Our impact: Social care reviews make safeguarding personal
In 2018, Healthwatch Kingston established our Adult Safeguarding Community Reference Group to listen to and translate personal stories into evidence to help improve services. Over the past six years, we have expanded our reach to work collaboratively with people with lived experience of safeguarding from Kingston and across London; putting voices at the heart of safeguarding scrutiny and governance.
Our collective London Safeguarding Voices (LSV) group activities have not gone unnoticed. This year, empowered LSV members have been an integral part of seven successful peer reviews of Local Authorities, organised by the London Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS).
650 professionals and service users from 32 London boroughs learned about our ‘Making Safeguarding Personal’ work at the London Safeguarding Adults Board (LSAB) conference 2023.
What did you tell us about your participation in the peer reviews?
- “I was truly adopted into the team as the non-professional, person-representative voice in the peer review process.”
- “The person's voice, represented by London Safeguarding Voices, with all our lived experiences, was absolutely an integral part of this team and this review.”
- “The whole team was looking out for me and my welfare with my disabilities, so I could be involved and engage as fully as possible, at all times.”
What difference did this make?
- Making Safeguarding Personal (MSP) has put the person who is the focus of a concern at the centre during a safeguarding enquiry; from the beginning to the end.
- Originally our MSP work focused on adults at risk with learning disabilities. Kingston Council expanded our contract to include people being supported by the Mental Health Team and then was extended further to cover all Adult Social Care Teams.
- An annual Healthwatch Kingston MSP report, about people’s experiences of the services was reviewed along with recommendations for service improvement as part of the KSAB programme of work, including KSAB development days.
- Our Kingston Safeguarding Voices group has been formally adopted as a KSAB committee to lead on the board’s community engagement ambitions.
- Quarterly updates about LSV project work and emergent key themes experienced by people with lived experience are provided by Healthwatch Kingston to the LSAB.
- The London ADASS peer reviews are part of a sector-led improvement programme to support London local authorities to evaluate their strengths and areas for development within Adult Social Care, before formal Care Quality Commission's visits.
