Spotlight on Safeguarding Adults Week 2024: Insights from a Subject Matter Expert

Safeguarding Adults Week is a time for organisations to come together to raise awareness of important safeguarding issues. We believe that working in partnerships allows us to share our knowledge of safeguarding, learn from others and ultimately create safer cultures. This Safeguarding Adults Week, we’re shining a light on the critical role of safeguarding and how we can collectively build safer cultures for adults at risk. To guide this conversation, we spoke with our safeguarding expert, Mary-Ann Round, who shared invaluable insights into spotting the signs of abuse, embedding safer practices, and fostering a culture of continuous learning.

Here’s what Mary-Ann had to say:

Spotting the Signs of Abuse

How can practitioners spot the signs of abuse and what best practice can you share?

Anyone can be at risk of abuse or neglect and the scale of abuse in the UK is unknown. Some of the reasons for this are that the person being abused is often abused by someone they know, for example, this could be a family member, a paid carer or a neighbour. This can lead to the abused person feeling unable to tell anyone perhaps because of their physical or mental health needs or they are scared and think they will not be believed if they do report the abuse.

Therefore, practitioners undertaking training and understanding the signs of the 10 different types of adult abuse is essential. Having open and honest conversations about what abuse and neglect may look like and how it may make people feel underpins good practice and training and understanding supports staff to do this.

Establishing Safer Cultures

How do we establish safer cultures when safeguarding adults at risk?

Safer cultures start with embedding the six principles of safeguarding from the Care Act 2011 into everyday practice:

1. Empowerment – Supporting individuals to make informed decisions.
2. Prevention – Acting before harm occurs.
3. Proportionality – Responding appropriately to risks.
4. Protection – Supporting those in greatest need.
5. Partnership – Collaborating to ensure safety.
6. Accountability – Owning responsibility and learning from experiences.

Asking practitioners and those we care for to identify what they understand by these principles can help us to really understand and create conversations that lead to making Safeguarding personal and therefore a safer culture. Think about creating a booklet or poster of the joint explanations

Choosing High-Quality Safeguarding Training

What are the key things to look out for when choosing safeguarding training?

The training must be of good quality and accessible.

It is recognised that the adult social care sector has one of the highest turnover of staff. In 2023, Skills for Care produced a report identifying that there were 152,000 vacant posts a day within social care and that 390,000 people left their roles last year. The report goes on to state that training is one of the crucial elements to help retain staff stating ‘Care workers who received regular training were less likely to leave their roles than those who didn’t’

Having access to high quality online training enables practitioners to complete training at any time, enabling new staff or staff that work at different times to start their learning journey when it is needed. Virtual College has a wide range of high-quality eLearning that support staff to achieve qualifications; for example; Safeguarding Adults Level 3, Equality and Diversity in Social Care and Mental Health and Wellbeing.

All training can then be supported through staff meetings and supervision to embed the good practice identified within the training into everyday practice.

Continuous Learning: A Safeguarding Imperative

How can organisations and individuals continue to extend their learning within safeguarding?

Organisations and individuals can continue to extend learning in many ways. For example, organisations should identify a clear pathway of training available to staff, and discuss training needs. Remember: safeguarding is about putting the adults that we care for at the centre of what we do to promote their wellbeing. Therefore safeguarding training should include all aspects of care; for example: Assisting and Moving People and Objects, Dementia Awareness or Domestic Abuse.

Remember: a well-trained workforce will help to promote a zero tolerance of abuse.

Success Stories in Safeguarding

What are some successes that you have seen with organisations’ best practice in safeguarding adults?

Organisations’ safeguarding arrangements should always promote the wellbeing of each adult that we care for. Being safe is only one of many things that adults want for themselves, and this can be challenging at times, balancing safety and freedom of choice in a way which protects and fulfils human rights.

I have seen best practice when practitioners work alongside the adults they are caring for to establish what being safe means to them and have open and honest discussions as to how that can be best achieved. This means tailoring the care to meet an individual's needs and prioritising safeguarding and independence.

This can be challenging, I have seen exceptionally good practice where practitioners, relatives and friends have all worked together to ensure an adult with high care needs was safeguarded and still independent. This did at times lead to the adult making choices that others considered to be a risk. This was achieved, because the practitioners had undertaken training, they were supported by their management team and were therefore confident to work in an open and honest way, explaining and recording the plan so that everyone was involved.

Advice for Organisations Investing in Training

What is your advice to an organisation looking to train their staff in safeguarding adults?

Practitioners who received regular training are less likely to leave their roles than those who didn’t. Therefore:

• Keep safeguarding and training on all agendas
• Encourage an exciting training environment with a clear progression route.
• Celebrate training achievements.
• Encourage discussions, have posters and leaflets available for all, ensuring that safeguarding is not a taboo subject.

As our expert also reviews our Safeguarding Adults eLearning and adds:

"The Adult Safeguarding eLearning is up to date, interactive, and enables learners to access high-quality training at any time. The case studies keep the training alive and real, while mini-assessments allow learners to check their understanding throughout."

Promoting Well-Being, Protecting Rights

At its core, safeguarding is about promoting the well-being of every adult while respecting their rights, independence, and choices. This Safeguarding Adults Week, let’s commit to building safer cultures and investing in the tools, training, and conversations needed to protect the most vulnerable members of our society. To see all of our Safeguarding courses, click here.

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