Safeguarding Week 2025
Prevention: Act Before Abuse
Safeguarding Week 2025 took place from Monday 17 November to Friday 21 November, with the theme "Prevention - Act Before Abuse."
This annual event is promoted and supported nationally, and in Gateshead, the Safeguarding Adults Board and Safeguarding Children Partnership once again worked together during National Safeguarding Adults Week to raise awareness of safeguarding for both children and adults. The focus was on reinforcing the message that safeguarding is everyone's business.
Throughout the week, a range of sessions were delivered specifically aimed at professionals working with adults, providing practical guidance and promoting early intervention to prevent harm. the presentations from the sessions are available below (shared with the permission of the facilitators):
- Carer's Federation: Family Caregivers and Safeguarding (half hour highlight) Family Caregivers and Safeguarding (PDF, 1 MB)
Preventing Homelessness: Housing First Housing First (PDF, 654 KB)
Housing First service users have multiple and complex needs, and a long-term history of repeat homelessness. This session provided an overview of the Housing First initiative, the principles behind it and how it differs from other projects aimed at people with multiple and complex needs.
The presentation covers how the multi-agency panel selects individuals to participate; how services work collaboratively to remove barriers or systemic issues that service users may face; how Housing First can act as a preventative safeguarding measure.
Prevent and Channel Workshop
This workshop provided an overview of Prevent and the Channel programme, with a focus on safeguarding adults and children from the risks of radicalisation and extremism.
Dementia Wristbands and the Herbert Protocol
Our Adult Social Care team provided further information on Dementia Bands, a free initiative offered in Gateshead to support those living with dementia who are mobile within the community. Information was also provide on the Safe and Found Online which has been established to provide a digital version of the Herbert and Forcer Protocols. Safe and Found Online (PDF, 1 MB)
Sue Walters: The Journey of Adult L Learning from the Life of Adult L (PDF, 1 MB)
Sue Walters provided a thought-provoking exploration of the life of Adult L, the person at the centre of a recent GSAB Appreciative Enquiry. Attendees will have the opportunity to reflect on the Time to Think methodology, and to consider ways in which this can be implemented in their respective service areas to change the conversations we have about safeguarding children and adults. Key themes of this workshop included trauma, mental health, children removed from parental care, alcohol misuse, homelessness and domestic abuse.
For a detailed overview - including attendee evaluation data - of each session that ran, download the report here: Safeguarding Week Report (PDF, 30 MB)
