By Jon Cox, Head of Tenancy Sustainment, SNG and Founder and Chair of the HQN Safeguarding and Housing best practice group

I founded the group in 2019 under the auspices of HQN having seen the need for shared learning and mutual support in this important arena. Starting with six member organisations, we have now grown in a managed way to our current capped membership of 20 registered housing providers. The group meets quarterly to discuss key issues and share best practice – it also has an emerging focus on influencing the wider safeguarding agenda through press pieces and speaking slots at conferences. With pieces in Resolve, CIH Unlocked and Housing Digital Magazines in 2023 plus speaking slots at national conferences, the mission is off to a flying start.

The group is now made up of representatives from SNG (merger of Sovereign and Network Homes), Sanctuary, Citizen, Stonewater, Platform, Connexus, Notting Hill Genesis, Westward, Cornwall Housing, Plymouth Community Homes, Bromford, Gentoo, Cornerstone, Housing Plus, Vivid, Aspire, Winchester Council, Midland Heart, Two Rivers and Nehemiah. This is a great mix in terms of size and geographic reach.

Some agenda items are fixed, such as presentations on each organisations’ approach to the governance, reporting and recording of safeguarding alerts, relevant learning from serious incidents (Safeguarding Adults Reviews, Safeguarding Childrens Practice Reviews, Domestic Homicide reviews), and annual benchmarking figures are also generated and analysed. There’s then a main agenda topic per meeting and also a guest speaker.

At the next meeting in January, we’re delighted to welcome none other than Professor Michael Preston-Shoot – Emeritus Professor of Social Work at the University of Bedfordshire, Independent chair of several Safeguarding Adults Boards (SABs) and Joint Coordinator of the National SAB Chairs’ Network. Professor Preston-Shoot will be presenting on adult safeguarding, housing and homelessness: towards a model of best practice. Professor Preston-Shoot is a leading light in the safeguarding world, and we look forward to his research and insights.

Safeguarding adults and children at risk has never been so important as it is now, as the cost-of-living crisis sees communities under more pressure

However, despite being called out as an important partner in the Care Act 2014, housing providers are often late, or completely uninvited by statutory agencies, to the safeguarding table. This is unfortunate, as quality and appropriate housing is always part of keeping people safe – moreover, we have resources and ideas to help resolve issues as part of a multiagency plan.

When we ourselves identify and report a safeguarding concern to the local authority, the majority of group members report very rarely getting appropriate feedback, if they get any at all. The group would like to see this change – it’s important we have timely feedback to assure ourselves risks have been appropriately assessed and mitigated. We have an agenda item on professional challenge and escalation at the next meeting which speaks to this point.

In articles in Housing Digital and CIH unlocked we call for the new government ASB action plan to have more of an eye to safeguarding. This focusses on adults at risk sometimes being mistaken for perpetrators when in actual fact they may be being abused or cuckooed. I also call for the proposed new national single point hub for ASB reports to be extended to allow for single point safeguarding referrals – this would go a long way to increasing ease of reporting and being able to monitor national trends. Articles can be read in full here and here.

You can expect to hear more from the group in the new year – so watch this space.