Advance's Approach to Safeguarding
This week is Safeguarding Adults Week (Monday 21st November – Sunday 27th November)!
We're focusing on Safeguarding and what it means for our customers, their families and everyone at Advance.
Today, Pete Morgan, Independent Scrutineer on Advance’s Safeguarding Panel, gives us the low-down on how we approach Safeguarding as an organisation.
Safeguarding at Advance:
1. ADVANCE: What is Advance’s approach to safeguarding?
PETE: "Advance has a robust approach to safeguarding, ensuring we go beyond the organisation standards expected by commissioners and take a reflective approach, continually examining and refreshing our approach (e.g. repeated and updated training) to ensure we avoid getting into bad habits in our practice, whether with customers or in our “back-office” operations."
2. ADVANCE: How is Advance’s customer-focused ethos reflected in its approach to safeguarding?
PETE: "Alongside the systematic approach, Advance is person-centered and focused on ‘making safeguarding personal’ which means involving the person in the safeguarding process and asking, ‘what do you want out of this?’. This goes beyond ‘keeping someone safe’ and instead asks them what element of risk do they want in their life."
3. ADVANCE: Why is it important to allow an element of risk in customer’s lives?
PETE: "Providing a care and support package is about enhancing someone’s quality of life. Risk is one of the things that makes life good and interesting. If we completely control and limit what an individual can do, it can really damage their quality of life.
Personally, I have a daughter who is blind and lives in a flat as part of Advance’s shared ownership scheme. As a parent I know it can be difficult to allow risk and relinquish control, especially when you have a child with a disability of any form, but it is important for them that we do. We need to accept that safeguarding isn’t about wrapping customers in cotton wool, it’s about allowing customers to take risks, provided they understand those risks and the possible implications of doing so.
When we're working with customers and safeguarding, we do not need to, and indeed can’t remove risk entirely, but instead should allow an element of risk that is appropriate and manageable for them to live their best life."
Tomorrow’s focus: What happens when you raise a safeguarding concern?
Find out more:
The Ann Craft Trust are putting on a series of free webinars this week focusing on various forms of abuse and exploitation. If you have time, do sign up and go along!
Thursday 24 November - Using the power your role gives you to create safer and stronger cultures. More info >>
Friday 25 November - DBS - Safer and fairer recruitment when working with adults at risk. More info >>
If you want to read up more about a specific Safeguarding topic, take a look on the Ann Craft Trust’s website https://www.anncrafttrust.org/resources/