Safeguarding – what it is and why it’s important.
Hi, my name is Caroline I am the Deputy Manager for The Close Care Home I have been working within care for the last 25yrs. Whilst working in care I have worked with adults with enduring mental health issues young people and individuals with Learning disabilities and complex needs. Let’s start with a really important statement – Everyone is responsible for safeguarding. We need everyone to be invested and understanding of what it means and what to do.
I would like to talk to you about Safeguarding what safeguarding is and why it is important to us, at the Close.
The concept of Safeguarding dates back to 1945, though in November 2006 significant changes were made following incidents in the sector in 2002. The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 changed how staff are vetted, a special scheme was also developed, its aims to protect children and vulnerable adults and helps companies’ employee the right people, this is now referred as Adults at risk. It was recommended that “new arrangements should be introduced requiring those who wish to work with vulnerable adults or children to be registered. The register would confirm that there is no known reason why an individual should not work with these client groups.”
It supports us and provides a robust screening system for anyone who applied to work with individuals that are vulnerable. All members of The Close team go through the scheme.
Safeguarding is in place to protect people’s human rights ensuring that those that are vulnerable live free from neglect harm, discrimination and abuse. It is a vital part of providing the high-quality care we are so known for, for those that are in need of protection and those that are receiving care.
Those that are most at risk and in need of protection are people with physical, mental impairments and individuals with learning disabilities and children. Safeguarding makes sure those that are vulnerable are protected regardless of gender, religion, age and ethnicity ensuring people can live free from harm and abuse everyone deserves the right to feel safe and protected this is a basic human right. Within safeguarding there are 6 principles for safeguarding adults’
- prevention,
- protection,
- empowerment,
- proportionality,
- partnership
- accountability
Here at The Close we take safeguarding very seriously; we concentrate on improving the lives of our residents they are at the centre of everything we do.
We work with our residents to help them understand what safe means and we understand what safe means to them. We do this in different ways i.e. using the voting tubes to ask residents if they know how to make a complaint, do they feel safe and cared for etc etc.
We also discuss this in our monthly residents’ meetings, this helps our residents to feel comfortable and confident in raising concerns and to ask questions and have their voices heard and including on one-to-one basis.
For those that do not verbalise or may have difficulties understanding, this information is relayed by in a variety of ways, best suited to their needs.
We work in partnership with other agencies looking at how best to achieve and maintain a resident’s quality of life to ensure the individual feels safe secure and cared for. When concerns arise, we have open and honest conversations.
We provide training for our team, so everyone has a good clear understanding of what safeguarding is and what steps need to be taken to protect those that we care for. We have training sessions with scenarios and role play this enhances our staff skills to be more vigilant for any potential signs of abuse or neglect, missing these signs could be problematic for our residents and families including our team members.
Stake holder meetings are held every quarter, and we often have discussions that are held around safeguarding signs what to look for and actions that can be taken, this builds trust and confidence promoting awareness in our circle of care, ensuring that our resident’s welfare is protected.
We will be hosting a special friends and family session on safeguarding soon and would love for you to join us. Keep an eye on the events calendar as it will be listed there once the date is finalised.
If you ever have any concerns or questions, please feel free to speak to any member of the team at any time, or ask to speak to me, Tania or Richard and we would be happy to support in whichever way possible. If you didn’t want to come directly to us, you can always use the contact form on the website, or see the posters around The Close, that sign posts you to multiple agencies that can support you in safeguarding matters.
Caroline Ramsey
