This week is National Safeguarding Adults Week led by the Ann Craft Trust, and we’ve been raising awareness of our approach to supporting our tenants to live health, happy lives while making sure they are treated fairly and with respect.

Becky Arrowsmith, Head of Housing, leads on the organisation’s approach to safeguarding. Earlier this week, she held a session for all colleagues about Golden Lane Housing’s (GLH) It Matters approach to safeguarding, and shared recent examples of our work helping to keep tenants safe from abuse. She explained the different types of abuse and how issues were reported and responded to. The aim of the session was not only to raise awareness of It Matters, but to empower colleagues to feel confident to report anything they feel isn’t right, and how the three Ls – listening, leading and learning – are key to working together to create safer cultures in organisations.

She tells us: “Safeguarding Adults Week is an opportunity for organisations to come together to raise awareness of important safeguarding issues. The aim is to start vital conversations and share best practice, so we can all be better together in helping to keep people safe from abuse.

 “This year the theme is all about working in partnership to create safer cultures. In 2022/2023, GLH housing officers assisted tenants with a total of 132 safeguarding issues, helping with problems like hoarding, relationships between tenants living in the same properties, and tenants not engaging with their support team. They raised 42 safeguarding concerns to 23 Local Safeguarding Boards across the country. We also work with our tenant Safeguarding Representative, Mark, to make sure we are putting the tenant at the heart of all our policies and procedures.

 “Its so important that as an organisation, we work together as a team and with our partners to keep tenants safe from abuse, and to support one another when dealing with cases.”

 Read more about our approach to safeguarding.