We’ve been marking Safeguarding Adults Week by sharing how we approach to this vital part of our work.
To cap off this week of awareness, we spoke to Stacey, one of our Senior Housing Officers to learn more about her perspective on safeguarding, the challenges faced and opportunities for the future.
Hi Stacey, can you tell us what made you want to get involved in your role?
I always wanted to be in a role where I was working with people and supporting them in some way to have a better life. I moved from looking after younger people to a volunteer role with Age UK as a driver. After this job became available, I've never looked back!
What is your favourite part of your job? Do you have any highlights from your time getting involved and helping people?
I love calling people to offer them a property, it can often be life changing for them depending on the situation (for example, homeless or experiencing domestic abuse) that they are in at the time. Hearing how happy they are really makes me feel I'm doing something important and worthwhile.
Highlights from my work so far include arranging theme activities like 1940's tea dance, attending the opening of one of our new properties where Angela Rayner cut the tape and making tenants laugh by dressing up at special times of the year like Christmas and Halloween.
What have been the challenges to safeguarding adults? And where are you seeing successes?
I feel Covid took us all back a few steps including isolation and fear of socialising when it was over. People were more likely to be taken advantage of and had to build up relationships again.
On top of this, there’s a regular influx of new scams, preying on non-internet savvy people, as well as the isolated and vulnerable.
We’re getting better at spotting and getting ahead of scams and changes to services, and our workforce are more adept at the internet and trained in modern, relevant ways. For example, understanding the menopause, EDI, hate crime awareness, suicide awareness and acting in a trauma informed way.
We also build on these strengths through collaborative working and building relationships with the council, care teams and other services.
What work do we still have to do and how can we continue to extend our learning?
I think always listening to our customers’ needs and building relationships with them is vital.
By providing "safe spaces" and a variety of ways to get in touch, such as apps, calling and in-person, we can enable lots of different people to access the help they need.
On top of this, it’s a matter of staying trained and informed as a wider understanding of all the factors I’ve mentioned continues to grow.
Thank you to Stacey for sharing her time and perspective with us!
To learn more about the range of support we offer, including how to get in touch, go to https://www.southwayhousing.co.uk/support-services/