Think about a time when life became difficult. Who noticed? Who did you turn to? Who helped you work out what to do?
For many of us, the answer won’t be an organisation or a service. It will be another person. A family member, friend, neighbour or someone in our community. Someone we know and trust. Yet when we talk about safeguarding adults, the conversation can quickly become one about systems, procedures and professional responsibilities. These are essential, but they are only part of the picture.
People can also be safer when they are heard, connected and surrounded by people they trust. That feels particularly important this Safeguarding Adults Week. This year’s theme, Every Voice. Every Choice, focuses on putting people at the centre of safeguarding, with an emphasis on co-production, empowerment and prevention. For Daybreak and Community Catalysts, these ideas resonate strongly. Our organisations do different things, but we share a belief in starting with people: their strengths, relationships, communities and what matters to them.
What does feeling safe mean to you?
When we are worried about someone, there can be an understandable instinct to focus on risk and what needs to be done to protect them. But good safeguarding starts with listening.
What does the person want?
What are they worried about?
What makes them feel safe?
What do they want to change, and what is important to them about the life they already have?
Keeping someone safe doesn't necessarily mean removing every possible risk. Choice, independence, relationships and belonging matter too. Safeguarding Adults Week specifically encourages us to recognise people's strengths and capabilities and support informed decisions about risk. So perhaps, alongside asking “How can we keep this person safe?”, we should ask: “What does a good and safe life look like to you?”
There is another deceptively simple question: “Who matters to you?”
People don't live their lives within the boundaries of services. They live within families, friendships, neighbourhoods and communities. At Daybreak, this idea is central to Family Group Decision Making. Bringing together the people who matter to someone can reveal strengths, ideas and possibilities that may not be visible to professionals alone. At Community Catalysts, there is a similar belief in the power of local people and communities, and in creating opportunities for people to have greater choice and build lives that work for them.
Neither of us would suggest that families and communities can or should replace professional safeguarding. Sometimes relationships themselves are the source of risk. But we shouldn't overlook the people and connections around an individual either. Rather than asking only “What service does this person need?”, we can also ask: “Who and what is already here, and how can we build on it?”
Connection can be part of prevention
Safeguarding is often associated with responding when something has gone wrong. But safeguarding is also about prevention.
Being known matters.
Having someone to talk to matters.
Having choices matters.
Being part of a community matters.
Having people who notice when something changes matters.
And knowing that it is okay to ask for help matters.
None of these things removes risk. But connection can mean that people are less alone when difficulties arise. Professional involvement will sometimes be essential. When it is, perhaps we should ask whether our intervention can leave someone with more support, stronger connections and greater confidence, rather than simply resolving the immediate concern. That means looking at what is strong as well as what is wrong and recognising that the person at the centre has knowledge, strengths and relationships of their own.
Three questions
This Safeguarding Adults Week, perhaps we can broaden our idea of what helps to keep people safe. We need skilled professionals, strong organisations and effective safeguarding systems. But we also need relationships and communities where people are known, noticed, listened to and valued. And perhaps that starts with three questions we can all ask more often:
What matters to you?
Who matters to you?
What would help you feel safer while continuing to live the life you want?
Because good safeguarding isn't simply about protecting people from harm. It's about enabling people to have a voice, make choices and stay connected to the people and communities that matter to them.
Joint article by: Debbie Burns, CEO Daybreak & Nick Sinclair, Programme Director (Local Area Coordination and Innovators Learn).
Interested in this topic?
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Get in touch with Debbie Burns, from Daybreak, or Nick Sinclair from Community Catalysts to discuss this topic further