the Making Safeguarding Personal (MSP) approach, including what MSP is, and why it's so important for adults at the centre of a safeguarding process, visit our 'Making Safeguarding Personal' webpage. On this page, you will find the following learning resources:
Leaflets and posters
To raise awareness of adult safeguarding, and what an adult safeguarding process might entail, we have a number of pan-Sussex resources available on our 'Resources' webpage. These can be shared digitally, or printed for display in your offices, hubs, or public buildings, and include:
- Adult safeguarding posters
- A poster about the roles and responsibilities of a Safeguarding Adults Board
- Adult safeguarding leaflets
Animations
If you work with, or know, somebody with care and support needs, and you're concerned about their friendships, we have an animation to explain what a good friendship looks like, when friendships might be harmful, and how you can access support if your friendships are making you sad. View the 'Tricky Friends' animation on our 'Animations' webpage.
And finally, our 'Hidden Harms' animation is intended to be a tool for professionals and family members to support a conversation with older adults, and to encourage them to access support, if they are experiencing abuse. This, too, can be viewed on our 'Animations' webpage.
Multi-Agency Risk Management subgroup
The Multi-Agency Risk Management (MARM) subgroup considers cases of adults who remain at high risk of harm despite previous intervention efforts. The purpose of the subgroup is to ensure that multi-agency communication and information-sharing takes place on a regular basis and to support professionals and their managers in managing the most challenging and concerning cases.
If you are working with an adult with care and support needs, and feel that you could do with some advice and guidance to manage risk, click the button below to take you to more information. You will also be able to read some thoughts from our MARM subgroup members, about their role in adult safeguarding, and the impact of the MARM on their work.
We hope that the resources mentioned above provide a good starting point for learning about adult safeguarding. However, we also have a new e-learning module in development to support you in recognising the early warning signs of abuse and neglect. Once this e-learning module is released, we will be sure to promote it on our website and through our bi-monthly Pass It On...newsletter. Watch this space!
For more information on today's theme, or any of the themes from this week, visit the Ann Craft Trust website.
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