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What is Safeguarding Adults Week?
Safeguarding Adults Week, organised by the Ann Craft Trust, takes place every November with the aim of highlighting key adult safeguarding issues and raising awareness of safeguarding best practice.
Zetetick is 100% committed to the safeguarding of our tenants with learning disabilities, physical disabilities and/or autism who have a wide range of care needs.
What is best practice for adult safeguarding?
Safeguarding is the action taken to promote the welfare of vulnerable people of all ages and protect them from harm.
“We are 100% committed to the safeguarding of our tenants.”
It is about individuals, communities and organisations working together to prevent and stop the risk and experience of abuse or neglect occurring whilst also ensuring that the vulnerable individuals’ wellbeing is promoted. This includes, where appropriate, taking into account a vulnerable adult’s views, feelings, wishes and beliefs before deciding on any actions.
How adult safeguarding is always Zetetick’s top priority
At Zetetick, we prioritise the safety and wellbeing of the people we provide homes for and our values reflect this. Learn more about our story and how we work.
Our friendly team goes the extra mile by conducting regular home visits to check in with our tenants to ensure they are happy and safe in their homes.
All our staff are safeguarding trained. This helps us identify potential risks and protect all those in our community. In addition, our staff receive related training to help them support the individuals we work with. Recently, our team undertook refresher training “Communicating with Tenants with Complex Needs” conducted by Frontier Support.
Below, some Zetetick staff share how it has helped them in their roles.
Karen, Finance Manager:
“I come into contact with tenants mainly on the phone and at ZHC events. A tenant may call in a very stressed state, which could be a safeguarding issue. The training improved my understanding on how to talk to someone with a learning disability and/or autism in this situation. Also, how it is important for people to feel heard to avoid making them feel even more anxious.
“I have had calls where the tenant has stated that they would take their life and I feel I was able to talk to them without panicking myself.
“The information was really valuable, I learnt that some of our tenants may find eye contact painful or be nonverbal and take your hand to lead you to what they require.”
Beverley, Maintenance Officer:
“As part of the front-line team this training has helped me communicate better with our tenants to understand their needs. I take a moment when I enter each house to think about each individual and check if what I’m doing will be ok for them. If not, I can arrange to work around them which makes for a happier visit for all.”
Zetetick recognises that our tenants’ homes are their sanctuaries. Our ‘How is your home?’ regional feedback events are a great opportunity to speak directly to tenants, helping us to understand more about what they are happy with and identify any areas for improvement.
Useful resources
Please see here for an easy read guide ‘What is safeguarding?’ created for us by Easy Read Online:
What is safeguarding? – Easy Read
Learn more about adult safeguarding from NHS England here.
The Ann Craft Trust is a leading UK authority on adult safeguarding and safeguarding for young people at risk. Further information about adult safeguarding can be found via the Ann Craft Trust here.
This piece was kindly written by a Zetetick volunteer, Suzy Thomas. If you are interested in volunteering with us, please email [email protected].
