What is Safeguarding Adults Week 2023?
Safeguarding Adults Week is a time for organisations to come together to raise awareness of important safeguarding issues. Safeguarding Adults Week 2023 will run from 20th-24th November. The Ann Craft Trust who coordinate the event, 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.
The theme for Safeguarding Adults Week 2023 is “Safeguarding Yourself and Others”.
What does ‘Safeguarding Yourself and Others’ mean?
There’s a strong link between safeguarding and mental and physical wellbeing. If someone’s wellbeing is suffering, they may consider certain actions that put them at risk. The concept of ‘wellbeing’ is threaded throughout UK legislation and is part of the Law about how health and social care is provided. Our wellbeing includes our mental and physical health, our relationships, our connection with our communities and our contribution to society. Being able to live free from abuse and neglect is a key element of wellbeing.
Any actions taken to safeguard an adult must take their whole wellbeing into account and be proportionate to the risk of harm. We should work with people to understand what matters to them and consider their beliefs, views and feelings when offering support.
We would like to encourage you to think about what wellbeing means to you and what this means for the people you support during Safeguarding Adults Week 2023. We have selected themes for each day of the week, and hope these themes will guide you to enhance your knowledge and understanding of safeguarding adults within your organisation and communities.
It’s important we look out for yourself and others. During the week, we will be exploring effective strategies for how individuals and organisations can promote the wellbeing of staff, volunteers and the people they support. Each day of the week, The Ann Craft Trust are focusing on a different safeguarding theme which relates to how individuals and organisations can safeguard themselves and others and on each day they are offering seminars which follow this theme:
- Monday 20th November, 10-11am: ‘Who’s looking after the people looking after the people?’ Ian Braid will lead a session about how individuals can look after their own wellbeing when supporting others.
- Monday 20th November, 1.30-3pm: Ann Craft Trust Seminar and AGM. We will be joined by two organisations who will discuss how they’ve embedded safeguarding adults into their organisation.
- Tuesday 21st November, 10-11am: Let’s Start Talking – Taking The Lead on Safer Cultures in Your Organisation. Laura Thorpe will set-out what makes a safer culture and provide participants with the space to reflect on the culture within their organisation.
- Wednesday 22 November, 9am – 4pm: Looking After Yourself & Others: Ann Craft Trust Safeguarding Adults Conference 2023. Our conference provides a selection of informative keynotes and workshops that enable you to learn about effective techniques for safeguarding the wellbeing of yourself, your staff and the people you support.
- Friday 24th November, 10-11am: Developing Boccia England’s ‘Your Wellbeing Toolkit’. We will be joined by Boccia England to learn about the creation of their wellbeing toolkit. This will be followed by a discussion about how to support the wellbeing of players, volunteers and staff in sport and activity organisations.
All seminars can be booked online: https://www.anncrafttrust.org/events/
Find out more and get involved
To find out more about the campaign, each theme for the week, and how you can get involved, click here to visit the Ann Craft Trust website.
Local resources and events
Local safeguarding Adult services, including; South Tyneside Safeguarding Children and Adults Partnership and Sunderland Safeguarding Adults Board, are pleased to be supporting National Safeguarding Adults Week. Throughout the week, they are running a range of events which you can participate in.
Sunderland Safeguarding Adults Board is running a number of free training sessions across Safeguarding Adults Week 2023, click here to find out more. They also offer a number of additional free safeguarding training courses across the year, click here to find out more.
South Tyneside Safeguarding Children and Adults Partnership are running a ‘Learning from South Tyneside Safeguarding Adult Reviews’ information event on Thursday 23rd November 2023 from 9am to 4:15pm at Jarrow Focus. Click here to download the poster for more information, or click here to book your free place. They also offer a number of additional free safeguarding training courses across the year, click here to find out more.
