Safeguarding Adults Week 2021

Where is it?



When is it?

From Monday, 15th November, 2021
until Sunday, 21st November, 2021

Safeguarding Adults Week 2021

Safeguarding Adults Week 2021 will take place from 15- 21 November.

Safeguarding Adults Week is a time for organisations to come together to raise awareness of important safeguarding issues. The aim is to highlight safeguarding key issues, facilitate conversations and to raise awareness of safeguarding best practice. So we can all be better together.

We hope the week will enable more organisations and individuals to feel confident in recognising signs of abuse and neglect and recording and reporting safeguarding concerns.

Watch our short video to learn more about what safeguarding is.

Safeguarding Adults Week 2021 Theme – ‘Creating Safer Cultures’

Our theme for Safeguarding Adults Week 2021 is ‘Creating Safer Cultures’.

Each day, we will focus on a specific topic to facilitate conversations around the theme of creating safer cultures.

What do we mean by Safer Cultures?

Promoting safer cultures is all about how organisations and individuals can take steps to minimise harm occurring in the first instance, whilst simultaneously ensuring correct policies and procedures are in place so that safeguarding concerns that are raised, are recognised and responded to effectively.

What do Safer Cultures Look Like? 

  • Listening- organisations should listen to members and create an environment where people’s concerns are listened to and addressed appropriately (be that service users, participants, volunteers or employees). Individuals should feel confident about how to respond to, report and refer any safeguarding concerns either within their organisation or community.
  • Leading– organisations should ensure they have the correct policies and procedures in place to minimise the risk of harm and to respond effectively should concerns be raised. This could include having a detailed safeguarding policy and ensuring that staff and volunteers receive regular safeguarding training.
  • Learning- it is important that organisations, and individuals within them, take the time to learn from safeguarding incidents and reflect on what actions could be altered in the future to facilitate best practice and minimise the risk of harm.

 

Monday- Emotional Abuse and Safeguarding Mental Health

Emotional abuse can have a devastating impact on mental as well as physical health. To have safer cultures, we need to prioritise wellbeing, and create a culture where people can speak out, be listened to and respected. Today at an individual level we are focusing on the importance of wellbeing and self care. At an organisational level, today can be used to explore how organisations can be emotionally aware and promote respectful cultures where people can speak out without fear of reprimand.

Tuesday- The Power of Language

Language is vital in creating a positive culture and fostering inclusivity. Complex terminology and jargon can isolate individuals and result in people feeling excluded. In contrast, using respectful language can widen participation in services, organisations and communities. Today, we want to encourage individuals and organisations to consider the language they use in their practice and how this relates to the people they work with. Is the language used in your setting actively inclusive?

Wednesday- Digital Safeguarding

Over the past year an increasing proportion of our lives from work, education to sport and activity has moved online, This is likely to continue to some extent, even as lockdown restrictions ease. We want to use today to share best practice in relation to how to create safe cultures online.

Thursday- Adult Grooming and the Ann Craft Trust Grooming and Exploitation Conference

People can experience grooming and exploitation at any age and in a wide range of contexts. Today we want to raise awareness about different types of grooming for instance, predatory marriage, financial scams and radicalisation. We want to facilitate conversations about how to recognise the signs of grooming and how to respond to promote safer cultures.

Today we are working with Justice for Joan, Operation Repeat and Small Steps to bring you the Opening Eyes and Minds: Grooming and Exploitation Conference. The conference aims to raise awareness of how grooming can be experienced across the life course. You can book your place online now!

Friday- Creating Safer Organisational Cultures

Today we want to hear from you! Tell us what you are doing in your organisation to create safer cultures. For instance, last year British Wrestling spoke to us about the #SpeakingOut campaign in response to allegations of sexual misconduct in British professional wrestling. Today, we will also be focusing on including voices of people less likely to raise concerns, and promoting reflection and learning in safeguarding practice to promote safer cultures.

Saturday & Sunday- Safeguarding and You

Do you know what your role in safeguarding is? Safeguarding is for everyone. It is not just about knowing your role in an employment setting, but also knowing your role as a human being in everyday life to promote safer cultures in the community. We want to highlight that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and everyone needs to play their part to effectively create safer cultures.

How can you get involved?

There is no one way to support the week. Each day of the week we’ll focus on a different safeguarding theme. These themes are broad, and each one covers many different areas of focus.

Plus, these themes are not exhaustive. Our aim is to highlight certain causes, and to start some vital conversations. But if you want to use Safeguarding Adults Week to talk about a different aspect of safeguarding, please do so!

Support Safeguarding Adults Week in 5 Steps!

 

  1. Sign up to receive your free Safeguarding Adults Week resources from the Ann Craft Trust! We’ll email you free electronic resources throughout the year.
  2. Book onto one of our e-learning courses or the Ann Craft Trust Conference (details to follow!) to develop your safeguarding knowledge.
  3. Share our free podcasts, posters and resources within your organisation, or create your own, to raise awareness of safeguarding issues.
  4. Use the hashtag #SafeguardingAdultsWeek on social media to tell the online community about your safeguarding initiatives.
  5. Learn how to recognise the signs of abuse and how to record and report your concerns.

Need Some Inspiration?

If you need some inspiration, take a look at how organisations got involved in 2020!

Despite the week being held virtually, we reached over 12 million people on Twitter, had football stadiums and town halls across the country illuminated in ACT green and saw multiple local authorities and police forces host virtual seminars to raise awareness of important safeguarding issues.

In the meantime, get in touch!

We will be regularly updating our Safeguarding Adults Week resources ahead of the week. Contact us to let us know how your organisation are supporting the week or tell us about a resource you would like us to produce.

Sign up below to receive resources and updates direct to your inbox.

And remember to use our hashtag any time you talk about the week on social media: #SafeguardingAdultsWeek

Sign up for Safeguarding Adults Week Resources