This week is Safeguarding Adults Week 2022. Jon Cox, Chair of the Safeguarding and Housing Best Practice Group shares his thoughts on why safeguarding is becoming more important than ever. 

Safeguarding is a complicated issue and one which is rightly in the spotlight. At its heart is the urge to keep people safe and protect them from harm.

If you ask any professional in the industry with knowledge of safeguarding, they’ll tell you one thing.  As pressures on household finances increase we are likely to see a commensurate rise in safeguarding issues for example Domestic Abuse, Financial Abuse, Neglect and Self-Neglect.

So, with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, it’s imperative that we all step up our efforts to ensure that people who need our support, do not lose out.

We’re a responsible landlord and we know that our job is to speak up and do all we can to support our most vulnerable customers. But our work doesn’t stop there. We work in partnership with other housing associations and third parties so that we can all benefit and understand which approaches and techniques are the most effective.

This week it’s National Safeguarding Adults Week – with a focus on ‘responding to safeguarding challenges’. It’s a great time to highlight key safeguarding issues and raise awareness about what safeguarding is, and how we can help and support our most vulnerable customers.

Types of abuse

The Care Act 2014 highlights the following as particular areas of concern for vulnerable adults:

  • Physical abuse
  • Domestic violence or abuse
  • Sexual abuse
  • Psychological or emotional abuse
  • Financial or material abuse
  • Modern slavery (we are also concerned with other forms of exploitation including cuckooing and radicalisation)
  • Discriminatory abuse
  • Organisational or institutional abuse
  • Neglect or acts of omission
  • Self-neglect

As a housing association with over 61,000 properties, our front-line teams are trained to report any concerns they may have about a resident’s welfare. These concerns are logged and passed to a local authority trained professional to investigate and make their own assessment.

To make sure that our approach is progressive, two years ago we established an industry best practice group to support other housing associations dealing with those at risk of abuse and neglect. The group started with seven members and now has 17

Now in its third year, the group is gearing up to share information which will help the sector respond more effectively to safeguarding concerns.

Working collaboratively, the group will share benchmarking data. Members will also study the lessons learnt from different types of safeguarding reviews and what is needed to support a culture of healthy challenge internally, and between partner organisations.

These reviews are set to highlight good practice within the sector. But they’ll also help to drive greater consistency in approach and underline why housing providers must have a seat at the safeguarding table.

As housing providers, we’re also using the network to think about how we can increase reporting from tradespersons. As our ‘eyes and ears’ on the ground this is so important. We rely heavily on our tradespeople to say when something doesn’t feel right.  And with the cost-of-living crisis putting greater pressure on households, we’re clear that safeguarding is becoming more important and we need to look at what else can do to keep our customers safe.

Ultimately safeguarding is all about creating safer cultures. That’s why this week, as the chair of the HQN Safeguarding and Housing Best Practice Group, I am pleased to oversee a group that’s becoming an important vehicle for influencing the housing and safeguarding agenda.

You can find out more about National Safeguarding Adult Week from The Ann Craft Trust.