Passionate about Preventing Abuse and Neglect
Our Safeguarding Ambassadors are a unique group of individual’s from our prominent service user groups; the Local Account Group and the Safeguarding Adults Reference Group who are passionate about preventing abuse and neglect.
They lead, promote and share their safeguarding knowledge by listening to and supporting residents.
This diverse and inclusive group group are often the first point-of contact when residents want to seek signposting advice about abuse and neglect. The work that they do helps us to ensure that Making Safeguarding Personal is threaded throughout our communities, all our activities and subgroups and at the heart of everything we do. They created our ‘House’ strategy and our logo, which they call “their house”.
“Ambassadors receive safeguarding training. We know what to do if someone wants to seek advice, we are the first point-of-contact in our local organisations. I have supported my family and many people in our communities through the safeguarding process. I have supported people who have been sexually abused. I have supported people who have been bullied and people who have been targets of hate crime. I support people to understand what hate crime really is and to report it. I have supported people that have been financially groomed and where family members have taken use of their disability vehicles. I have followed up on instances of neglect where people have been left feeling cold and sometimes hungry. I have supported women who have suffered in silence from violence because they are in difficult marriages and where it is shameful in their culture to speak up about it”
Glenda Joseph, Safeguarding Ambassador and Voice for London (LSVG)
They have led on
- Safeguarding Explained videos on community-based risks
- Design of all National Safeguarding Adults Awareness Week events
- Sharing important stories and ‘user experiences’ of the safeguarding process
- Making recommendations that influence and shape services
- Agenda items at every board meeting
- Co-creating, designing and publicising safeguarding information
- Developing our Community Engagement Prevention Agenda for 2022/2023
- Designing our Service User feedback form which assists those who have been through a safeguarding to feedback on the process, ensuring that Safeguarding is person centred and outcomes focussed.
We believe that every adult has the right to be treated with dignity, have their choices respected and live a life free from fear.
Disability, illness or frailty means that many adults over the age of 18 have to rely on other people to help them in their day-to-day living. Sadly, it is because they have to depend on others that they may become vulnerable and at risk of abuse, very often from people they know such as a relative, friend, neighbour or paid carer.
We continue to hear the voices of our residents through stories and poems in our annual reports.