Members only

The sector has made considerable progress in mainstreaming safeguarding over the last decade. It is now no longer regarded as purely an issue for care and support staff. Furthermore, providers are now frequently ensuring that their contractors and sub-contractors are clear about their safeguarding responsibilities. But there is still plenty to do and many new challenges.

Covid-19 and lock downs resulted in staff not getting out as much relying more on calls and email. And now that they are – they are often finding much higher levels of vulnerability and need.

The stresses associated with the cost-of-living crisis and backlogs in repairs coupled with staff shortages means that front line staff are having to deal with increasingly challenging situations, often in a lone working situation and with little support from other agencies.

And the list of things they need to watch out for – and the implications of not spotting them – is growing. From mould and disrepair, hoarding through to mental health issues, child neglect, domestic abuse and modern slavery.

This workshop takes a practical look at what this means for frontline staff in performing their day to day tasks:

• Understand the current state of play and potential legal and regulatory changes to safeguarding
• Explore the moral and ethical dilemmas facing staff in safeguarding cases and how to mitigate them
• Find out about HQN’s refreshed safeguarding toolkit and how you can use it
• Hear about how other practitioners are dealing proactively with safeguarding issues
• Consider the options available to you.

10:30 Welcome, introductions and scene setting

• • Tim Brown, Associate, HQN

10:35 Safeguard and housing: ‘It starts with us’

• • Tim Brown, Associate, HQN

11:05 Poplar Harca’s approach to safeguarding

• • Jeanie Harrison, Housing Manager, Poplar HARCA

  • Danielle Bishop, Head of Housing Operations, Poplar HARCA

11:35 Supporting staff in safeguarding

• • Rachel Wheeler , OD Business Partner, Torus

    • Strategy, Policy & Procedure
    • Safeguarding and DAHA
    • Embedding safeguarding throughout the employee lifecycle.

12:05 Break

12:20 Case study workshop

• • Lydia Dlaboha, Deputy Chief Executive, HQN

  • Tim Brown, Associate, HQN

13.00  HQN housing and safeguarding checklist

• • Tim Brown, Associate, HQN

13:20 Closing remarks

• • Tim Brown, Associate, HQN

13.30 Close

Tim Brown, Associate, HQN

Tim has extensive knowledge of social housing allocations. He played a major role in the 1990s in the development of what is now referred to as choice-based lettings. Subsequently he has been involved in the review and evaluation of over 30 allocations schemes in the UK. He has also contributed to government research as well as co-producing good practice guides for the Chartered Institute of Housing and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. A number of governments in Western Europe have commissioned Tim to review allocations eg France, the Republic of Ireland and Sweden.  He currently produces HQN’s allocations toolkit which is updated monthly.

Lydia Dlaboha, Deputy Chief Executive, HQN

Lydia joined HQN in 2007 and is currently the Deputy CEO. Her background is in housing management – both general needs and supported. She has worked extensively as a consultant on a wide variety of performance improvement projects. In her current role, Lydia has responsibility for overseeing all of HQN’s work and for quality assurance in particular. She spends the majority of her time talking to HQN members to make sure that our service meets their needs, and on consultancy-related work.

Danielle Bishop, Head of Housing Operations, Poplar HARCA

Danielle Bishop is the Safeguarding Manager at Poplar HARCA and has worked there for five years. Danielle has over 10 years’ experience working in the Safeguarding field with specialism in Domestic Abuse and safeguarding vulnerable adults. At Poplar HARCA her team focuses on supporting all residents who have additional support needs including Hoarding, Domestic Abuse and Mental Health with the support of local partners in the community.

Danielle and her team promote cross team working and ensure that a local approach to Safeguarding is adopted to provide the most holistic service to Poplar HARCA’s residents. Safeguarding cannot be managed in isolation and within the Safeguarding team at Poplar HARCA, partnership is paramount to ensure that residents are at the centre of support.

Jeanie Harrison, Housing Manager, Poplar HARCA

Jeanie has worked at Poplar HARCA for over 20 years and have a vast amount of experience working within the local community in one of the most deprived areas in East London. Her experiences includes childcare and supporting families, Domestic abuse and high level safeguarding along with other roles too. Alongside this her experience also includes being involved in partnership working as it has been crucial in ensuring that the best services, activities and opportunities are provided for the residents in the local area.

In Jeanie’s current role as housing manager, she is able to use her  safeguarding knowledge to her advantage and support many families that are in need. Poplar HARCA are unable to meet the extensive needs of some of our residents alone, which is why external partners are needed to provide specialism in various skilled areas. She feels that she has a great relationship with many local agencies and am always trying to widen her reach.

There is also the need to collaborate with people within other teams at Poplar HARCA, with a common end goal of helping the residents live a better life. She feels that as a person who is skilled in listening and supporting others, she is in a great position to share my experiences and explain the highs and lows of working at Poplar HARCA.

Rachel Wheeler , OD Business Partner, Torus 

Rachel is an experienced HR & OD Business Partner, having worked across private and third sector organisations for over 15 years. For the last 6 years Rachel has partnered exclusively with Torus’ frontline Housing Services teams with determination and drive for implementing large scale change programmes and organisational design projects that support a target operating model and culture to deliver strategic priorities.

Rachel is a trusted partner to leaders and provides specialist guidance on complex employee relations issues, employment law and change management. A subject matter expert in relation to policy, procedure and best practice, Rachel represents Torus’ in transforming the approach to safeguarding both from a customer and staff perspective.

If you are unable to attend an event or public training course, please let us know in writing (email is fine) at least 48 hours before. Please email [email protected]

Otherwise, a cancellation fee of £60 plus VAT will be chargeable.

If you are using a package place to attend and do not inform us within the agreed time frame, then a place will be taken to cover your non-attendance.

Cancellations must be made in writing, and will be acknowledged by HQN Limited.