Welcome to July’s edition of the Safeguarding Champions Bulletin
Please circulate the information in this bulletin within your organisation to help us to continue to raise awareness of Safeguarding Adults in Tees.
What is the role of a TSAB Safeguarding Champion
Help Us Improve the TSAB Safeguarding Champions Scheme
We’re currently exploring ways to enhance the TSAB Safeguarding Champions Scheme and would greatly appreciate your feedback.
Please review the suggestions below and share thoughts and suggestions on what would best support you in your role. Please email feedback to [email protected] with the subject line: Safeguarding Champions Scheme Improvements.
- A 6-monthly online network meeting for Champions
- An annual event focused on a specific safeguarding theme
- What Champions need in terms of resources and support to confidently raise awareness of safeguarding – day-to-day and during focused campaigns
The role of a Safeguarding Champion:
Want to learn more about your role as a champion? Visit our dedicated Safeguarding Champions Area for further information.
Champions will receive our quarterly champion’s e-bulletins and TSAB Newsletters which include training opportunities and resources to read and share to help you to fulfil your role.
Safeguarding Champion Pledge:
As a new Safeguarding Champion, we recommend that you complete the following:
- I have registered for e-learning and completed the Safeguarding Adults Level 1 course
- I have shared the links to e-learning with colleagues
- I have printed, displayed and emailed the Safeguarding Adults Leaflets and Posters so that colleagues, service users and families know how to report abuse or neglect
- I have informed my colleagues that I am a Safeguarding Champion so that they know to contact me for advice regarding safeguarding matters
- I have followed @TeeswideSAB on social media to keep up to date with the latest safeguarding news.
Safeguarding Adult Reviews
As a Safeguarding Champion please review the below Learning Briefing and where appropriate:
- Share this learning briefing across your networks.
- Incorporate the findings into team meeting discussions.
- Highlight instances where the learning has been applied in updates to the Board.
- Managers and supervisees to incorporate the learning into their supervision discussions
Chloe is a White British woman in her early thirties. She was the victim of a serious incident in 2023. Chloe is still alive, but this incident involved considerable emotional and physical trauma against a background of abusive behaviour by an intimate partner and other men.
This Safeguarding Adult Review looks at how services worked together to support Chloe and highlighted the following themes:
- The challenge of engaging her into the interventions
- Drug and alcohol screening
- Raising Safeguarding Concerns or escalating Domestic Abuse
- The Duty to Refer in accordance with the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017
Organisations are encouraged to review the Learning Briefing to consider and apply the learning to their own practice.
Printable Version link: https://www.tsab.org.uk/professionals/safeguarding-adult-review-sar-reports/
Policies, Procedures and Guidance
As a Safeguarding Champion please familiarise yourself with the plan below.
The Teeswide Safeguarding Adults Board produces a Strategic Business Plan in line with the requirements of the Care Act 2014. The newly published plan for 2025-2028 sets out the Board’s vision, aims and objectives, which are then used by each Sub-Group as a basis to develop their work programmes and activities in order to achieve these objectives.
As a Safeguarding Champion please familiarise yourself with the below Strategy.
The Teeswide Adult Exploitation Strategy 2024-27 was published by the Teeswide Safeguarding Adults Board (TSAB), following a recommendation from the Molly Safeguarding Adult Review (SAR), to develop a strategy which focused on improving the victim’s journey and strengthening multi-agency processes.
The strategy’s key priorities are:
Prevention – Improve awareness, understanding and early recognition of exploitation across the partnership, communities and society.
Protect – Improve individuals’ and communities’ resilience to tackle and reduce exploitation and the interventions to tackle exploitation.
Pursue – Improve prosecutions and disruption of locations, individuals and groups responsible for exploitation through effective partnership working and sharing of information. Supporting and safeguarding victims.
People – Keep the person at the centre of all planning and activity, to improve outcomes and recovery for those affected / at risk of exploitation.
An implementation group has been established with key partners from across Tees to deliver the action plan, strengthen the co-ordination of services and deliver real positive change for victims.
NEW:
Please take a moment to review our new & refreshed documents which are available on the TSAB website. Click the link to stay informed about the latest guidance, learning briefings, and reports.
NEW:
- Mental Capacity and Executive Functioning Guidance New guidance
- Annual Communication & Engagement Report featuring the results of the annual survey
REFRESHED:
These documents on our website have recently been refreshed and updated:
NHS England have recently published national guidance for practitioners in:
Staying safe from suicide: Best practice guidance for safety assessment, formulation and management This guidance supports the government’s work to reduce suicide and improve mental health services. It promotes a shift towards a more holistic, person-centred approach rather than relying on risk prediction, which is unreliable because suicidal thoughts can change quickly. Instead, it recommends using a method based on understanding each person’s situation and managing their safety.
Learning Disability and Autism programme: published guidance and practical tools for front line clinicians in acute and community trusts to download to ensure that the Mental Capacity Act is applied properly for people with a learning disability when they are in hospital.
The range of resources include a flow chart to help you decide when to access capacity, a helpful checklist to support preparation for assessing the mental capacity of someone with a learning disability and a downloadable poster for wards.
Campaigns
This September, TSAB will launch a Back to Basics campaign to remind us that safeguarding doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s about recognising when something isn’t right and knowing how to respond.
Whether you’re a professional, neighbour, friend, or carer, the campaign will focus on three key messages:
✅ Recognise the signs of abuse and neglect
✅ Listen and keep the person at the centre
✅ Report concerns to the appropriate services
The campaign will run throughout the week of 8th September, with resources and updates shared in the lead-up via our website and social media.
Let us know how you plan to get involved by emailing us at [email protected]
👉 Visit the TSAB website and follow us online to stay informed and to access campaign materials.
National Safeguarding Adults Week 2025 theme is: Prevention
National Safeguarding Adults Week is an annual campaign, coordinated by the Ann Craft Trust, to raise awareness about safeguarding issues for adults who may be vulnerable to abuse or neglect. It takes place each year, typically in November, and encourages organisations and individuals to work together to promote safer environments and practices.
National Safeguarding Adults Week is an ideal opportunity for Safeguarding Champions to get involved in raising awareness of safeguarding through their networks and within the communities they work in. Working together allows us to share our knowledge of safeguarding, learn from others and ultimately create safer cultures.
Each day will focus on a different theme linked to prevention, have a look at the weeks schedule below and have a think about how you can get involved and raise awareness.
Monday – Change the Conversation
Tuesday – Prevention in Practice
Wednesday – Creating Empowering Environments
Thursday – Trust Your Instincts
Friday – Celebrate the Safer Cultures
For a more detailed overview of National Safeguarding Adults week please click on the link: Anne Craft Trust National Safeguarding Adults Week
Let us know how you plan to get involved by emailing us at [email protected].
Don’t forget to follow us on social media @TeeswideSAB to stay up to date with the latest resources, updates, and key safeguarding campaigns.
Further Resources Information and Training
Are you aware of the Safe Place Scheme?
We encourage all Safeguarding Champions to familiarise themselves with the scheme and identify where Safe Places are located in their area (see link below).
Promoting the scheme is key, so we ask Champions to actively share information within their networks and with the wider public.
Awareness-raising resources are available in both digital and printed formats please email [email protected] if you would like to request any.
What is a Safe Place?
- A place people can go if they don’t feel safe or need some help
- A place in the community that people know is there in case they need it
- This can help them to be more confident to go out independently
Who is a Safe Place for?
Anyone who might be/feel vulnerable, this can include people with:
- A learning disability
- Autism
- A physical disability
- Dementia
- Or someone who is suffering from abuse or neglect.
How can Safe Place help?
Safe Place Scheme venues can provide:
- A point of contact for anyone who needs it
- A safe, friendly and welcoming environment where people feel able to ask for help
- A place where someone can rest if they feel unwell, anxious, upset, afraid or lost
- A place where people feel listened to
- Staff who can offer help and advice or help the person call someone they know
Where can you find a Safe Place? There are many locations across Tees. Click on the Webpage link below to see a full Teeswide list and to access more information regarding the scheme: Safe Place Scheme | Teeswide Safeguarding Adults Board
Are you up to date with your Safeguarding training? As a Safeguarding Champion, staying current is essential for your own practice and ensures you can provide accurate advice, share relevant information, and signpost effectively, keeping safeguarding at the heart of everything you do.
Training Courses
New dates have been released for the remainder of 2025 into 2026
To view and request a place on any of our upcoming training courses please visit our Training Courses and Events page.
E-Learning
The Adults & Children Safeguarding Partner Organisations across Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton-on-Tees actively support the ‘Think Family’ approach and are committed to the continuous learning and development of all staff and volunteers working with vulnerable people: adults, children, young people and families.
Through our E-Leaning site you will be able to view, select and be given immediate access to a range of e-learning opportunities.
Workbooks
**Please note that workbooks are have now been phased out. If you or any member of your team have copies of the workbooks saved to your desktop please can you ensure that these are deleted as they will no longer be accepted**
Further Information
Don’t forget that TSAB has a dedicated webpage hosting details of local and national services.
Can’t see your service/ another service on there and think it should be added? Please send the details to [email protected].
Do you have concerns that an adult is experiencing or is at risk of abuse or neglect?
Visit https://www.tsab.org.uk/report-abuse/ to find out how to report your concerns. The page hosts the TSAB Concern Form which should be completed and submitted to the relevant local adult social care service or alternatively you can contact them by using the contact numbers listed on the page.
As a reminder you should report abuse when:
- The adult has needs for care and support (whether or not the authority is meeting any of those needs)
- And is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect