Safeguarding Adults

Every adult has the right to be treated with dignity, respect and live a life free of fear.

We call this process safeguarding adults.

Every adult has a right to make their own decisions and take risks, however, some adults are at greater risk of being abused because they rely on another person to manage day to day living.

We use the term "adult at risk" to describe people that need this support. Not all adults who need care and support are considered at risk, we assess each person according to their own abilities. Many adults with care and support needs manage their lives very well.

If you suspect that you or an adult you care about may be at risk of abuse or neglect please complete the Adult Safeguarding Concern form and return to the Lewisham Adult Gateway as instructed in the form. Alternatively if you have concerns about the immediate safety of an adult at risk then please contact the Police on 999.

Social Care and Health have produced a video on Safeguarding Adults in British Sign Language.

 

 

Forms and Signs of Abuse

Forms and Signs of Abuse

People with care and support needs, such as older people or people living with a disability, are more likely to be abused or neglected. They may be seen as an easy target and may be less likely to identify abuse themselves or to report it. People with communication difficulties can be particularly at risk because they may not be able to alert others. Sometimes people may not even be aware that they are being abused, and this is especially likely if they have a cognitive impairment. Abusers may try to prevent access to the person they abuse.

Whilst these particular adults are the specific focus of ‘Safeguarding Adults’ policy and procedures, this does not negate the public duty of those carrying out this work to protect the human rights of all citizens, including those who are the subject of concern but are not covered by these procedures, or those who are not the subject of the initial concern.

Such work is the responsibility of all agencies and cannot exist in isolation. It must be effectively linked to other initiatives, as part of a network of measures aimed at enabling all citizens to live lives that are free from violence, harassment, humiliation and degradation.

Signs of abuse

Signs of abuse can often be difficult to detect. The information below aims to help people who come into contact with people with care and support needs to identify abuse and recognise possible indicators. Many types of abuse are also criminal offences and should be treated as such.

Evidence of any one indicator from the following lists should not be taken on its own as proof that abuse is occurring. However, it should alert professionals to make further assessments and to consider other associated factors. The lists of possible indicators and examples of behaviour are not exhaustive and people may be subject to a number of abuse types at the same time.

Types of abuse:

Discriminatory abuse +

Hate Crime +

Domestic abuse +

Coercive or controlling behaviour is a core part of domestic violence +

Economic Abuse +

Financial or material abuse +

Modern slavery +

Organisational or institutional abuse +

Physical abuse +

Psychological or emotional abuse +

Self-neglect +

Sexual abuse +

Information for Professionals

Space for Self: The therapeutic model of the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre (RASASC). The report evaluates the outcomes of using the RASASC therapeutic empowerment model for children and young people aged up to 25.

Who is an adult at risk?

Under The Care Act, an adult at risk is someone over 18 years old who: has care and support needs. is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect. as a result of their care and support needs is unable to protect himself or herself against the abuse or neglect or the risk of it.

Perpetrators of Abuse

The person alleged to have caused harm

Abuse can occur anywhere and be caused by anyone. Adults at risk are sometimes abused by strangers, but more often, they are abused by someone known to them or in a position of trust or power. This may include:

• A partner, relative, friend or child.
• A neighbour or someone from the community network.
• A paid carer or volunteer.
• A health, social care worker or other professional.
• Another adult at risk.
• A non-carer or stranger.

Abuse can occur in any relationship. It often occurs where the person who is abusive is in a more powerful position than the person who is being abused. The person causing the harm may also be suffering with mental ill-health or substance misuse problems. 

Abuse occurs when the abuser misuses such power either intentionally, or unintentionally, or for their own benefit or gain. We know from safeguarding data that Neglect and Acts of Omission is the most common type of reported abuse to local authorities in England and Lewisham. Much of this is unintentional, although still harmful, and can be caused by unpaid carer burn out, lack of support or assessment of unpaid carers, staffing problems and shortages in the care sector, or because poor practices have developed unchallenged. Cost of living also has an impact with adults experiencing financial or material (this can be items such as food being stolen) abuse from unpaid and paid carers, because of the pressures faced by many individuals and families.    

The person who is abusive may have more power because they are more able than the person they are abusing.

They may also have more power because the adult at risk may be dependent on them in some way.

In some instances the abuser themselves may also be an adult at risk, for example another service user, or an adult with learning disabilities caring for a frail older parent. Resident on resident abuse in care homes, or patient on patient incidents are reported through safeguarding which can include very serious physical, psychological and sexual abuse cases. 

There can often be a power imbalance between a member of staff, paid carer or a volunteer and an adult at risk.

It must be noted that some abusers deliberately seek out adults who appear to be at risk and exploit an existing vulnerability with the intention of abusing, harming, exploiting or manipulating that person. We know from evidence and research that criminal gangs, often sophisticated fraudsters, target individuals in this way linked to financial SCAMS which are increasingly being perpetrated online, although doorstep crimes are still prevalent. 

Find out how you can report your concerns about an adult at risk or a perpetrator who may have care and support needs. 

How to report your concerns

If you suspect that you or an adult you care about may be at risk of abuse or neglect please complete the Adult Safeguarding Concern form and return to the Lewisham Adult Gateway as instructed in the form. Alternatively if you have concerns about the immediate safety of an adult at risk then please contact the Police on 999. 

If you are a member of the public we recommend you make contact with the Lewisham Adult Gateway via telephone.

There are a number of other ways you can contact the Lewisham Adult Gateway

The team can be contacted Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm

Tel: 020 8314 7777 (select option 1) Tel: 020 8314 7766 (outside of office hours)

Fax: 020 8314 3014

Email Lewisham Adult Gateway

Contact details for the deaf / impaired hearing community

Minicom: 020 8314 3309

Text Message: 07730 637 194

Glide: LEWISHAM Adult Social Care / 07730 637 194

Please note – Glide is a free app which allows video messaging (for sign language).

It can be downloaded free of charge from the following sources:

Apple itunes

Google play

Microsoft app store

More information on the Lewisham Adult Gateway 

If you believe that a criminal offence may have been committed and you would prefer to report your concerns anonymously please report them to Crimestoppers UK

If you would like the Adult Safeguarding Concern form in another format please see the Adult Safeguarding Pathway Resources page.

What happens after you report your concerns

Once a report of suspected adult abuse or neglect is made, the organisation you reported your concerns to will take steps to ensure the immediate safety of the person and anyone else who may be affected. You can be assured that all reports of suspected abuse or neglect are taken seriously and are confidential.

Collecting information

When a report of suspected adult abuse is received further information will be gathered. If the adult at risk is unable to speak for themselves they can choose someone to act on their behalf such as a friend or family member. If this isn’t possible Adult Social Care can arrange for an independent person to do this, they are known as an Advocate.

They will talk to the person, or a suitable representative on their behalf, to find out what is happening and then work together to plan what can be done to help keep them safe and as independent as possible.

People involved

Where necessary Adult Social Care will investigate allegations of abuse with partner organisations and take appropriate action.

Meetings

Sometimes a meeting is needed. The individual, or the person who acts on their behalf, may be invited to a meeting called a safeguarding planning meeting. During this meeting concerns will be discussed and the Chairperson will ensure that everybody has their say.

The Chairperson will ensure that everything that was agreed to be done is being done, and decide if any further action is needed. A safeguarding plan may be agreed to continue to keep the person safe.

Sometimes they will need to arrange further meetings to review the safeguarding plan and make changes if necessary to ensure the person continues to remain safe.

What if you don’t want anything to happen?

If the abuse is happening to you, you have a right to say what you want to be done about it. You will always be asked what you want and who you want to be involved.

Sometimes there are other people who may also be in danger and the abuse is too serious for people to do nothing. Professionals have a duty of care to you and other people and may have to act against your wishes. If this has to happen you will always be told why.

What if you’re not happy?

If you’re not happy about the safeguarding adults process Lewisham Adult Social Care would like to know why. You can speak to the Chairperson who was involved in your meetings, or you can contact the Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Manager.

Positive Outcomes

This video Safeguarding Adults- An Independent Life After Abuse produced by the Social Care Institute for Excellence shows the positive outcomes the safeguarding process can have on a person who has been abused.

Six Safeguarding Principles

There are six safeguarding principles that underpin all safeguarding work:

Mental Capacity, DoLS and Advocacy

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 is there to empower people to make decisions and to support them when their capacity for making decisions is impaired. It means that you have to look at what the individual needs, and it is specific to a decision at a specific time. It’s not a blanket judgement over their mental capacity.

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 came into force during 2007. The law is designed to protect and restore power to those vulnerable people who lack capacity. The law also supports those, over the age of 18, who have capacity and choose to plan for their future. It applies to everyone working in health and social care who is involved in the care, treatment and support of people aged 16+.

At the heart of the law in terms of concepts and values are five ‘statutory principles’

1. Presume capacity

2. People may need support

3. People can take unwise decisions

4. Best interest decisions should be made on behalf of the person

5. When you make that decision it should be the less restrictive option

Consider these five principles as the benchmark. They should be used to underpin all acts done and decisions taken in relation to those who lack capacity.

Mental Capacity Act Overview and the National Mental Health Capacity Forum

The film below from Social Care Institute for Excellence explains the Mental Capacity Act and how it can protect the right to make choices. It's an introduction to the Act for people who need it, staff, carers and others.

Using the Mental Capacity Act

This video from Social Care Institute for Excellence explains the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and how it can protect the right to make choices. For people who need the MCA, their carers, and others. The film includes people who lack capacity, discussing it.

Mental Capacity Law and Policy - The Key Points

This video from Alex Ruck Keene of 39 Essex Chambers. Alex has been recognised for several years as one of the leading experts in the Mental Capacity Act 2005. In this video Alex explains the Mental Capacity Act 2005, what it is, how it is applied and links to relevant case law.

The Mental Capacity Toolkit

The Mental Capacity Toolkit produced by the Bournemouth University is to help support health and social care professionals working with individuals whose decision-making capacity is limited, fluctuating, absent or compromised. Demographic changes mean there are increasing numbers of people living with conditions which may impact on their decision-making capacity, and as such it is vital that professionals are confident in their understanding use of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. This tool brings together information from a range of professionals working in the field of mental capacity to provide a comprehensive guide to practice.

Best Interests Checklist

Where a person lacks mental capacity to consent to care and treatment (including restraint and Deprivation of liberty), and there are no other legal provisions for decisions to be made on their behalf, decisions regarding care and treatment must be made under Best Interests principles. 

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 contains what is known generally as the ‘best interests checklist’. It is important to note that this is a non-exhaustive list and that not all the factors will be equally as relevant to all types of decisions, but they must all be considered each time, even if only to disregard them as not relevant to that case.

Understanding Mental Capacity from the The Open University 

This free course, Understanding mental capacity, describes the principles and criteria underpinning the assessment of mental capacity and decision making in the UK. The course begins by looking at what mental capacity – and the lack of it – means.

You will be introduced to various groups of people who are more likely to lack mental capacity, but you will also learn why it is relevant to everyone.

You will look at what can be done to help someone to make a decision themselves and the principles and steps that enable people to judge, fairly, whether someone has capacity or not.

You will be introduced to the legislation in the UK and will see how it supports and protects people who may lack capacity. 

The course will appeal to those who support people aged 16 or over and who have to make decisions in order to address the variety of interpretation and inconsistent application of services in everyday provision. It will explain the law and how it is applied in a practical way for those making important decisions about other’s lives, such as health and social care staff, police, banks and insurance industry workers, and retailers.

The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) provide additional protection for the most vulnerable people living in residential homes, nursing homes, hospital environments and supported housing through the use of a rigorous, standardised assessment and authorisation process. They aim to protect those who lack capacity to consent to arrangements made in relation to their care and/or treatment, but who need to be deprived of their liberty in their own best interest to protect them from harm. They also offer the person concerned the rights:

• To challenge the decision to deprive them of their liberty;
• For a representative to act for them and protect their interests; and
• The right to have their status reviewed and monitored on a regular basis.

DoLS help ensure that an institution only restricts liberty safely and correctly and only when all other less restrictive options have been explored. The Local Authority manages this process and reports to the local Safeguarding Adults Board. In March 2014 the Supreme Court judgement in the case of “P v Cheshire West and Chester Council and another” and “P and Q v Surrey County Council” lowered the threshold for a deprivation and significantly widened the scope of the Mental Capacity Act Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards themselves.

Lewisham Council's Adult Social Care has a dedicated Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards web page that provides general information, links to other sources of information and contact details for the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Team.

Independent Advocacy Under the Care Act 2014

Advocacy and the duty to involve

Local authorities must involve people in decisions made about them and their care and support. No matter how complex a person’s needs, local authorities are required to help people express their wishes and feelings, support them in weighing up their options, and assist them in making their own decisions.

When does the advocacy duty apply?

The advocacy duty will apply from the point of first contact with the local authority and at any subsequent stage of the assessment, planning, care review, safeguarding enquiry or safeguarding adult review. If it appears to the authority that a person has care and support needs, then a judgement must be made as to whether that person has substantial difficulty in being involved and if there is an appropriate individual to support them. An independent advocate must be appointed to support and represent the person for the purpose of assisting their involvement if these two conditions are met and if the individual is required to take part in one or more of the following processes described in the Care Act:

• A needs assessment
• A carer’s assessment
• The preparation of a care and support or support plan
• A review of a care and support or support plan
• A child’s needs assessment
• A child’s carer’s assessment
• A young carer’s assessment
• A safeguarding enquiry
• A safeguarding adult review
• An appeal against a local authority decision under Part 1 of the Care Act (subject to further consultation)

Judging ‘substantial difficulty’

Local authorities must consider, for each person, whether they are likely to have substantial difficulty in engaging with the care and support process. The Care Act defines four areas where people may experience substantial difficulty. These are:

• Understanding relevant information
• Retaining information
• Using or weighing information
• Communicating views, wishes and feelings

Supported decision-making toolkit for people with communication difficulties

Practicable steps for people with communication difficulties

LSAB 7 Minute Briefing - Advocacy

Who is an ‘appropriate individual’ to assist a person’s involvement?

If the person being supported doesn’t want that person to support them, that’s not an appropriate adult. You can’t force an advocate on someone.

Co-production workshop participant

Local authorities must consider whether there is an appropriate individual who can facilitate a person’s involvement in the assessment, planning or review process, and this includes four specific considerations. The appropriate individual cannot be:

• Already providing care or treatment to the person in a professional capacity or on a paid basis
• Someone the person does not want to support them
• Someone who is unlikely to be able to, or available to, adequately support the person’s involvement
• Someone implicated in an enquiry into abuse or neglect or who has been judged by a safeguarding adult review to have failed to prevent abuse or neglect

The role of an ‘appropriate individual’ under the Care Act is potentially fuller and more demanding than that of an individual with whom it is ‘appropriate to consult’ under the Mental Capacity Act (MCA). Under the Care Act the appropriate individual’s role is to facilitate the person’s involvement, not merely to consult them and make decisions on their behalf.

Information and advice

The Care Act places a duty on local authorities to ensure that all adults in their area have access to information and advice on care and support, and to keep them safe from abuse and neglect. Prior to making contact with the local authority, there may be some people who require independent advocacy to access information and advice.

Continuing health care

The advocacy duty in the Care Act applies equally to those people whose needs are being jointly accessed by the NHS and the local authority, or where a package of support is planned, commissioned or funded by both a local authority and a clinical commissioning group (CCG), known as a ‘joint package’ of care.

Independence

The independence of the service is an important consideration for all commissioners.  For services to be meaningful and acceptable to those they are designed to support they must have the confidence of individuals, carers and the public.

Prisoners

From April 2015 local authorities will also be responsible for assessing and meeting the social care needs of adult prisoners (not just on discharge from prison but also while in custody). All prisoners will be treated as if they are resident in that area for the purposes of the Care Act and for as long as they reside in that prison. Prisoners will be entitled to the support of an independent advocate in the same circumstances as people in the community.

Social Care and Health have produced this video in British Sign Language on the provision of Independent Advocacy under the Care Act 2014.

Prevention

This video Safeguarding Adults - Helping People To Protect Themselves From Crime which has been produced by the Social Care Institute for Excellence, shows what care workers and others who are in contact with adults at risk can do to help them protect themselves from crime.

This video Safeguarding Adults - Looking Out For Each Other To Prevent Abuse which has been produced by the Social Care Institute for Excellence, can be helpful to highlight what the local community can do to protect themselves and those they care about.

Preventing abuse and neglect of adults with care and support needs - SCIE

Feeling lonely or isolated? - Age UK Silver Line

As we get older, we may find we spend more time on our own. This can sometimes feel lonely, boring or make us miss friends or family.

If you or someone you know is missing the joy of regular conversation,

The Silver Line Helpline run by Age UK is a free, 24-hour telephone service for older people across the UK.

We offer friendship, conversation, and support for people aged 55 or over, especially those who may be experiencing feelings of loneliness and isolation.

Find out more about the Silver Line

London Fire Brigade -  Home Fire Safety Checker

Get started with the Home Fire Safety Checker

Metropolitan Police- Lewisham - Personal safety: how to stay safe

Independent Age - Advice and support for older age

Independent Age have some great advice on what can cause falls, what you can do if you do fall and where to find out further information.

Staying steady on your feet

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust offer a falls rehabilitation service which you can access via referral from your GP.

Age UK Lewisham and Southwark

Age UK Lewisham and Southwark exists to improve the lives of older people in the London Boroughs of Lewisham and Southwark, working towards a future in which older people are valued, safe and empowered to make choices about their lives.

Age UK Lewisham and Southwark aims to empower and enable older people to lead fulfilled lives by:

• Providing services and support that address poverty and isolation

• Protecting the human rights of local older people

• Promoting health and wellbeing

• Connecting older people with their communities

• Working positively with partners across all sectors

Find out how Age UK Lewisham can help you. 

Protect yourself from fraud and cyber crime with Action Fraud

How much do you really know about fraud and cyber crime? Action Fraud has lots of helpful information and advice on how to keep you safe.

See this Web Page which has useful advice and services that exist locally: Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board - SCAMS Information and Advice

About Us and How To Contact Us

The overarching purpose of the Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board (LSAB) is to help and safeguard adults with care and support needs by:

• Assuring itself that local safeguarding arrangements are in place as defined by the Care Act 2014 and statutory guidance;
• Assuring itself that safeguarding practice is person-centred and outcome-focused;
• Working collaboratively to prevent abuse and neglect where possible;
• Ensuring agencies and individuals give timely and proportionate responses when abuse or neglect have occurred; and
• Assuring itself that safeguarding practice is continuously improving and enhancing the quality of life of adults in its area.

The Board meets four times a year and has an Independent Chair.

In Lewisham the Board believes that "Safeguarding is Everyone's Business". Its pledge to the people in Lewisham is that by working together and in partnership the risk of abuse or harm can be reduced by raising awareness of safeguarding of adults. As intelligence is gathered from across the partnership activity trends can be analysed and areas of concern identified so that preventative measures can be applied to keep people safe.

**Do not contact the Independent Safeguarding Adults Board to report Safeguarding Concerns. You need to contact Adult Social Care Gateway at Lewisham Council. Please see "How to Report a Safeguarding Adult Concern" section below. Please also consider the transmission of personal information when making a referral to the Council. **

There are two ways that you can get in contact with us, by email or letter. 

Email Us

Postal Address: Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board, C/o London Borough of Lewisham, 3rd Floor, Laurence House, Catford, London, SE6 4RU.

How to Report a Safeguarding Adult Concern

If you suspect that you or an adult you care about may be at risk of abuse or neglect call Lewisham Adult Gateway on 020 8314 7777 alternatively if you have concerns about the immediate safety of an adult at risk then please contact the Police on 999.

There are a number of ways you can contact Gateway

The Gateway can be contacted Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm

Tel: 020 8314 7777 (select option 1)

Fax: 020 8314 3014

Email Gateway

You can also follow us on Twitter @lewisham_sab

Safeguarding Adults Reviews & How to Make a Referral

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board (LSAB) will arrange a Safeguarding Adults Review (SAR) when an adult in Lewisham dies as a result of abuse or neglect, whether known or suspected, and there is concern that partner agencies could have worked more effectively to protect the adult.

We will also arrange a SAR if an adult in Lewisham has not died, but the LSAB knows or suspects that the adult has experienced serious abuse or neglect.

We are also free to arrange for a SAR in any other situations involving an adult in Lewisham with needs for care and support.

The Department of Health's Safeguarding Care and Support Statutory Guidance guides the reviews we carry out.

Should the LSAB carry out a review we have a LSAB SAR Policy & Procedures October 2023 that we work to, which explains in detail what you can expect us to undertake for the Lewisham Community.

The National SAB Guidance on the Interface between SARs and Coronial Processes - September 2024 provides guidance on how we work with HM Coroner.

Read our published Safeguarding Adult Reviews.

Make a referral to the Board for a Safeguarding Adults Review

If you would like to refer a case to us for the boards consideration for a Safeguarding Adults Review to be commissioned please use our dedicated notification form.

LSAB Structure and Members

Organisations represented on the LSAB

1. Age UK Lewisham and Southwark
2. Change Grow Live (CGL)
3. Department for Work and Pensions – South London District
4. Healthwatch Lewisham
5. Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Trust
6. Lewisham Adult Social Care
7. Lewisham Speaking Up
8. Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network (LRMN)
9. Lewisham Safeguarding Children Partnership (LSCP)
10. Lewisham Housing Directorate
11. Lewisham Adult Integrated Commissioning
12. Lewisham Safer Communities
13. London Ambulance Service NHS Trust
14. London Fire Brigade
15. Metropolitan Police Service, Lewisham (South East BCU)
16. National Probation Service, Lewisham and Bromley
17. NHS South East London Integrated Care Service and Board
18. South East London MIND
19. South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

There will also be representatives from partner agencies on Sub-Groups.

Governance

The LSAB is responsible for ensuring organisations are meeting their safeguarding obligations effectively and will hold them to account if they are not.

As individuals, Board members are accountable to their own agencies but the Board as a whole will be accountable to the Department of Health and Social Care, and provides reports locally to the Health and Wellbeing Board and the Healthier Communities Select Committee.

Its work may be scrutinised periodically by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and is liable to be inspected at any time by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The Board, through the independent chair, is accountable to the Chief Executive of the Local Authority, the Chief Executive of the NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB) and the Borough Commander of Police.

These Executive Group of agencies may periodically meet to discuss the strategic direction of the Board, and additionally invite the London Fire Brigade Borough Commander, Chief Executive of Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Trust, and Chief Executive of the South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to join this group.

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board Structure

 

The LSAB Compact and Strategic Business Plan 2025-2026 describes how these organisations and their representatives on the Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board (LSAB) will work together in partnership to safeguard the residents of Lewisham in 2025-26.

Policies and Procedures Library

A

Adult Safeguarding Leaflets and Posters

Annual Report 2024-2025 

B

C

Communication and Engagement Strategy 2025-26

Cuckooing Awareness and Response Toolkit

E

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Adult Safeguarding and Domestic Abuse 7 minute briefing

E

Guidance on Improving our Approach to Adult and Family Engagement

Inter-Agency Escalation Policy (July 2023)

F

Guidance for Falls Events as Adult Safeguarding Concerns (Jan 2023)

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H

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LSAB Information Sharing Agreement January 2024

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K

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London Multi-Agency Adult Safeguarding Policy & Procedures

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LSAB Guidance for Reporting Medication Incidents as Adult Safeguarding Concerns Jan 2022

Lewisham Modern Slavery Victim Care Pathway

Lewisham Modern Slavery Partnership Strategy (Oct 2022)

Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking 7 Minute Briefing

N

O

P

Partnership Compact and Strategic Business Plan 2025-2026

People in Positions of Trust (PiPoT) Framework

Q

R

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Safeguarding Adults Review (SAR) Policy & Procedures October 2023

LSAB Self Neglect Policy, Practice Guidance and Procedures April 2025

Self-Neglect High Risk Panel - Risk Assessment & Action Plan Template Feb 2025

LSAB Adult Safeguarding Single Agency Policy and Procedures Template Jan 2025

LSAB Adult Safeguarding Single Agency Policy Template for Small Community Organisations - Jan 2025

T

Think Family Practice Guidance

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

Adult Safeguarding Leaflets and Posters

Adult Safeguarding Posters - See it, Report it!

• LSAB Adult Safeguarding Poster Version 1

Adult Safeguarding Leaflet:

• Easy Read Version
• LSAB Adult Safeguarding Leaflet (2024)Links to above poster 
• Translated Bengali Version
• Translated Hindi Version
• Translated Urdu Version

Infographic - It all Points to Prevention 

• All Points Towards Prevention Infographic November 2023

Working with Fathers and Male Carer's Toolkit

A toolkit for professionals working with fathers and male carers.

Working with Fathers and Male Carer's Toolkit Checklist

A checklist that focusses professionals work when working with fathers and male carer's.

Working with Fathers and Male Carer's Toolkit Resources

A collection of resources for professionals working with fathers and male carer's in Lewisham.

LSAB Scams Easy Read Booklet

This booklet was made by Lewisham Speaking Up on behalf of the Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board.

Read and download the Scams Easy Read Booklet

New! LSAB Cuckooing A Brief Guide for Professionals

A brief guide for professionals including information on 

• What is Cuckooing
• Common Indicators of Cuckooing
• What can I do to help make the adult safe?
• Relationship-Based Practices
• Person-Centred Interventions 
• Partnership Working
• Advice for Submitting an Adult Safeguarding
  Concern
• Support for Lewisham Professionals

Annual Reports

The Care Act 2014 requires each Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB) to publish an annual report. 

The Care Act (Schedule 2.4 (1) a–g) defines the minimum content of an annual report.

As soon as is feasible after the end of each financial year, a SAB must publish a report on:

• What it has done during that year to achieve its objective,
• What it has done during that year to implement its strategy,
• What each member has done during that year to implement the strategy,
• The findings of the reviews arranged by it under section 44 (safeguarding adults reviews) which have concluded in that year (whether or not they began in that year),
• The reviews arranged by it under that section which are ongoing at the end of that year (whether or not they began in that year),
• What it has done during that year to implement the findings of reviews arranged by it under that section, and
• Where it decides during that year not to implement a finding of a review arranged by it under that section, the reasons for its decision.
• The performance of member agencies and how effectively, or otherwise, they are working together should be included in the report.

The annual report must be sent to:

• The Chief Executive and leader of the local authority which established the SAB.
• Any local Policing body that is required to sit on the SAB.
• The local Health Watch organisation.
• The Chair of the local Health and Wellbeing Board.

Annual reports should form the basis for the consultation on the strategic plan for the coming year.

A SAB should seek assurance from its members that the annual report has been considered within their internal governance processes.

LSAB Annual Report 2024-25

Message from the Independent Chair

“It is against this background of increasing understanding and demand for
safeguarding activity that this report demonstrates creativity, activity and
persistence to reduce the safeguarding risk to adults”.

I am delighted to present this Annual Report from the Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board for 2024-2025. It represents the continuing hard work and dedication of so many professionals, volunteers and members of our community in their endeavours to ensure neighbourhoods are as safe as they can be, and that adults are protected as much as possible from all forms of abuse and exploitation.

We are, though, living at a time when we are still developing our understanding of adult safeguarding in terms of its scope, impact and effect. Hence, as this report shows, the number of safeguarding enquiries and the differing types of issues they cover is growing significantly every year, and this past year was no exception.

It is against this background of increasing understanding and demand for safeguarding activity that this report demonstrates creativity, activity and persistence to reduce the safeguarding risk to adults, and also to respond appropriately when some of the most vulnerable members of our community are victims of abuse and or exploitation.

The safeguarding board has a membership representing all the statutory welfare services, plus the voluntary sectors, ensuring the voices of the community are heard.

The significant achievements represented in this report are due to board members' commitment and dedication, and I therefore want to thank them all on behalf of the citizens in Lewisham.

The report is packed with insights and information which I trust will help you gain a good understanding of the activities of the board in the past year and its plans for the future.

The fact that we as a society need Safeguarding Adults Boards is a reflection of some of the problems and issues that we face in society, and the Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SARs) we have undertaken are a reminder that care services and support are not always of the standard or quality we would rightly expect.

The board is committed to doing all it possibly can to drive up standards and to ensure services are safe and appropriate.

Finally, I would like to thank the board staff members. They are a very small team, yet their commitment and dedication is clear for all to see in this report; we all owe them so much. It has been my privilege to have chaired this board over this past year, but this will be my final report as I need to find more time to care for my own family.

I will be leaving the board in a very healthy state and I look forward to hearing how its work develops in the future.

Professor Keith Brown

Summary of Delivery in 2024-25

The Board continued to oversee the delivery of its strategic aims and objectives.

Key areas of work included:

Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SARs)

The Board continues to be busy with several notifications being submitted throughout the year. Details of the two published SARs from
the reporting period and further information can be found on pages 13 & 14.

Learning and Development

The Board delivered another record number of learning activities during the last 12 months reaching increasing numbers of participants. The collated evaluation feedback from these events produced an overall score of 9:10 from the delegates who were asked to rate how their knowledge, skills and confidence had improved as a result of their attendance.

Audit and Scrutiny

The Safeguarding Adults Partnership Audit (SAPAT) is our annual quality assurance process. A Heatmap is outlined for the key public sector agencies. There is a continuous focus on audit and scrutiny which is delivered through the work of the Board’s Sub-Groups and other forums.

Community Engagement

A number of events were delivered to engage members of the public and those who have lived experience of abuse. This included involvement with the Board’s development session. Their feedback is used to help ensure strategic priorities are relevant and improve the focus on prevention. 3,000 information leaflets were also circulated across Lewisham. 

Self-Neglect High Risk Panel

Important work continued throughout the year to develop new policy and procedures.

Safeguarding Adults Partnership Audit (SAPAT)

The Board conducts an annual audit to ensure partners understand what is working well and what challenges exist within their own organisations and at a partnership level. It also provides an opportunity to identify strategic priorities for the next year.

Metropolitan Police Service
Achievements:

• Focused training on domestic abuse to enhance investigations.
• Despite financial challenges there has been investment in public protection teams.
• Specialist mental health team, which also advises and supports other staff.
• Training on self-neglect and professional curiosity (learning from SARs).
• Work on race action plan and leadership culture to improve community cohesion.

Challenges and Future Developments:

• Ensuring there is consistency and legal compliance in relation to safeguarding.
• Poor data recording and sharing in relation to safeguarding via CONNECT system.
• Need for more collaboration on inter-agency training.

“We aspire to be the most trusted police service in the world”.

NHS South East London (SEL) Integrated Care System (ICS)

(Achievements:

• Reducing the number of care home acquired pressure ulcers - enhanced training.
• Community Pressure Ulcer Panel’s preventative work in improving quality of care.
• Recruitment of an Independent Gender Violence Advocate into primary care.
• Reviewing accommodation for homeless asylum seekers - safeguarding focus.

Challenges and Future Developments

• Workforce pressures in primary care can inhibit attendance at learning events.
• Creating more co-ordination between children’s and adult services.
• Expanding perpetrator programmes for domestic abuse.

“Adopting a Think Family approach that involves an open door into
a system of joined up support”.

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust (LGT)

Achievements:

• Review of the Trust wide mental capacity assessment form.
  
• Routine inquiry into domestic abuse now embedded into ED triage at *UHL.
  
• Prioritising safeguarding at all major trust events and patient safety incidents.
  
• Planning for a dedicated safeguarding conference.

Challenges and Future Developments:

• Over reliance on e-learning which limits effectiveness of personal development.
  
• Professional curiosity can only improve if unprecedented workload is addressed.
  
• Shortage of mental health beds translates into pressure on acute services.

“We talk about self-neglect at training, and acknowledge the reality and
difficulty of implementing best practice”.

Lewisham Council - Adult Social Care (ASC)

Achievements:

• Rollout of updated self-neglect policy ensuring practitioners have clear guidance.
• Review of the internal safeguarding systems to improve responsiveness.
• Mental Capacity Act assurance: audits, training, and incident reviews.
• Learning & development culture: staff forums, briefings, performance monitoring.

Challenges and Future Developments:

• Continue to improve the local safeguarding case management database.
• Significant increase in safeguarding activity and flow of intelligence into ASC.
• Changes to the ASC structure to help manage the safeguarding workflow.

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM)

Achievements: 

• Improving the status of safeguarding on the corporate risk register.
• Implementation of the trust wide sexual safety policy and linked training.
• Introduction of quarterly safeguarding supervision sessions.
  
• Improved focus and oversight of Mental Capacity Act assessments.
  
• Appointment of a Think Family lead and steering group.
  
• Partnership working with black led organisations to develop anti-racist practice.
  
• Significant increase in safeguarding training and achieving related targets.

Challenges and Future Developments:

• Continue to improve the focus on domestic abuse.
  
• Further strengthen the use of advocacy services.
  
• Staffing problems leads to teams being over stretched and exhausted.

“Improved safeguarding knowledge across the trust is evidenced by the
number of referrals being raised and informed curiosity during supervision”.

 LSAB Partnership Achievements: (Based on combined feedback from partners)

• Ongoing commitment of partner agencies.
• Communication and engagement continues to be an excellent standard.
• Volume and quality of outcomes delivered by the Sub-Groups.
• Delivery of Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SARs) and learning this generates.
• The number and standard of resources created for professionals.

LSAB Partnership Challenges:

• Addressing the complex problems linked to hoarding and self-neglect. Managing the increasing volume of Safeguarding Concerns. (3,376 in 2024-25).
• Ensuring professionals maintain their focus on prevention.
• Maintaining “the passion and compassion”.

Examples of Engagement with Partners

Homelessness and Safeguarding Workshop - 999 Club: 21 May 2024 

The Board jointly hosted this Workshop at the 999 Club in Deptford. This was a significant and powerful event bringing 30+ people from 15 separate agencies together to build relationships and a shared understanding of the issues.

The signature presentation at the event was given by Tasia a service user and now peer support worker who talked about her experiences which are outlined on the following page.

The event coincided with a letter being published by the government announcing that every Safeguarding Adults Board must consider how the homelessness sector is represented within this statutory partnership.

“SABs should ensure their governance structure has the necessary mechanisms to hold partners working with people rough sleeping accountable”.

This has been agreed and a specific action plan was developed based on the discussions at this event which will be repeated in October 2025.

Missing Adults Workshop - Metropolitan Police: 25 July 2024
The aim of this event was to bring professionals from a range of sectors and backgrounds together to discuss how we can create a best practice safeguarding response for missing adults, and in doing so, help prevent future incidents and improve the aftercare that is offered to this group of people. 

Overview of good practice:

• Identify trends, hotspots, emerging issues, and build the local picture.
• Set up a local multi-agency strategic group to oversee the approach and protocols.
• Conduct safe & well or prevention interviews and practices.
• Conduct return interviews.
• Ensure necessary staff have appropriate training.
• Make practical changes to locations (built environment).
• Ensure everyone knows how and when to report someone as missing.

Carers Rights Day - Imago: 21 November 2024

19,957 informal and unpaid carers were identified in the census in 2021 in Lewisham, but Carers U.K. estimates this it is likely to be double that number in each area.

Only c.2,000 of these individuals (5-10%) are currently registered with Imago the commissioned carers support service in the borough, so Carers Rights Day is important in helping to raise awareness across local communities and ensure support is being offered to those who may need it. The Board supported the activities held by Imago and delivered two safeguarding workshops at the Glass Mill Leisure Centre.

What People with Lived Experience Said

Homelessness

Tasia shared her personal story with Board member in July 2024 and spoke highly of the event at the 999 Club in May that year. She talked about her life experiences and her initial contact with services, expressing that she would have sought help earlier if she had known about the 999 Club sooner. Tasia emphasised the need for strict no-drugs policies within accommodation settings and highlighted the need for staff to always be empathetic and supportive to those that are homeless as this really makes a big difference.

    “Empathy costs nothing”.

Tasia also discussed issues related to unsafe housing, noting that disrepairs and anti-social behaviour are not always acted upon appropriately, and that Safeguarding Concerns that had been submitted regarding her circumstances had also been
disregarded. Tasia reinforced the need to receive acknowledgement from the local authority to outline why this was the case and what other avenues of support were available to her.

“Just putting a roof over someone’s head is not enough”.

Learning Disability
Aisha and Tom who are peer advocates from Lewisham Speaking Up (LSU) attended the Board meeting in July 2024 to talk about housing and home environment, which is often impacted due the current crisis which can have an impact on mental health.

“Adults living with a learning disability have high aspirations too. ”

The single biggest issue (50% of the total) that the advocates within LSU come across is housing, but councils and housing associations do not communicate very well with LSU about this, which is frustrating. This can often cross-over with and connect to Safeguarding Concerns linked to anti-social behaviour, or self-neglect, disrepair, and hoarding.

“Agencies do not take LSU seriously, or listen to us, and we are left out of the loop” .

Transitional Safeguarding - Care Leaver
Jade shared her experiences with the Board in January 2025 as a care leaver who moved frequently and relocated from London to  Birmingham and then to Blackpool after growing up in Lewisham. Jade faced various risks and outlined that there was no clear plan and therapy was not provided which led to her frequently running away often due to not feeling safe. Jade emphasised that she should have received better support and that there were no discussions about potential risks when she eventually moved back to London. 

“Corporate parents should treat care leavers the same way they would treat their own children”.

Learning, Training and Development

Key Highlights
The Foundation Level Introduction to Safeguarding Training continues to be delivered every 6-8 weeks which is open to anyone to attend, including carers and members of the public. This was accessed by 164 people throughout the year.

A more detailed course is also offered for Leaders and Managers which is delivered quarterly and was attended by 41 people during 2024-25.

A new Professional Curiosity training course was trialled initially after extensive research and then launched during the year, and will be delivered every 3 months. The 2nd National SAR Analysis identified practice shortcomings in 44% of SARs and only 3% identified good practice. See page 16 for more detail.

We held a joint learning event for SARs Maria and Maureen in March 2025 which was attended by 199 delegates, providing an important opportunity to share and discuss the key aspects of these two high profile cases.

In addition the LSAB Business Unit played a leading role in the planning of the London SAB Conference which was held to coincide with the National Adult Safeguarding Awareness Week 18-22 November 2024. 675 delegates attended this event and Lewisham had the second highest level of attendance of any of the London boroughs with 98 people participating.

All of the development activities provided by the Board are free of charge.

Communication and Engagement Activities 

LSAB Communication & Engagement (CE) Strategy 2024-25
This was updated in July 2024 but the overriding principles remain the same:

Below are some examples of the Communication & Engagement work delivered in the last 12 months:

3rd Annual Housing Summit December 2024
Hosted in person this year to provide an opportunity for providers to meet, network and discuss some of the key issues in relation to their work linked to safeguarding.

Community Drop in - Catford Library
Providing an opportunity to listen to people’s experiences, hand out leaflets, and answer any questions members of the public may have throughout the year.

Networking and Learning Events
Bespoke sessions were delivered for Age UK, Community Connections; Lewisham Speaking Up Advocates and Trustees; as well as generic sessions in the community.

Learning Culture Survey Autumn 2024

There is regular communication with frontline practitioners to collect their feedback and use this to inform the local approach,
policies and resources.

e-Bulletins
Circulated to an increasingly large number of individual email addresses (c.1,000) every 6-8 weeks with important updates regarding legislation, research and policy.

7 Minute Briefings
These briefings are published on varied topics throughout the year making it easier for professionals to read and digest important information in a bitesize format:

Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SARs)

Maria SAR Published 11 December 2024

Maria was aged 54, a White British female, heterosexual, who had a home provided by a local housing association which was a temporary solution to her homeless situation. Maria was also supported by the tenancy sustainment team from a local homeless charity commissioned to offer such support. Maria was known to sleep on the streets and could often be found bedded down in the town centre. The reason for this is recorded as problems with neighbours.

Maria had a long history of treatment with substance misuse services for alcohol dependency. Maria had successfully completed alcohol treatment two months before the scoping period for this review and moved to the commissioned substance misuse service for continued support for alcohol use within the community. Following the loss of a family member at the end of the year before she died, Maria’s own health deteriorated, and professionals found it increasingly hard to engage with her. Following admission to hospital with a head injury, her family raised concerns regarding domestic abuse by her partner. Maria’s physical health then deteriorated, and she died on 2 June 2023, seven days after admission. The inquest is not concluded and therefore an official cause of death is not yet known.

Maureen SAR Published 10 February 2025 

Maureen was a 66-year-old woman from a Black Caribbean ethnic background. She lived alone in a social tenancy provided by the local authority since 2011. Maureen’s friend since childhood and her goddaughter explained that Maureen had been a very intelligent, resourceful woman, who was excellent with money and had cared for her parents, her brother and other family members. Her friends felt Maureen had always experienced some challenges with her mental health and were aware that she had become increasingly withdrawn, isolating herself from others over the past decade.

Maureen had experienced a number of losses of her friends and family in a short period of time, perhaps due to these losses Maureen took to feeding local pigeons and would also bring them into her home. This affected the cleanliness and condition of her property and impacted on people living in the same block of flats. When asked by professionals about feeding and keeping birds, she either denied the behaviour or appeared to have no insight into the condition of her living environment.

There was a history of agencies failing to engage Maureen; she declined offers of care and support, and only appeared to participate in assessments when ordered or requested by the Court, although there was considerable multi-agency activity during the last year of her life. Having been reported as a missing person the police attended the property and found Maureen deceased in her home; she appeared to have been dead for some time.

All of the published SARs in Lewisham can be read here:
Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board - Safeguarding Adults Reviews

Example: What Have we Learned from Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SARs)

We analysed all of the Lewisham SARs and linked intelligence since 2019 with the two following aspects of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 Code of Practice in mind:

In all but two of the cases there were recorded ‘doubts’ and concerns highlighted that may have led people to ‘question’ the person’s ability to make a specific and relevant decision, but despite this no MCA assessments were completed. In the Adult Z case this was the actual reason behind the SAR notification and ‘The Adult’ was being supervised under the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) but no record of assessment could be found despite this being a legal requirement.  

Examples: What Has Changed Because of Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SAR)

1. The two NHS Trusts in the borough have improved their systems and processes in relation to how they conduct and record mental capacity assessments, and the local authority is also in the process of overhauling their approach to this subject.

2. The ‘Was not Brought’ policies have been reviewed across primary health services, which follows on from the work to update their adult safeguarding and domestic abuse policies.

3. It is the now the default position that the council’s relevant housing teams do not close the cases for rough sleepers and/or those with a history of rough sleeping without a specific and dedicated support plan in place.

4. The whole of the Metropolitan Police has changed its terminology and training in relation to Acute Behaviour Disturbance, which is a significant shift in approach in line with the recommendations from the Lewisham Joshua SAR.

5. A new protocol has been developed between the local Brain Injury Unit and other relevant services that outlines the responsibilities and procedures for complex hospital discharges.

Strategic Business Plan 2024-25

In line with the five priority areas there are a total of 23 actions that are planned for 2025-26 which is the most ambitious work programme the Board has ever had.

This will include: a continuation of the comprehensive training programme including a new course to improve the focus on SCAMS and financial abuse; a review of the internal audit processes used by partner agencies in relation to mental capacity; a continuing focus on Think Family and homelessness; and new tri-borough guidance to be published on Missing Adults to help improve the local response to this subject in an area with one of the highest rates of missing people in London.

Full details can be read here:

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board - Partnership Compact and Strategic Business Plan 2024-2025

Download a copy of the LSAB Annual Report 2024-2025 

Download a copy of the LSAB Annual Report 2023-2024 

Download a copy of the LSAB Annual Report 2022-2023

Download a copy of the LSAB Annual Report 2021-2022

Download a copy of the LSAB Annual Report 2020-2021

Download a copy of the LSAB Annual Report 2019-2020

Download a copy of the LSAB Annual Report 2018-2019

Safeguarding Adults Reviews

Read and download all of the published Safeguarding Adult Reviews Commissioned by Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board.

SAR Learning Event Maria and Maureen

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board held this important online event on Monday 24 March 2025 12pm – 2pm.

This joint SAR learning event was hosted by our Independent Chair, Professor Keith Brown MBE and included presentations from the independent reviewers involved in these two cases (Imogen Blood and Karen Rees) providing information on the SAR themes, findings and recommendations and a Q&A session. This heavily subscribed national event provided a significant learning experience for all those who attended.

Recording, and presentations from the event are available below. 

Lewisham SAR Learning Event Maria Presentation

Lewisham SAR Learning Event Maureen Presentation

Safeguarding Adults Review - Maureen - 10 February 2025

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has today published the Safeguarding Adults Review - Maureen

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has also produced a 7 Minute Briefing - Maureen - for Professionals.

The Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has also published a statement in relation to this review.

The key learning points from this Safeguarding Adults Review were, self-nelgect, the complexities of mental capacity assessment, refusal of services and using the Lewisham Adult Safeguarding Pathway.

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Safeguarding Adults Review - Maria - 11 December 2024

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has today published the Safeguarding Adults Review - Maria

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has also produced a 7 Minute Briefing - Maria - for Professionals.

The Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has also published a statement in relation to this review.

The key learning points from this Safeguarding Adults Review were, the need for trauma informed care and support to offer evidence-based services and protection, rough sleeping with a tenancy, the complexities of mental capacity assessment, refusal of services, multi-agency working and using the Lewisham Adult Safeguarding Pathway.

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Safeguarding Adults Review - Arthur - 10 November 2023

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has today published the Safeguarding Adults Review Arthur.

Accompanying this report is a statement from the family of Arthur. 

The Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has also produced a 7 Minute Briefing - Arthur - for Professionals.

Safeguarding Adults Review Joshua 7 June 2023 

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has today published the Safeguarding Adults Review Joshua.

The Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has also published a statement in relation to this review.

The Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has also produced a 7 Minute Briefing - Joshua - for Professionals.

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Safeguarding Adults Review (SAR) Learning Event Amanda and Eileen Dean 

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board held this important online event on Wednesday 22 February 2023 2pm - 4pm.

The event was hosted by our Independent Chair, Professor Michael Preston-Shoot and included presentations from the independent reviewers involved in these cases (Susan Harrison and Patrick Hopkinson) as well information on wider SAR themes, including a Q&A session. This high-profile and heavily subscribed event provided a significant learning experience for those who attended.

Recordings, Q&A and presentations from the event are available below. 

Amanda

Eileen Dean

Questions and Answers from the Amanda and Eileen Dean SAR Learning Event

Questions and Answers from the Amanda and Eileen Dean SAR Learning Event 22-02-23

Safeguarding Adults Review for Eileen Dean 11 November 2022

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has today published the Safeguarding Adults Review for Eileen Dean.

Accompanying this report is a statement from Eileen's family.

The Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has also published a statement in relation to this review.

The Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has also produced a 7 Minute Briefing - Eileen Dean - for Professionals.

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Safeguarding Adults Review for Amanda 2 November 2022

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has today published the Safeguarding Adults Review for Amanda.

Accompanying this report is a statement from the family of Amanda.

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has also produced a 7 Minute Briefing - Amanda - for Professionals.

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Safeguarding Adults Review for Mia 29 September 2021

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has today published the Safeguarding Adults Review for Mia.

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has also produced a LSAB 7 Minute Briefing - Mia - for Professionals.

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19 July 2021 Safeguarding Adults Review – Adult Z

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has today published the Safeguarding Adults Review for Adult Z.

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has also produced a 7 Minute Briefing - Adult Z - for Professionals.

The key learning points from this Safeguarding Adults Review were mental ill health, the complexities of mental capacity assessment and providing emergency care in the community for adults with complex needs.

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Friday 26 June 2020 - Safeguarding Adults Review – Mrs A & Miss G

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has today published the Safeguarding Adults Review for Mrs A & Miss G.

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has also produced a LSAB 7 Minute Briefing - Mrs A & Miss G - for Professionals.

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Friday 12 June 2020 - Safeguarding Adults Review – Mr Tyrone Goodyear

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has today published the Safeguarding Adults Review for Mr Tyrone Goodyear.

Accompanying this report is a statement from the family of Tyrone.

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has also produced a 7 Minute Briefing - Tyrone Goodyear - for Professionals.

Zero Suicide Alliance provide a range of awareness training options, which provide a better understanding of the signs to look out for and the skills required to approach someone who is struggling, whether that be through social isolation or suicidal thoughts. 

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Friday 5 June 2020 - Safeguarding Adults Review - Executive Summary - Lee

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has today published the Safeguarding Adults Review Executive Summary - Lee.

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has also produced a 7 Minute Briefing – Lee - for Professionals.

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During 2018 Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board published two safeguarding adult reviews. The full reports and accompanying documents are available to read and download below.

Mr Michael Thompson - Safeguarding Adults Review - Full Report

Statement of the board in relation to the Safeguarding Adults Review - Mr Michael Thompson

Safeguarding Adult Review, Reflection and Development Briefing - Personalising Care and Improving Outcomes

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Mr CS - Safeguarding Adults Review - Full Report (Includes board statement)

Mr CS - Safeguarding Adults Review - Practice Briefing

Guidelines On Risk Assessment for Smoking in Care Homes

Find out more about Safeguarding Adult Reviews and How to Make a Referral to the LSAB.

National Network for Chairs of Adult Safeguarding Boards

You can find all of the Safeguarding Adults Reviews published nationally in the National Network for Chairs of Adult Safeguarding Boards - SAR Library.

Partnership Compact and Strategic Business Plan 2025-2026

Introduction
This document describes how organisations and their representatives on the Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board (LSAB) will work together in partnership to safeguard the residents of Lewisham in 2025-26. It is based on the statutory functions of Safeguarding Adults Boards as set out in the Care Act 2014, Care and Support Statutory Guidance.

Safeguarding means protecting an adult’s right to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect. It is about people and organisations working together to prevent and stop both the risks and experience of abuse or neglect, while at the same time making sure that the adult’s wellbeing is promoted including, where appropriate, having regard to their views, wishes, feelings and beliefs in deciding on any action.

1.1 The aims of adult safeguarding:
• stop abuse or neglect wherever possible;
• prevent harm and reduce the risk of abuse or neglect to adults with care and support needs;
• safeguard adults in a way that supports them in making choices and having control about how they want to live;
• promote an approach that concentrates on improving life for the adults concerned;
• raise public awareness so that communities as a whole, alongside professionals, play their part in preventing, identifying and responding to abuse and neglect;
• provide information and support in accessible ways to help people understand the different types of abuse, how to stay safe and what to do to raise a concern about the safety or well-being of an adult; and
• then address what has caused the abuse or neglect.

1.2 Six key principles underpin all adult safeguarding work:

• Empowerment – people being supported and encouraged to make their own decisions and informed consent.
• Prevention – it is better to take action before harm occurs.
• Proportionality – the least intrusive response appropriate to the risk presented.
• Protection – support and representation for those in greatest need.
• Partnership – local solutions through services working with their communities. Communities have a part to play in preventing, detecting and reporting neglect and abuse.
• Accountability – accountability and transparency in delivering safeguarding.

1.3 Safeguarding duty: (this applies to an adult who)
• has needs for care and support (whether or not the local authority is meeting any of those needs) and;
• is experiencing, or at risk of, abuse or neglect; and
• as a result of those care and support needs is unable to protect themselves from either the risk of, or the experience of abuse or neglect.

2. What is abuse and / or neglect?
The criteria set out in section 1.3 above need to be met before the issue is considered as a concern under the statutory safeguarding duty. Exploitation is a common theme in the following list of the types of abuse and neglect.

• Physical abuse: including assault, hitting, slapping, pushing, misuse of medication, restraint, or inappropriate physical sanctions.
• Domestic abuse: including psychological, physical, sexual, financial, emotional abuse; so called ‘honour’ based violence. A new definition is outlined in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021  including a description of ‘personally connected’.
• Sexual abuse: including rape, indecent exposure, sexual harassment, inappropriate looking or touching, sexual teasing or innuendo, sexual photography, subjection to pornography or witnessing sexual acts, indecent exposure and sexual assault or sexual acts to which the adult has not consented or was pressured into consenting.
• Sexual exploitation: This is when a sexual act takes place in exchange for things like food, shelter, protection, or to pay bills, and the victim may have been coerced or manipulated into this sexual act.
• Psychological abuse: including emotional abuse, threats of harm or abandonment, deprivation of contact, humiliation, blaming, controlling, intimidation, coercion, harassment, verbal abuse, cyber bullying, isolation or unreasonable and unjustified withdrawal of services or supportive networks.
• Financial or material abuse: including theft, fraud, internet scamming, coercion in relation to an adult’s financial affairs or arrangements, including in connection with wills, property, inheritance or financial transactions, or the misuse or misappropriation of property, possessions or benefits.
• Modern slavery: encompasses slavery, human trafficking, forced labour and domestic servitude. Traffickers and slave masters use whatever means they have at their disposal to coerce, deceive and force individuals into a life of abuse, servitude and inhumane treatment.
• Discriminatory abuse: including forms of harassment, slurs or similar treatment; because of race, gender and gender identity, age, disability, sexual orientation or religion (including Hate Crimes).
• Organisational abuse: including neglect and poor care practice within an institution or specific care setting such as a hospital or care home, for example, or in relation to care provided in one’s own home. This may range from one off incidents to on-going ill-treatment. It can be through neglect or poor professional practice as a result of the structure, policies, processes and practices within an organisation.
• Neglect and acts of omission: including ignoring medical, emotional or physical care needs, failure to provide access to appropriate health, care and support or educational services, the withholding of the necessities of life, such as medication, adequate nutrition and heating.
• Self-neglect: this covers a wide range of behaviour neglecting to care for one’s personal hygiene, health or surroundings and includes behaviour such as hoarding.

3. The statutory functions of Safeguarding Adults Boards
As set out in Care and Support Statutory Guidance, each Safeguarding Adults Board should:

• identify the role, responsibility, authority, and accountability with regard to the action each agency and professional group should take to ensure the protection of adults;
• establish ways of analysing and interrogating data on safeguarding notifications that increase the SAB’s understanding of prevalence of abuse and neglect locally that builds up a picture over time;
• establish how it will hold partners to account and gain assurance of the effectiveness of its arrangements;
• determine its arrangements for peer review and self-audit;
• establish mechanisms for developing policies and strategies for protecting adults which should be formulated, not only in collaboration and consultation with all relevant agencies but also take account of the views of adults who have needs for care and support, their families, advocates and carer representatives;
• develop preventative strategies that aim to reduce instances of abuse and neglect in its area;
• identify types of circumstances giving grounds for concern and when they should be considered as a referral to the local authority as an enquiry;
• formulate guidance about the arrangements for managing adult safeguarding, and dealing with complaints, grievances and professional and administrative malpractice in relation to safeguarding adults (which includes whistleblowing: see 5.4.3 to 5.4.7 of the London Multi-Agency Adult Safeguarding Policy and Procedures);
• develop strategies to deal with the impact of issues of race, ethnicity, religion, gender and gender orientation, sexual orientation, age, disadvantage and disability on abuse and neglect;
• balance the requirements of confidentiality with the consideration that, to protect adults, it may be necessary to share information on a ‘need-to-know basis’;
• identify mechanisms for monitoring and reviewing the implementation and impact of policy and training;
• carry out Safeguarding Adults Reviews;
• produce a Strategic Plan and an Annual Report;
• evidence how SAB members have challenged one another and held other boards to account; and,
• promote multi-agency training and consider any specialist training that may be required; including considering any scope to jointly commission some training with other partnerships, such as the Lewisham Safeguarding Children’s Partnership Board.

The Strategic Business Plan for 2025-26 sets out how the LSAB partner agencies will collectively prioritise and deliver these functions over the next 12 months. 

4. Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board (LSAB) Terms of Reference
The LSAB works to prevent harm or neglect and to help those harmed by leading on and facilitating the following safeguarding adult activities for the borough:
• Strategic planning: activities such as consultation, setting goals and objectives, action planning and prioritisation, securing resources, tracking and review of implementation and goal achievement for safeguarding strategy. In addition, the LSAB will influence and link to strategic planning and commissioning across the partnership to advise and scrutinise in relation to safeguarding adults.
• Setting standards and guidance: activities such as setting standards to be achieved, developing policies and procedural guidance to guide practice towards those standards. Monitoring and auditing the implementation of these policies and procedures.
• Quality assurance: lead and ensure activities such as monitoring, audit and review of practice, review of serious cases, incorporation of research and national guidance are undertaken as required. Conducting audits to ensure the effectiveness of what is done by agencies individually and collectively to safeguard and promote the welfare of adults at risk. Commissioning Safeguarding Adults Reviews and / or other reviews of incidents or organisations when an adult dies or is seriously harmed and abuse or neglect is suspected or proven.
• Promoting participation: by people who use services and carers in safeguarding practice. Promoting awareness and action in the wider community.
• Awareness raising & publicity: activities such as public awareness campaigns, targeted publicity and educational strategies, raising awareness within services.
• Capacity building and training: activities such as training and workforce development.
• Relationship management: activities such as the negotiation and clarification of interagency roles and contributions, member agency compliance, troubleshooting and resolution of difficulties, liaison with wider partnerships and related areas of practice. In addition, undertake work as appropriate with the Lewisham Safeguarding Children’s Partnership Board, Safer Lewisham Partnership and Lewisham Health and Wellbeing Board to ensure that policy and procedures, training and all other activities are co-ordinated and coherent.

4.1 Care and Support Statutory Guidance
Members of a SAB are expected to consider what assistance they can provide in supporting the Board in its work. This might be through payment to the local authority or to a joint fund established by the local authority to provide, for example, secretariat functions for the Board.

Members might also support the work of the SAB by providing administrative help, premises for meetings or holding training sessions. It is in all core partners’ interests to have an effective SAB that is resourced adequately to carry out its functions.
Members who attend in a professional and managerial capacity should be:
• able to present issues clearly in writing and in person;
• experienced in the work of their organisation;
• knowledgeable about the local area and population;
• have a thorough understanding of abuse and neglect and its impact;
• understand the pressures facing front line practitioners;
• able to explain their organisation’s priorities;
• able to promote the aims of the SAB; and,
• able to commit their organisation to agreed actions*.

While board members representing their organisations are expected to have the authority to commit their organisation to agreed actions, those board members representing Sub-Groups or non-service provider organisations may not have the relevant authority. In their case their role is to liaise between the Board and the Sub-Group and take back to their own organisations any proposals or recommendations for action.

Each member of SAB must co-operate and contribute to the carrying out of a Safeguarding Adults Review (SAR) with a view to:
a) identifying lessons to be learnt from the adult’s case, and
b) applying those lessons to future cases.

4.2 The responsibilities of members of the LSAB
The Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board has an Independent Chair and Deputy Chair from one of the Board’s partner agencies.

The LSAB expects board members to:
• develop and maintain effective working arrangements based on trust and mutual understanding;
• be an active partner in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of adults at risk of harm or neglect;
• contribute to the LSAB financially or by providing staff for particular tasks;
• collate and provide management information as required by the LSAB and contribute to quality assurance arrangements;
• share information to safeguard adults in line with agreed information sharing arrangements;
• commit to the work of the Board by undertaking allocated tasks or sourcing the appropriate support from within their agency to undertake the work and contributing to discussions;
• identify and support staff to participate in the interagency activities of the LSAB through their active membership of the Sub-Groups and / or Task & Finish Groups, and to progress of the work of the Board between meetings;
• ensure that the policies, procedures, guidance, tools and resources in the Lewisham Adult Safeguarding Pathway are disseminated and acted upon in an effective way within their own organisations;
• ensure that communications are cascaded through organisations, services and to front-line staff as appropriate;
• represent the LSAB and its activities within their own organisation and within any groups they represent on the Board;
• report difficulties with own organisation and between organisations to the LSAB and work with partners to find effective solutions.

4.3 Organisations represented on the LSAB

1. Age UK Lewisham and Southwark
2. Change Grow Live (CGL)
3. Department for Work and Pensions – South London District
4. Healthwatch Lewisham
5. Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Trust
6. Lewisham Adult Social Care
7. Lewisham Speaking Up
8. Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network (LRMN)
9. Lewisham Safeguarding Children Partnership (LSCP)
10. Lewisham Housing Directorate
11. Lewisham Adult Integrated Commissioning
12. Lewisham Safer Communities
13. London Ambulance Service NHS Trust
14. London Fire Brigade
15. Metropolitan Police Service, Lewisham (South East BCU)
16. National Probation Service, Lewisham and Bromley
17. NHS South East London Integrated Care Service and Board
18. South East London MIND
19. South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

There will also be representatives from partner agencies on Sub-Groups

4.4 Governance and accountability
• The LSAB is responsible for ensuring organisations are meeting their safeguarding obligations effectively and will hold them to account if they are not.

• As individuals, Board members are accountable to their own agencies but the Board as a whole will be accountable to the Department of Health and Social Care, and provides reports locally to the Health and Wellbeing Board and the Healthier Communities Select Committee. Its work may be scrutinised periodically by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and is liable to be inspected at any time by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
• The Board, through the independent chair, is accountable to the Chief Executive of the Local Authority, the Chief Executive of the NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB) and the Borough Commander of Police.
• These Executive Group of agencies may periodically meet to discuss the strategic direction of the Board, and additionally invite the London Fire Brigade Borough Commander, Chief Executive of Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Trust, and Chief Executive of the South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to join this group.

4.5 Equality and fairness
• The LSAB operates and supports the principles that actively value the benefits of
diversity, fair treatment, and equal access to, and outcomes from local service delivery.
• The LSAB will seek, so far as it is practicable, to ensure equality of representation and participation in the local democratic process of which it is a part.
• The LSAB will, through its composition and ways of working, seek to inform, support, involve and give a voice to all sections of the local communities it serves, with particular emphasis on the inclusion of black, Asian and minority ethnic groups, faith communities and those living with a disability. It will seek to ensure an appropriate gender balance in its membership, so far as this is practicable.

4.6 Dispute resolution between LSAB Members – Inter Agency Escalation Policy

Having different professional perspectives within safeguarding practice is a sign of a healthy and well-functioning partnership. This is also an indicator of effective professional curiosity, which we know from evidence and research, is a crucial factor in being able to prevent adult abuse and neglect. These differences of opinion are usually resolved by discussion and negotiation between the practitioners concerned. It is essential that where differences of opinion arise, they do not adversely affect outcomes for ‘adults at risk’ and are resolved in a constructive manner.

Pro-active and assertive professional challenge and resolution is an integral part of Inter-agency co-operation and joint working to safeguard adults at risk; and it is important to:

• Ensure professional disputes do not increase the risk to the person or obscure the focus on the adult.
• Ensure professional disputes between agencies are resolved in a timely, open, and constructive manner.
• Identify problem areas in working together where there is a lack of clarity and to promote resolution via amendment to protocols, procedures, and practice.

Professionals should follow the guidelines outlined in the LSAB Inter-Agency Escalation Policy

4.7 Conflicts of interest
Whenever a representative has a conflict of interest in a matter to be decided upon, the representative concerned shall declare such interest at or before discussions begin on the matter. The Chair shall record the interest in the minutes of the meeting and that representative shall take no part in the decision-making process.

5. The operational structure of the Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board

5.1 The frequency of LSAB meetings
The Board meets four times a year. Board meeting dates will be set as far in advance as possible (normally 12 months) to ensure availability of all board members.

5.2 LSAB Sub-Groups

LSAB work activities are designed to achieve results in the most effective and efficient ways. This may include formal Sub-Groups meeting on a planned regular basis or through smaller specific Task and Finish Groups, workshops, or other consultative events.

Each Sub-Group have their own Terms of Reference (Appendices 3-4), are responsible for delivering specific LSAB Strategic Objectives, and may commission Task and Finish Groups to deliver specific pieces of work linked to these objectives. Members of these groups must understand the remit of the LSAB; that they are assisting the LSAB to meet its objectives; and have the capacity to undertake work for the Board.

Membership of these groups will reflect a range of agencies across Lewisham. They may also include individuals with specialist knowledge or the ability to add value to achieving and implementing planned objectives.

Members are expected to attend meetings; contribute to discussions and activities of the Sub-Group. They may be required to undertake agreed specific tasks, delivering these in a timely way, alerting the Sub-Group Chair or other identified lead officer in advance of any deadlines being missed.

Strategic Learning will be shared along with the Lewisham Safeguarding Children Partnership (LSCP) and Safer Lewisham Partnership (SLP) to share the learning from Safeguarding Adults Reviews, Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews and Domestic Homicide Reviews, enabling higher level strategic objectives to be developed and shared.  

5.3 Attendance
Individuals identified as Board, Sub-Group and / or Task and Finish Group members are expected to regularly attend meetings. Where there is unavoidable absence, all organisations should ensure that there is a suitable substitute representative from their agency.

5.4 Administrative arrangements for the LSAB
The agenda and associated papers for each Board meeting are issued no later than five working days before the meeting by the LSAB Administrator.
Minutes of LSAB Board meetings are taken by the LSAB Administrator and circulated within 15 working days of the meeting.

6. Review
These terms of reference will be reviewed as required in response to significant change in guidance, legislation, or member organisations.

Strategic Business Plan 2025-26

LSAB Strategic Business Plan 2025 - 2026

Board Meeting Minutes

On this page, you can find the minutes of the Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board meetings for the last 12 months, which have currently been approved.

• LSAB Main Board Meeting Notes 27/03/2025
• LSAB Main Board Meeting Minutes 23/01/2025
• LSAB Main Board Meeting Minutes 17/10/2024
  

Information Sharing

Adult Safeguarding: Sharing Information

Sharing the right information, at the right time, with the right people, is fundamental to good practice in safeguarding adults.

Frontline professionals and volunteers should always report safeguarding concerns in line with their organisation’s policy. Policies should be clear about how confidential information should be shared between departments in the same organisation.

For Safeguarding purposes sensitive or personal information sometimes needs to be shared between the Local Authority and its safeguarding partners (including GP’s, health, the police, service providers, housing, regulators and the Office of the Public Guardian). This may include information about individuals who are at risk, service providers or those who may pose a risk to others. It aims to enable partners to share information appropriately and lawfully in order to improve the speed and quality of safeguarding responses.

The Care Act emphasises the need to empower people, to balance choice and control for individuals against preventing harm and reducing risk, and to respond proportionately to safeguarding concerns. The Act deals with the role of the safeguarding adults board’s (SAB’s) in sharing strategic information to improve local safeguarding practice. Section 45 ‘the supply of information’ covers the responsibilities of others to comply with requests for information from the safeguarding adults board.

Sharing information between organisations as part of day-to-day safeguarding practice is already covered in the common law duty of confidentiality, The *EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) the Data Protection Act, the Human Rights Act and the Crime and Disorder Act. The Mental Capacity Act is also relevant as all those coming into contact with adults with care and support needs should be able to assess whether someone has the mental capacity to make a decision concerning risk, safety or sharing information.

*Also see The UK GDPR | ICO for further information. 

LSAB Information Sharing Agreement Jan 2024

Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board (LSAB) has an information sharing agreement that includes the whole partnership.

LSAB Information Sharing Agreement Jan 2024

Appendix A: Template ‘information sharing request’ form

Appendix B: Template ‘information sharing decision and update’ form

It remains the responsibility of organisations and the professionals they employ to ensure that they have a basis for processing that meets common law requirements and the requirements of the GDPR; and for public bodies that they are acting within their powers.

Why do we need to share adult safeguarding information?

Organisations need to share safeguarding information with the right people at the right time to:

• Prevent death or serious harm,
• Co-ordinate effective and efficient responses,
• Enable early interventions to prevent the escalation of risk,
• Prevent abuse and harm that may increase the need for care and support,
• Maintain and improve good practice in safeguarding adults,
• Reveal patterns of abuse that were previously undetected and that could identify others at risk of abuse,
• Identify low-level concerns that may reveal people at risk of abuse,
• Help people to access the right kind of support to reduce risk and promote wellbeing,
• Help identify people who may pose a risk to others and, where possible, work to reduce offending behaviour,
• Reduce organisational risk and protect reputation.

False perceptions about needing consent to share safeguarding information

Some frontline professionals and their managers can be over-cautious about sharing personal information, particularly if it is against the wishes of the individual concerned. They may also be mistaken about needing consent to share safeguarding information. The risk of sharing information is often perceived as higher than it actually is. It is important that professionals consider the risks of not sharing safeguarding information when making decisions and that these decisions are recorded.

How to address false perceptions

• Raise awareness about responsibilities to share information (profession or work role-specific guidance may help),
• Encourage consideration of the risks of not sharing information,
• Brief staff and volunteers on the basic principles of confidentiality the *EU General Data Protection Regulation and data protection,
• Improve understanding of the Mental Capacity Act,
• Provide a contact number for staff and volunteers to raise concerns,
• Be clear in procedures about when to raise a safeguarding concern,
• Assure staff and volunteers that they do not necessarily need to have evidence to raise a concern.

*Also see The UK GDPR | ICO for further information. 

Complex networks between safeguarding partner agencies

The local authority has the lead responsibility for safeguarding adults with care and support needs, and the police and the NHS also have clear safeguarding duties under the Care Act 2014. Clinical commissioning groups and the police will often have different geographical boundaries and different IT systems. Housing and social care providers will also provide services across boundaries.

The Care Act 2014 (Section 6 [7]) places duties on the local authority and its partners to cooperate in the exercise of their functions relevant to care and support including those to protect adults. The safeguarding adults board should ensure that it ‘has the involvement of all partners necessary to effectively carry out its duties’.

Below is a simple flowchart of the key principles for information sharing. You can also download this flowchart.

Sharing information to prevent abuse and neglect

Sharing information between organisations about known or suspected risks may help to prevent abuse taking place. The safeguarding adults board has a key role to play in sharing information and intelligence on both local and national threats and risks. The board’s annual report must provide information about any safeguarding adults reviews. This can include learning to inform future prevention strategies. Designated adult safeguarding managers ‘should also have a role in highlighting the extent to which their own organisation prevents abuse and neglect taking place’.

What if a person does not want you to share their information?

Frontline workers and volunteers should always share safeguarding concerns in line with their organisation’s policy, usually with their line manager or safeguarding lead in the first instance, except in emergency situations. As long as it does not increase the risk to the individual, the member of staff should explain to them that it is their duty to share their concern with their manager. The safeguarding principle of proportionality should underpin decisions about sharing information without consent, and decisions should be on a case-by-case basis.

Individuals may not give their consent to the sharing of safeguarding information for a number of reasons. For example, they may be frightened of reprisals, they may fear losing control, they may not trust social services or other partners or they may fear that their relationship with the abuser will be damaged.

If a person refuses intervention to support them with a safeguarding concern, or requests that information about them is not shared with other safeguarding partners, their wishes should be respected. However, there are a number of circumstances where the practitioner can reasonably override such a decision, including:

• You have a lawful basis for sharing without consent under the GDPR & Data Protection Act 2018,
• The individual lacks the mental capacity to make that decision – this must be properly explored and recorded in line with the Mental Capacity Act,
• Other people are, or may be, at risk, including children sharing the information could prevent a crime,
• The alleged abuser has care and support needs and may also be at risk,
• A serious crime has been committed staff are implicated,
• The person has the mental capacity to make that decision but they may be under duress or being coerced,
• The risk is unreasonably high and meets the criteria for a multi-agency risk assessment conference referral,
• You have a legal obligation.

If none of the above apply and the decision is not to share safeguarding information with other safeguarding partners, or not to intervene to safeguard the person:

• Support the person to weigh up the risks and benefits of different options,
• Ensure they are aware of the level of risk and possible outcomes,
• Agree on and record the level of risk the person is taking,
• Offer to arrange for them to have an advocate or peer supporter,
• Offer support for them to build confidence and self-esteem if necessary,
• Record the reasons for not intervening or sharing information,
• Regularly review the situation,
• Try to build trust and use gentle persuasion to enable the person to better protect themselves.

If it is necessary to share information outside the organisation:

• Explore the reasons for the person’s objections – what are they worried about?
• Explain the concern and why you think it is important to share the information,
• Tell the person who you would like to share the information with and why,
• Explain the benefits, to them or others, of sharing information – could they access better help and support?
• Discuss the consequences of not sharing the information – could someone come to harm?
• Reassure them that the information will not be shared with anyone who does not need to know,
• Reassure them that they are not alone and that support is available to them.

If the person cannot be persuaded to give their consent then, unless it is considered dangerous to do so, it should be explained to them that the information will be shared without consent. The reasons should be given and recorded.

It is very important that the risk of sharing information is also considered. In some cases, such as domestic violence or hate crime, it is possible that sharing information could increase the risk to the individual. Safeguarding partners need to work jointly to provide advice, support and protection to the individual in order to minimise the possibility of worsening the relationship or triggering retribution from the abuser.

What if a safeguarding partner is reluctant to share information?

There are only a limited number of circumstances where it would be acceptable not to share information pertinent to safeguarding with relevant safeguarding partners. Safeguarding adults boards set clear policies for dealing with conflict on information sharing. If there is continued reluctance from one partner to share information on a safeguarding concern the matter would be referred to the board. It can then consider whether the concern warrants a request, under Clause 45 of the Care Act, for the ‘supply of information’. Then the reluctant party would only have grounds for refusal if it would be ‘incompatible with their own duties or have an adverse effect on the exercise of their functions’.

Useful Links

On this page we have listed links to organisations that we think you will find helpful

Age UK Lewisham & Southwark

Care Act Factsheets from GOV.UK

Care Quality Commission Safeguarding People

Carers Trust

Community Connections

Crimestoppers UK

Department of Health and Social Care

Disclosure and Barring Service

Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority

General Medical Council

Get Safe Online

Health & Care Professions Council

Hourglass - Safer Ageing

IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) - NHS

Independent Age - Advice and support for older age

Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation

Jargon Buster

Lewisham Council - Adult Social Care

Lewisham Council Policing and Public Safety

Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network

Lewisham Wellbeing Map

Local Government Association (LGA) and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) Safeguarding Network

Mayors Office for Policing and Crime

Metropolitan Police Lewisham

Ministry of Justice

Modern Slavery and Exploitation Helpline

Neighbourhood and Home Watch Network

NHS England

No Recourse to Public Funds Network

Office of the Public Guardian

Patient - Safeguarding Information

Rape Crisis South London

Refuge - Lewisham Athena Service

Revenge p*rn helpline

Skills for Care

Social Care Institute for Excellence - Safeguarding

Survivors UK - Male Rape & Sexual Abuse

Victims Choice

Victim Support

The LGA and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) Safeguarding Network have worked with key partners to bring together a consolidated list of key safeguarding resources for council, care provider and wider partners' staff.

LSAB Learning Zone

All of our Safeguarding Adults Courses are available to Private, Voluntary and Independent organisations and commissioned care providers in Lewisham.

Subscribe to our E-Bulletin to be among the first to find out about the Adult Safeguarding Training we offer. 

Please note:

All the learning events that the Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board provide are free of charge to the delegate. However, a lot of time, resource, and public expense is used in planning and delivering these activities, so if you register, please make a full commitment to attending. If you do not, you may prevent someone else from being able to participate.

Please cancel your booking if your circumstances change or contact us by email as soon as possible so that a replacement can be considered.

Repeat non-attenders may be barred from registering for our events in the future.

To access our present training sessions, please select the '+' icon below.

Safeguarding Adults Training and Events +

London Safeguarding Adults Conference 2024 +

Adult Safeguarding Workbooks +

7 Minute Briefings +

e-Learning +

Guide to Common Safeguarding Words and Phrases +

Information for Professionals

Information for Professionals

The information in this section is for all staff engaged in safeguarding adults at risk. It gives practical pointers to help people assess the risk of abuse, recognise it when it does occur and respond to it appropriately. It will also help put front line safeguarding in a context of multi-agency, cross-borough work to prevent and investigate abuse across London.

While there are similarities between practice with children and adults at risk, there are significant differences and, to a large extent this is reflected in the definition of adults at risk which contributes to that complexity.

Services have a duty to safeguard all of their service users but provide additional measures for service users who are less able to protect themselves from harm or abuse.

‘Safeguarding adults’ covers a spectrum of activity from prevention through to multi agency responses where harm and abuse occurs.

Safeguarding Resources

The Lewisham Adult Safeguarding Pathway has lots of helpful adult safeguarding resources built into it and gives you a step by step guide. 

The Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board produces leaflets and posters on adult safeguarding which you can download for free.

Think Family

In April 2023, the Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board (LSAB) and Lewisham Safeguarding Children Partnership (LSCP) jointly agreed to focus on Think Family as a strategic priority. Learning from Local Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews and Safeguarding Adults Reviews have highlighted the importance of adult and children’s services working collaboratively and taking a joined up, whole family approach.

Read more about Think Family in Lewisham

Skills for Care have collated practical and useful safeguarding resources for the Private Voluntary and Independent Sector. The information available includes recommendations, standards, guides and links to a whole host of related resources.

Jargon Buster

Think Local Act Personal have a useful Jargon Buster that can help professionals from fields other than social work understand the language that is commonly used in care and support work.

Disclosure and Barring Service

The Disclosure and Barring Service have produced guidance on 'Making Recruitment Easier'. 

Mental Capacity DoLS and Advocacy

Please do not edit or remove this page. It has a linked redirect to the What is Safeguarding

Mental Capacity, DoLS and Advocacy

Also, please do not change the title or link on the What is Safeguarding > Mental Capacity, DoLS and Advocacy as this is hard coded into the redirect.

Homelessness and Safeguarding

On this page you can find practice briefings, policies, toolkits and training opportunities on Homelessness and Safeguarding. We have also included a 7 minute briefing from a Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Review (SAR) where the adult was homeless and links to SAR reports from other areas where the adult was homeless.

If you’re a professional who is concerned that a Homeless person may be experiencing neglect (including self-neglect) and abuse and are unable to protect themselves. You can find advice for Submitting an Adult Safeguarding Concern in the Lewisham Adult Safeguarding Pathway.

Online learning

Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG)

Working across housing, social care and safeguarding to tackle long-term rough sleeping: Webinar

In November 2024 MHCLG ran a webinar to share research and best practice with colleagues across the homelessness and safeguarding adults sectors, to support effective multi-disciplinary working to help resolve rough sleeping for vulnerable individuals.

The objectives of the webinar were:

• To share examples of what has worked in achieving effective partnership working between rough sleeping, adult social care and safeguarding teams and organisations in local areas.
• To discuss how safeguarding can be used to end a person’s rough sleeping by providing examples of how this is being addressed in specific areas.
• To create connections across local authorities to support further sharing of information and skills when creating partnerships across rough sleeping, adult social care and safeguarding teams.

The presentations and wider information focussed on how we can identify effective solutions for vulnerable individuals, to help them achieve a sustainable end to their long-term rough sleeping.

Section 1: Introductions

• Introduction from Bruno Ornelas – Rough Sleeping Adviser MHCLG
• Welcome from Minister Rushunara Ali – Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Homelessness and Democracy)
• Setting the Scene – Bruno Ornelas – Review of the Care Act and the impact on those rough sleeping.
• Welcome from Robert Lewis – DHSC Mental Health Social Work Lead – Office of the Chief Social Worker for Adults

Section 2: Developing Homelessness Fatality Reviews

Gill Taylor - Safeguarding Adults Review author and chair of Pan-London Homelessness, Health & Safeguarding Development Group.

Gill has held frontline and strategic roles in the homelessness sector over the last 20 years. She has worked at the intersection of rough sleeping, safeguarding and social justice in the development of Fatality Reviews, as Strategic Lead for the Museum of Homelessness Dying Homeless Project and as lead author of the Radical Safeguarding Toolkit- Homelessness, published by Research in Practice in May 2024. Radical safeguarding toolkit for homelessness - Research in Practice.

Synopsis: Gill discusses the background, drivers and implementation of Fatality Reviews.

Section 3: Local Authority Experience: Manchester City Council

Ellie Atkins – Registered social worker, manager and Safeguarding Lead for the Rough Sleeper Social Work team in Manchester.

Ellie has been a practice led researcher in the field of working with hard-to-reach adults with complex needs for the last 20 years. Ellie challenges unconscious bias and advocates for the design, commissioning, and delivery of inclusive psychological and trauma informed services that provide psychological safety for some of the most traumatised people in our society. An example of Ellie’s work is: Why understanding executive function is critical when working with homeless people - Community Care.

Synopsis: Ellie discusses a fictional case study of Richard and his experiences of homelessness in Manchester.

Section 4: Research Findings: Strengthening Adult Safeguarding response to homelessness and self-neglect

Jess Harris - Research Fellow, Health & Social Care Workforce Research Unit (HSCWRU), King’s College London. 

Jess just completed a national study on safeguarding responses to multiple exclusion homelessness (MEH) and self-neglect. Follow up studies have focussed on the homelessness social worker role, and homelessness in social work education. She is now working on a study of mental capacity and multiple exclusion homelessness. Her webinar series on homelessness is open to all.

Synopsis: Jess discusses the findings of her research on Adult Safeguarding response to homelessness and self-neglect, including a good practice checklist.

Section 5: Local Authority Experience: Stoke on Trent City Council

Gemma Finn – Head of Changing Futures Adult Social Care, Health Integration and  Wellbeing – Stoke on Trent City Council.

Synopsis: Gemma discusses working in partnerships and experiences of Stoke City Council within the Changing Futures programme.

Section 6: Local Authority Experience: Barnsley Metropolitan District Council

Michelle Kaye – Group leader at Barnsley Metropolitan District Council.

Synopsis: Michelle discusses Barnsley’s experience in creating and running a Vulnerable Adults Panel, a multi agency approach to supporting those with complex needs.

Accompanying presentations:

Working across housing, social care and safeguarding for Long Term rough sleepers 

Homeless Link - Bitesize learning: Supporting adults and young people through safeguarding.

Homeless Link have created six bitesize (30-minute) sessions to give frontline staff working in homelessness services the knowledge and skills to better support people who are facing multiple disadvantage (also known as multiple and/or complex needs) and are at risk of or are experiencing homelessness.

The sessions are delivered by Fiona Bateman, Safeguarding Consultant from Safeguarding Circle and Bruno Ornelas, Head of Homelessness at Concrete and Safeguarding Consultant.

All sessions are free to watch, thanks to funding from The Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, as part of the Capacity Building programme.

Rough Sleeper Mental Health Awareness

Backed by the Mayor of London's Rough Sleeping Innovation Fund, Westminster City Council and London Borough of Lambeth, this free course supports cross-sector professionals in recognising and working with the Mental Health needs of people who sleep rough and the unstably housed.

Fifteen leading experts (incl. service users, Sir Michael Marmot, Deputy Mayor James Murray, A. Prof Nick Maguire, Jane Cook DoH MHCLG amongst others) will discuss the context and complexity of need, approaches to engagement and support, recognising and working with risk and key mental health and substance use problems.

The course will also explore the use of legislation such as the Mental Health Act, navigating the NHS and helping those with ‘no recourse to public funds’.

Length: Four modules, duration: 30 - 45 mins of study per module.

Homeless Link - How homeless services can support LGBTQI+ women

This webinar from Homeless Link, delivered in 2023, provides an introduction to issues of sexuality and gender and the relationship to homelessness.

Online Adult Safeguarding Foundation Level Training and Workbooks

The Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board runs regular Online Adult Safeguarding Foundation Level Training Sessions, and we also have a series of adult safeguarding workbooks.

All of our Safeguarding Adults Courses are available to Private, Voluntary and Independent organisations and commissioned care providers in Lewisham.

Find out more in our learning zone.

Practice Briefings and Guidance

Multi-Agency Self Neglect Policy, Practice Guidance and Procedures

This guidance is aimed at a wide range of professionals involved in working with people who may self-neglect and sets out the response that professionals should take to this complex issue.

Annex 2

Accompanying the Practice Guidance is the Self-Neglect High Risk Panel - Risk Assessment & Action Plan Template.

LSAB Guidance on Improving our Approach to Adult and Family Engagement

This guidance provides information on Adopting a Trauma Informed Approach, Understanding the Barriers to Seeking Help, Engagement Principles and Methods that can be Used for Engagement.

Alcohol Change UK - How to use legal powers to safeguard highly vulnerable dependent drinkers in England and Wales

This guide provides an accessible introduction to three pieces of legislation that can be applied to chronic, highly vulnerable, dependent drinkers so as to improve outcomes for them, their families and their communities. The guide also outlines the limits of these legal frameworks and when they should not be used.

The Kings Fund - Delivering health and care for people who sleep rough - Going above and beyond

This report aims to help local systems improve health outcomes among people who sleep rough and to support the ambition to end rough sleeping.

Homeless Link - Taking action following the death of someone sleeping rough - Briefing for Homelessness Services

This guidance details the steps that agencies can take should there be a death of a rough sleeper in their area.

Homeless Link - Autism and Homelessness Briefing for frontline staff

This briefing aims to provide frontline staff with information to better support people experiencing homelessness who are known or suspected to have autism. It includes suggestions of how to overcome challenges and case examples of two individuals with autism who were successfully supported to address their housing needs.

Homeless Link - Supporting LGBTIQ+ people in homelessness services - An introduction for frontline staff

This guidance, updated in June 2020 by The Outside Project, is written for staff who are new to LGBTIQ+ issues, or those seeking to make their service more inclusive, welcoming, and safe. It includes links to specialist agencies and resources to help you develop service provision tailored to individuals' needs.

7 minute Briefing Supporting staff to have conversations about health

Having conversations about health can be difficult for frontline workers. This briefing jointly produced by Groundswell, Homeless Link and Pathway outlines the key ways in which organisations can ensure their staff have the resources and support they need to feel more confident when having health-related conversations.

Accessing social care assessments using the Care Act – Homelessness - Guidance for frontline staff

This guidance sets out the basic principles of referral and assessment under the Care Act 2014 and the steps that support workers should take to ensure service users are fairly assessed under the Act.

Toolkits

Learning-Disabilities and Homelessness Toolkit

This toolkit is for services who support people experiencing homelessness who may also have learning disabilities.

Safeguarding Multiple Exclusion Homelessness Toolkit 2023

The focus of this tool is to improve multi-agency support for individuals who have an appearance of need for care and support and are experiencing multiple exclusion homelessness (MEH).

Research in Practice - Radical Safeguarding Toolkit for Homelessness

The co-produced toolkit offers a new approach to safeguarding adults experiencing homelessness and multiple disadvantages, rooted in the work of social justice movements.

The toolkit explores principles of power, autonomy, solidarity and accountability in safeguarding, supporting practitioners to consider intersectional and anti-oppressive approaches to work in this area.

Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SAR’s)

• LSAB 7 Minute Briefing – Mia
• LSAB 7 Minute Briefing - Maria
• LSAB 7 Minute Briefing - Self-Neglect and adults who use drugs and alcohol
• Isle of Wight -Safeguarding Adults Board - Howard - SAR
• Bexley Safeguarding Adults Board - Ms AB - SAR
• Northampton Safeguarding Adults Board - SAR Jonathan

Read all of our Safeguarding Adults Review's (SAR'S).

Analysis of SAR’s

National SAR Analysis - Briefing for practitioners - Analysis of Safeguarding Adults Reviews

This briefing summarises key findings from the landmark study ‘Analysis of Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SARs) April 2017 – March 2019’, with particular reference to professional practice in direct work with the individual at risk of abuse and/or neglect. It is therefore of particular relevance to the work of practitioners and others who have frontline contact with individuals. It aims to support practitioners to apply best practice in their direct work and thus achieve positive outcomes in adult safeguarding.

Adult Safeguarding and Homelessness: Learning from Safeguarding Adult Reviews

This briefing identifies the number of Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SARs) completed in England where homelessness has been a central feature. The learning from these SARs about good practice and practice shortfalls has enabled an evidence-base for positive practice to be developed. This evidence-base can be used by practitioners working with people experiencing homelessness to advocate for best practice.

Adult safeguarding and homelessness: A briefing on positive practice

This briefing is to assist senior leaders, such as members of Safeguarding Adults Boards (SABs), as well as commissioners, practitioners and operational managers who are working across relevant sectors and agencies in this field, to support people who are homeless and at risk of or experiencing abuse or neglect.

Safeguarding, homelessness and rough sleeping: An analysis of Safeguarding Adults Reviews

This report from Kings College London presents findings from an analysis of 14 Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SARs) where homelessness was a factor, and the results of a review of the literature relating to third sector and local authority policy and guidance on adult safeguarding and homelessness.

Policies

London Multi-Agency Safeguarding Policy and Procedures

Legislation

• Care Act 2014
• Homelessness Reduction Act 2017
• Data Protection Act 2018
• EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Strategies

DLUHC Ending Rough Sleeping For Good – September 2022

This strategy sets out how the whole of government is taking action to meet their ambition to end rough sleeping.

Lewisham’s Homelessness & Rough Sleeping Strategy 2023-26

This strategy builds on the hard work that already goes on a daily basis to prevent homelessness and reduce rough sleeping in Lewisham and will help support our teams in their mission to ensure everybody has a safe, secure place to call home.

Guidance

Duty to Refer

This guidance provides an overview of the duty to refer, which will help public authorities understand how to administer the duty.

Discharging people at risk of or experiencing homelessness

Guidance for staff involved in planning to discharge patients at risk of or experiencing homelessness, or who have no recourse to public funds.

Information Sharing

LSAB Information Sharing Agreement

Find out more on Information Sharing

Local Services Resources

Community directory to support health and wellbeing

A community directory to support health and wellbeing includes local organisations, voluntary and community groups and local businesses.

999 Club

The Gateway Centre in Deptford for people who are experiencing homeless, or at risk of experiencing homelessness. The centre is open from 9am to 4pm on weekdays. The centre provide showers, food, phone charging, use of a phone or computer and wifi, laundry and postal address. The centre offer support with ID, claiming benefits, finding work, searching for housing, social integration and referrals to specialist agencies. They also have a women-only space called “The Sanctuary”.

South East London Mind 

South East London Mind provides a range of high quality mental health support services for adult residents in the borough of Lewisham. This includes specialised support for people from Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and Refugee communities, for new mums, and for anyone needing help with benefits.

Change Grow Live - New Direction

Free and confidential community drug and alcohol service. If you're a professional and you'd like to refer someone to the service, use the link above to visit their website. 

Thames Reach - Deptford Reach

Lewisham Housing Options

If you need housing advice call 020 8314 7007. The service will refer anyone homeless or at risk of homelessness to a housing solutions officer who will assess you by phone.

Find more adult safeguarding information in our Adult Safeguarding Pathway

Domestic Abuse and Safeguarding

Domestic Abuse in Lewisham

Between the 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2024 there were c.11,000 domestic abuse incidents reported to police locally. Lewisham is one of the highest risk boroughs in London in this regard with 17 of the 19 Wards in the top 50% in London for reports of domestic abuse to police.

Longstanding research indicates that adults who have care and support needs such as those living with a disability, or older adults, are more likely to be the victims of domestic abuse than the general population (we must not ignore other factors such as homelessness).

Compared to the high volume of police reporting there are relatively few Adult Safeguarding Concerns submitted for Domestic Abuse in Lewisham (between 50-100 each year).

What is domestic abuse?

The UK government’s definition of domestic violence is ‘any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality. The abuse can encompass, but is not limited to psychological, physical, sexual, financial, emotional.’

Domestic abuse also includes honour-based abuse and forced marriage. 

Legal Definition

The legal definition of domestic abuse is: any incident of controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are 'personally connected', regardless of their gender or sexuality.

Examples of people who are ‘personally connected’ include:

• relatives, including half and step relatives
• married couples, or couples who used to be married
• civil partners, or former civil partners
• people who have ever agreed to marry, or enter into a civil partnership agreement with each other
• people who have had an intimate relationship with each other
• people who are a parent of the same child, or have ever had a parental responsibility for the same child

There is no requirement for the victim and the perpetrator to cohabit although many will have. This often then provides perpetrators with personal knowledge about what might most traumatise or impact victims, making this crime particularly distressing and sometimes leaving victims at risk of future violence and abuse.

Who are counted as family members?

Family members are defined within the legislation as the father, mother, stepfather, stepmother, son, daughter, stepson, stepdaughter, grandmother, grandfather, grandson, or granddaughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, niece, nephew or first cousin (whether of full blood or of half blood or by marriage or civil partnership) of that person or of that person’s spouse, former spouse, civil partner, or former civil partner.

Domestic Abuse Act 2021

The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 aimed to raise awareness about the devastating impact of domestic abuse on victims and their families and to further improve the effectiveness of the justice system in providing protection for victims of domestic abuse and bringing perpetrators to justice. 

The Act introduced a statutory definition to ensure that domestic abuse is properly understood, viewed as unacceptable and is actively challenged across statutory agencies and in public attitudes. It sets out who can be a victim of domestic abuse behaviours and establishes how victims need to be ‘personally connected’ to the perpetrator. It also makes clear that children are deemed to be victims of domestic abuse if they see or hear, or experience the effects of, the abuse. There is also no requirement that they live in the same household as the abuser.

Read the Domestic Abuse Act 2021

When the Care Act 2014 came into force on the 1 April 2015 this was the first time that Domestic Abuse had been formally recognised as a type of abuse within the legal framework underpinning adult safeguarding. There is still more to do in improving the profile of this subject, and the connection between the different responses that there can be in relation to Domestic Abuse, including through the local authority led safeguarding pathway.

The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 Statutory Guidance July 2022 cross-references back to the Care Act 2014, and outlines that there should be a safeguarding response when the legal duty and criteria is met.

Domestic abuse can be characterised by any of the indicators of abuse relating to

• Psychological
• Physical
• Sexual
• Financial or economic
• Emotional

Domestic abuse is rarely a one-off incident and it is the cumulative and interlinked types of abuse that have a particularly damaging effect on the victim. The ‘domestic’ nature of the offending behaviour is an aggravating factor because of the abuse of trust involved. 

Possible indicators of domestic abuse

• Low self-esteem
• Feeling that the abuse is their fault when it is not
• Physical evidence of violence such as bruising, cuts, broken bones
• Verbal abuse and humiliation in front of others
• Fear of outside intervention
• Damage to home or property
• Isolation – not seeing friends and family
• Limited access to money

New and Emerging Characters of Domestic Abuse - Digital Domestic Abuse

Digital abuse is when someone monitors, stalks, harasses, threatens, controls or impersonates another person using technology. This could involve stalking through social media, harassment by text message or humiliation by posting pictures or videos, for example.

Digital abuse can happen to anyone but it most often happens alongside other types of domestic abuse.

 Examples of digital abuse:

• Using the persons social media accounts without their permission.
• Posting information about the person online or by text/messenger.
• Creating a profile page without the persons permission.
• Sending the person threatening messages.
• Sending threatening messages to other people whilst pretending to be the person.
• Posting photos of the person without their consent (also known as revenge p*rn).
• Using spyware on the persons devices to track them.
• Taking away the person control of smart home devices such as cameras, lights, thermostats.
• Controlling the persons online bank accounts.

How does Domestic Abuse Link with Safeguarding?

Domestic abuse is perhaps most commonly thought of as violence between intimate partners, but it can take many other forms and be perpetrated by a range of people. Much safeguarding is therefore also domestic abuse but is often not recognised as such.

Making the connections between adult safeguarding and domestic abuse

• Follow the advice in the Lewisham Adult Safeguarding Pathway for safeguarding adults and children, and for domestic abuse. 
  
• Improve your understanding of the issues and develop your own good practice. Visit the LSAB Learning Zone for information on current learning opportunities.

Who needs safeguarding?

• Understand the definitions of safeguarding and domestic abuse, and how they link up for the person you are supporting.
  
• Be alert to patterns of coercive or controlling behaviour, as well as incidents of abuse.
  
• Always act to safeguard children who are living with or witnessing domestic abuse. - Remember to Think Family
  
• Take account of gender, sexuality, intergenerational issues and caring responsibilites.

Understanding the impact of domestic abuse

• Consider the likely impact of abuse on all adults and children involved. - Remember to Think Family
  
• Consider the additional likely impacts of abuse on people with additional care and support needs.
  
• Consider how these factors might affect the approach you take in working with the person at risk (and others in the household).

Barriers and challenges to ending abusive relationships

• There are many reasons why people may not leave abusive relationships.
• Additional and specific barriers may be present for ethnic minority people, older people, and people with disabilities.
• Confidentially asking routine questions about safety can aid disclosure.
• Accessible information and signposted services about abuse are crucial.

Working with people needing care and support who are experiencing domestic abuse

• There are a range of issues to consider, including the needs of a range of groups, people’s independence, self-esteem, previous experience of services, and parenting. - Remember to Think Family
• Taking time to build trust and confidence with the person being abused is important, accepting that they may not be able to describe or disclose all aspects of their situation initially, and that the issues may take time to explore fully.
• Avoid making assumptions based on stereotypes, particularly around older age, mental health and substance misuse.
• There is a risk of serious harm in forced marriage situations where one or both parties have care and support needs.
• Domestic abuse can involve the wider family and take different forms according to different family dynamics, especially when caring responsibilities are involved. - Read the 7 Minute Briefing - Arthur - for Professionals for further information.

Mental capacity, adult safeguarding and domestic abuse

• The Mental Capacity Act has five key principles, designed to protect and support the person
• An apparently unwise decision may be the result of coercion or controlling behaviour by another person
• Independent Mental Capacity Advocates (IMCAs) can support the abused person - Make a referral for an advocate POhWER
• IMCAs may not be specially trained in domestic abuse, but they can work alongside Independent Domestic Violence Advocates (IDVAs) or other workers from a specialist domestic abuse agency. - Contact the Lewisham Athena Service for an IDVA

Safeguarding Enquiries

• Take protective measures to ensure that any discussions with potential victims of abuse are conducted in a safe environment.
• Understand that victims of abuse may be reluctant to disclose what is happening to them, but that the conversation may be helping them to understand their situation better and build up trust. - Contact the Lewisham Athena Service for an IDVA
• Ask direct questions, in a safe environment.
• Keep good records of any discussions and interventions.
• Follow local policies, protocols and procedures at all times. - Lewisham Adult Safeguarding Pathway

Assessing and managing the risks of domestic abuse in safeguarding circumstances

• Understand how coercive and controlling behaviours may inhibit people disclosing or revealing the extent of domestic abuse.
• Understand local policies and procedures for safeguarding and risk assessments.
• Listen to and communicate respect towards the adult with care and support needs who is experiencing domestic abuse. Ensure they are at the centre of decision-making.
• Be aware of and vigilant against the potential of 'the rule of optimism', when professionals may place undue confidence in the capacity of families to care effectively and safely, affecting professional perceptions and recognition of risk of harm, abuse or neglect.
• Take any immediate protective measures that are needed.
• Understand how your local arrangements work in relation to safeguarding and Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences. - Lewisham MARAC
• Use risk assessment forms as tools to aid professional judgement, not as ends in themselves. Use the DASH risk cheklist
• Work with the person at risk to ensure their experiences are central to your risk assessment.
• Collate information about static risk factors, as they are the most reliable indication of long-term risk.
• Use professional curiosity and judgement in risk assessment as everybody's circumstances are different.
• Gain support from local specialist domestic abuse agencies; they are experts in risk assessment and management. - Contact the Lewisham Athena Service for advice

Domestic abuse support services and legal action

• Ensure that you develop safeguarding and support arrangements that are personalised to the person you are working with.
• There are many types of national and local support schemes for people experiencing domestic abuse, including places of immediate safety.
• Be aware of the types of legal actions and sanctions (criminal and civil) that can be used in safeguarding and domestic abuse but rememer even when a victim has reported abuse to the police, there can be complex reasons they may not see through a prosecution - love, shame, guilt, isolation, fear of the process and language barriers to name just a few.
• Know where to go to get good legal advice, both for the person you are supporting, and to advise you of the options available.
• Ensure that information and advice is provided in an accessible way.

New! Safeguarding and Domestic Abuse 7 Minute Briefing

Help and support for people experiencing or at risk of abuse in Lewisham

Lewisham Council provides the Athena service which is a confidential, non-judgemental service to support those living in Lewisham who are experiencing gender-based violence. The service provides outreach programmes, independent advocacy, group support, refuge accommodation and a specialist service for women.

You can call the Athena Service for free on 0800 112 4052 or email Lewisham VAWG

The National Domestic Abuse Helpline is a team of highly-trained female advisers who can empower you to understand your options and support you to make any decisions about the future. They offer support to increase your safety, including finding a refuge place or other specialist services.

Other sources for support include The Men’s Advice Line, a confidential helpline for male victims of domestic abuse, and Galop, a specialist helpline for LGBTQ+ people.

Timekeeper Film

This film was commissioned by Lewisham Council and funded by the Home Office. It is based on the real experience of residents in Lewisham, the film tackles very sensitive issues.

Contact details for organisations who may be able to help you if you are the victim of domestic violence.

Hoarding & Self-Neglect

What is Hoarding?

The NHS defines Hoarding Disorder as:

“Where someone acquires an excessive number of items and stores them in a chaotic manner, usually resulting in unmanageable amounts of clutter”.

It's considered to be a significant problem if:

• The amount of clutter interferes with everyday living – for example, the person is unable to
  use their kitchen or bathroom and cannot access rooms.
• The clutter is causing significant distress or negatively affecting the person's quality of
  life or their family's – for example, they become upset if someone tries to clear the clutter
  and their relationships with others suffer.

The clutter image rating clearly illustrates the wide range of clutter in different rooms from clear to extreme.

All professionals working with adults who hoard in Lewisham must utilise the Multi Agency Self-Neglect Policy, Practice Guidance and Procedures and the Lewisham Adult Safeguarding Pathway.

What is self-neglect?

The Care Act 2014 statutory guidance defines self-neglect as:

"A wide range of behaviour neglecting to care for one's personal hygiene, health, or surroundings and includes behaviour such as hoarding."

The term itself can be a barrier to working with the issues as some individuals do not identify with this term or description of their situation. As a result, it is important that practitioners seek to negotiate a common ground to understand the individual’s own description of their lifestyle rather than making possible discriminatory value judgements or assumptions about how it can be defined. In order to prevent self-neglect, it is essential to understand the wider complexity and possible underlying factors, which may present as, or include:

• Increased incidence of depression and low self-esteem.
• History of trauma, abuse (including childhood abuse and child sexual exploitation) or bereavement.
• Physical and mental health issues.
• Hoarding or no possessions at all.
• Reclusive or co-dependent, including on pets.
• Substance misuse.
• Self-harm.

All professionals working with adults who self-neglect in Lewisham must utilise the Multi Agency Self-Neglect Policy, Practice Guidance and Procedures and the Lewisham Adult Safeguarding Pathway.

LSAB Hoarding and Self-Neglect Briefing

The British Psychological Society had produced a short leaflet Understanding Hoarding - When our relationship with
possessions goes wrong. The leaflet is intended for people with hoarding disorder and their friends and families. 

GP Hoarding Awareness Leaflet

GP Awareness of Hoarding Disorder is very important. GP's can often be the first professional a person with a Hoarding Disorder discloses their living situation to. 

This GP’s leaflet is a great tool for GP’s to keep on hand and was created by Clouds End CIC and was developed after a Hoarding Awareness Training session with GPs.

If you suspect that an adult you provide healthcare for may be at risk of abuse or neglect please complete the Adult Safeguarding Concern form and return to the Lewisham Adult Gateway as instructed in the form.

Alternatively if you have concerns about the immediate safety of an adult at risk then please contact the Police on 999. 

The NHS has produced information on Hoarding Disorder including:

• Information on Hoarding disorder
• Why someone may hoard
• The difference between hoarding and collecting
• Signs of a hoarding disorder
• Why hoarding disorders are a problem
• What you can do if you suspect someone is hoarding
• How hoarding disorders are treated

New Training Resource from Safeguarding Adults in Gloucestershire

“Am I YOUR Job?” is a brand new trainer resource (training session plan and video) on Self-Neglect from Safeguarding Adults in Gloucestershire.

 

Making Safeguarding Personal in self-neglect workbook

This Making Safeguarding Personal in self-neglect workbook, produced by Research in Practice, draws on evidence from research and Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SAR's) to identify how making safeguarding personal can make a difference to the health, wellbeing and safety of people who are self-neglecting. 

Research in Practice has produced a practice tool Working with people who self-neglect

The tools in this resource focus on different aspects of good practice:

• understanding self-neglect
  
• building a relationship
  
• planning and implementing intervention
  
• using the legal framework for care, support and protection
  
• creating a supportive organisational context.

Learning from London Safeguarding Adult Reviews

Self-neglect is a widespread societal issue that will impact a large number of local residents at a lower-level, and for some this will escalate and may become very serious, including life threatening. 60% of Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SAR) in England, which are the are most serious and high-profile safeguarding cases, involved self-neglect in the recently published 2^nd National SAR Analysis, which you can read about here: Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board - Safeguarding Adults Reviews

Please ensure that you refer to the local policy, guidance, and procedures and embed this into your ways of working. More briefings will follow.

Information for Adults you are working with who hoard

Below you can find a range of resources to support an adult who hoards.

Hoarding Ice Breaker Form

If clutter, disorganisation or hoarding is affecting your health (mental or physical health) and making you feel anxious, depressed or unwell, then it’s advisable to have a chat with your GP.

If you don’t know what to say or how to start the conversation, then simply download, print off and complete this Ice-Breaker document, and hand it to your GP, Social Worker or any other professional.

They should then start asking all sorts of questions to enable them to start working out what might be causing your symptoms, and discuss some options that will hopefully help make you feel better. There could be a number of different things causing you to feel unwell, so it’s best not to assume there’s just one cause, or just one treatment.

POhWER provide the Lewisham Advocacy Service to support residents with a variety of issues, where there may be difficulties with communication or understanding information.

Find out more avour the Lewisham Advocay Service Leaflet.

London Fire Brigade offer a service where they can visit an adult at home to provide personalised advice about fire safety. It's totally free, available 24/7, and they even fit free smoke alarms during the visit if you need them. 

Find out more about Home Fire Safety Visits

For more information on Fire Safety visit our Fire Safety for Professionals page

Community Connections Lewisham are able to connect you with groups, activities and services in your local community that can support your health and wellbeing ~ bringing Lewisham to you!

You can phone them on 0330 058 3464, from 9:30am-4pm Monday-Friday (*except Thursdays when our line is open from 2-4pm). You can also get in touch using their online referral form, or visit the Thursday Morning Drop In.

This website provides information, support and advice for people who hoard and their loved ones.

There is also an online community that you can contribute to with your own experiences.

The self-kindness toolkit is packed with activities to support building resilience, coping with stress and worries, and connecting with others.

Inside the self-kindness toolkit:

• resilience
• problem solving
• making decisions confidently 
• first aid
• sleep techniques
• coping with change
• creative activities
• connecting with others
• movement and mindfulness

If you suspect that an adult you work with may be at risk of abuse or neglect please complete the Adult Safeguarding Concern form and return to the Lewisham Adult Gateway as instructed in the form.

Alternatively if you have concerns about the immediate safety of an adult at risk then please contact the Police on 999. 

Lewisham Policy, Procedures and Guidance

All professionals working with adults who self-neglect and hoard in Lewisham must utilise the following policies, procedures and guidance.

Multi Agency Self-Neglect Policy, Practice Guidance and Procedures

Annex 2

Accompanying the Practice Guidance is the Self-Neglect High Risk Panel - Risk Assessment & Action Plan Template.

Lewisham Adult Safeguarding Pathway

Guidance on Improving our Approach to Adult and Family Engagement

Self-Neglect and Hoarding Resources

Learning from Human Stories about Self-neglect - Webinar

Here you can find the slides and handout from the Learning from Human Stories about Self-neglect webinar held by Professor Michael Preston-Shoot.

Here you will find the resources from all of the Self-neglect and Hoarding Training held by the LSAB

• Session Form
• Clutter Image Rating
• Home Environment Index
• Homes Scale
• Hoarding Interview
• Saving Inventory
• Reasons for Saving
• Some Techniques
• Hoarding Reading List
• Consent for Services
• How to Talk to Someone with Hoarding

Professional Curiosity

Professional Curiosity and Critical Evaluation

Professional Curiosity is the capacity and communication skill to explore and understand what is happening within a family (or an organisational setting) rather than making assumptions, accepting things at face value, or allowing your personal values or possible unconscious bias to influence the way that that you see and interpret risk. 

This has been described as the need for practitioners to practice ‘respectful uncertainty’ in applying Critical Evaluation to any information they receive, or ‘thinking the unthinkable’.

Watch this YouTube Video: The journey from reflection towards reflexivity (relevant for all practitioners).

The following factors highlight the need to improve professional curiosity:

• The views and feelings of some adults can be very difficult to ascertain.
• Practitioners do not always listen to adults who try to speak on behalf of another adult and who may have important information to contribute.
• Carers can prevent practitioners from seeing and listening to an adult.
• Practitioners can be misinformed with stories they want to believe are true.
• Effective multi-agency work needs to be coordinated.
• Challenging carers and other professionals requires expertise, confidence, time and a considerable amount of emotional energy.

 The key to effective safeguarding practice is to ask the right questions, including: 

1. Would I live here, and if not, why not?
2. Would I be happy with this standard of care for a member of my family?
3. What does good look like?
4. Is there anything else going on in this person’s life which might be causing harm, or the potential for adult abuse or neglect?

Barriers to professional curiosity

It is important to note that when a lack of professional curiosity is cited as a factor in any safeguarding enquiry or review that this does not automatically mean that blame should be apportioned. It is widely recognised that there are many barriers to being professionally curious, some of which are set out below:

The ‘rule of optimism’.
Risk enablement is about a strengths-based approach, but this does not mean that new or escalating risks should not be treated seriously. The ‘rule of optimism’ is a well-known dynamic in which professionals can tend to rationalise away new or escalating risks despite clear evidence to the contrary.

Accumulating risk – seeing the whole picture.
Reviews repeatedly demonstrate that professionals tend to respond to each situation or new risk discretely, rather than assessing the new information within the context of the whole person, or looking at the cumulative effect of a series of incidents and information.

Normalisation.
This refers to social processes through which ideas and actions come to be seen as 'normal' and become taken-for-granted or 'natural' in everyday life. Because they are seen as ‘normal’ they cease to be questioned and are therefore not recognised as potential risks or assessed as such.

Professional deference.
Workers who have most contact with the individual are in a good position to recognise when the risks to the person are escalating. However, there can be a tendency to defer to the opinion of a ‘higher status’ professional who has limited contact with the person but who views the risk as less significant. Be confident in your own judgement and always outline your observations and concerns to other professionals, be courageous and challenge their opinion of risk if it varies from your own. Escalate ongoing concerns through your manager and by using more formal procedures if necessary.

Confirmation bias.
This is when we look for evidence that supports or confirms our pre-held view, and ignores contrary information that refutes them. It occurs when we filter out potentially useful facts and opinions that don't coincide with our preconceived ideas.

‘Knowing but not knowing’.
This is about having a sense that something is not right but not knowing exactly what, so it is difficult to grasp the problem and take action.

Confidence in managing tension.
Disagreement, disruption and aggression from families or others, can undermine confidence and divert meetings away from topics the practitioner wants to explore and back to the family’s own agenda.

Dealing with uncertainty.
Contested accounts, vague or retracted disclosures, deception and inconclusive medical evidence are common in safeguarding practice. Practitioners are often presented with concerns which are impossible to substantiate. In such situations, ‘there is a temptation to discount concerns that cannot be proved’. A person-centred approach requires practitioners to remain mindful of the original concern and be professionally curious:

• ‘Unsubstantiated’ concerns and inconclusive medical evidence should not lead to case closure without further assessment.
• Retracted allegations still need to be investigated wherever possible.
• The use of risk assessment tools can reduce uncertainty, but they are not a substitute for professional judgement, and results need to be collated with observations and other sources of information.
• Social care practitioners are responsible for triangulating information such as, seeking independent confirmation of information, and weighing up information from a range of practitioners, particularly when there are differing accounts, and considering different theories/ research to understand the situation.

Other barriers to professional curiosity.
Poor supervision, complexity and pressure of work, changes of case worker leading to repeatedly ‘starting again’ in casework, closing cases too quickly, fixed thinking/preconceived ideas and values, and a lack of openness to new knowledge are also barriers to a professionally curious approach.

Disguised Compliance

Disguised Compliance involves carers giving the appearance of co-operating with agencies to avoid raising suspicions and allay concerns.

There is a continuum of behaviours from carers on a sliding scale, with full co-operation at one end of the scale, and planned and effective resistance at the other. Showing your best side or ‘saving face’ may be viewed as ‘normal’ behaviour and therefore we can expect a degree of Disguised Compliance in all families; but at its worst superficial cooperation may be to conceal deliberate abuse, and professionals can sometimes delay or avoid interventions due to Disguised Compliance.

The following principles will help front line practitioner’s deal with Disguised Compliance more effectively:

• Focus on the needs, voice and lived experience of the adult.
• Avoid being encouraged to focus too extensively on the needs and presentation of the carers, whether aggressive, argumentative or apparently compliant.
• Think carefully about the engagement of the carers and the impact of this behaviour on the practitioner’s view of risk.
• Focus on change in the family dynamic and the impact this will have on the life and well-being of the adult. This is a more reliable measure than the agreement of carers in the professionals plan.
• There is some evidence that an empathetic approach by professionals may result in an increased level of trust and a more open family response leading to greater disclosure by adults.
• Practitioners need to build close partnership style relationships with families whilst being constantly aware of the adult’s needs and the degree to which they are met.
• There is no magic way of spotting Disguised Compliance other than the discrepancy between a carer’s account and observations of the needs and account of the adult. The latter must always take precedent.
• Practitioners should aim to ‘triangulate’ and cross-reference the information they have received to confirm or refute the facts that have been presented.

Professional Challenge - having different perspectives

Having different professional perspectives within safeguarding practice is a sign of healthy and well-functioning inter-agency partnerships. These differences of opinion are usually resolved by discussion and negotiation between the practitioners concerned, but it is essential that they do not adversely affect outcomes for adults and are resolved in a constructive manner.

If you have a difference of opinion with another practitioner, remember:

• Professional differences and disagreements can help find better ways to improve outcomes for adults and families.
• All professionals are responsible for their own actions in relation to case work.
• Differences and disagreements should be resolved as simply and quickly as possible, in the first instance by individual practitioners and /or their line managers.
• All practitioners should respect the views of others whatever the level of experience – remember that challenging more senior or experienced practitioners can be hard.
• Expect to be challenged; working together effectively depends on an open approach and honest relationships between agencies and professionals.
• Differences are reduced by clarity about roles and responsibilities, the ability to discuss and share problems, and by effectively networking.

Also see this briefing from the Somerset Safeguarding Adults Board: Mendip House Practice Briefing

Cultural Competence

Culturally competent safeguarding practice is essential in achieving the right outcomes, and for improving the well-being of adults from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities.

Lack of cultural awareness among practitioners can impact on their ability to effectively work with and support adults, and therefore deal with abuse and neglect appropriately. This can also result in poor practice or interventions, which in turn can reduce trust in statutory agencies and create barriers for engagement with and from minority ethnic communities.   

It is important therefore that practitioners are sensitive to differing family patterns and lifestyles that vary across different racial, ethnic and cultural groups. At the same time they must be clear that abuse or neglect cannot be condoned for religious or cultural reasons.

All practitioners working with adults at risk and their carers whose faith, culture, nationality and recent history differs significantly from that of the majority culture, must be professionally curious and take personal responsibility for informing their work with sufficient knowledge (or seeking advice) on the particular culture and/or faith by which the adult and their family or carers live their daily lives.

Practitioners should be curious about situations or information arising in the course of their work, allowing the family to give their account as well as researching such things by discussion with other practitioners, or by researching the evidence base. Examples of this might be around attitudes towards, and acceptance of, services e.g. health and dietary choices.

In some instances reluctance to access support stems from a desire to keep family life private. In many communities there is a prevalent fear that social work practitioners will negatively interfere, and there may be a poor view of support services arising from initial contact through the immigration system, and, for some communities – particularly those with insecure immigration status – an instinctive distrust of the state arising from experiences in their country of origin.

Practitioners must take personal responsibility for utilising specialist services. Knowing about and using services available locally to provide relevant cultural and faith-related input to prevention, support and rehabilitation services for adults (and their family) will help support practice.

This includes:

• Knowing which agencies are available to access locally (and nationally).
• Having contact details to hand.
• Timing requests for expert support and information appropriately to ensure that assessments, care planning and review are sound and holistic.

Often for BAME communities, accessing appropriate services is a consistent barrier to them fully participating in society, increasing their exclusion and potential for victimisation.

Social Graces

The term ‘Social Graces’ is a mnemonic to help us remember some of the key features that influence personal and social identity. This helps to prompt a professional to have discussions with an adult in a more inclusive way, which in turn may help to improve their understanding of that person's life circumstances and risks they may be facing:

G Gender and Geography

R Race and Religion

A Age, Accent, Appearance and Ability 

C Class and Culture

E Ethnicity, Education and Employment

S Sexual Orientation and Spirituality

Read here for more information: Social Graces: A practical tool to address inequality

Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking

Lewisham Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Conference 23 January 2024

The Lewisham Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Conference was held 23 January 2024.

The conference was very well attended with representation from all local health and social care services. For those who were unable to make it on the day, the presentations from the Conference are available for you to read and download.

Modern Slavery in Supply Chains - London Borough of Lewisham

Responding to Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in Lewisham - Human Trafficking Foundation

Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Lewisham - Metropolitan Police Service

Operation Makesafe: Raising community awareness of child exploitation - Metropolitan Police Service

Operation Makesafe has been developed in partnership with London’s boroughs to raise awareness of child exploitation in the business community, such as hotels, licensed premises, taxi companies, shops, and care homes. The purpose of Operation Makesafe is to empower businesses and organisations to tackle child exploitation through increased awareness and training.

Links to further learning, advice and organisations that were shared at the Conference.

• First case of someone being prosecuted for Organ Harvesting in London: Organ harvesting: Trafficked for his kidney and now forced into hiding - BBC News
• Lewisham Modern Slavery Victim Care Pathway - this is full of resources and agencies that can help to support victims. Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board - Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board > Concerns Stage 1: Advice for Submitting an Adult Safeguarding (safeguardinglewisham.org.uk)
• There are specialist agencies such as Karma Nirvana working to prevent forced marriage.
• Human Trafficking Foundation report on Voice of British survivors

Modern Slavery: Duty to notify

Do you know that you have a duty to notify the Home Office of potential victims of modern slavery?

The Modern Slavery Fact-sheet can tell you more on your duty to notify.

The Home Office has published new modern slavery it's closer than you think campaign resources which brings together documents and promotional material related to the awareness campaign on modern slavery which you can use in your local campaigns.

Identification of victims

The Home Office has produced Modern Slavery Victims - Guidance, Referral and Assessment Forms which gives information on how to identify and refer potential victims of modern slavery/human trafficking to the national referral mechanism.

Lewisham Modern Slavery Victim Care Pathway

A new local guidance document on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking will be published later in 2022, but professionals should also refer to the Lewisham Modern Slavery Victim Care Pathway

What is the National Referral Mechanism?

The national referral mechanism (NRM) is a victim identification and support process. The NRM is designed to make it easier for all agencies that could be involved in a trafficking case (eg the police, UK Visas and Immigration, local authorities, non-governmental organisations) to share information about potential victims and facilitate their access to advice, accommodation and support.

The guidance document gives information including:

• What the NRM is
• The referral process
• How to complete the referral forms

Links to further information and resources

Lewisham Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking 7 Minute Briefing

Hope for Justice exist to bring an end to modern slavery by rescuing victims, restoring lives, and reforming society.

Hope for Justice also have comprehensive briefing documents that define human trafficking, outline the UK and global markets for the exploitation of human beings and analyse the current mechanisms for addressing this complex crime.

Human Trafficking Foundation (HTF) is a UK-based charity which grew out of the work of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking. HTF was created in order to support and add value to the work of the many charities and agencies operating to combat human trafficking in the UK.

London Directory of Support Services

The Human Trafficking Foundation has created a Directory of Survivor Support Services in London, which is constantly updated.

Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA)

• Workers Checklist
• Workers Rights
• Exploitation Poster- English
• Modern Slavery Government Advice - English

Sexual Assault and Sexual Abuse Information Resources 

Safeguarding in Care Homes Guidelines and Tools

NICE guideline on Safeguarding adults in care homes

The final guideline has now been published on the NICE website. You can also find the supporting evidence, tools and resources as well as all the stakeholder comments that were received during consultation and the responses to these comments. The comments were invaluable in helping NICE to develop and refine the guideline. They have also produced an equality impact assessment to support the guideline.

The recommendations from this guideline have been included in the NICE Pathway on safeguarding adults in care homes, which brings together everything which was said on safeguarding adults in care homes in an interactive flowchart. There is brief information about the guideline for people using services, carers and the public at ‘Information for the public’.

If you have any further queries, please contact SafeguardingAdults@nice  

Health and Safety Executive Guidance - Violence and aggression at work

Think Family

In April 2023, the Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board (LSAB) and Lewisham Safeguarding Children Partnership (LSCP) jointly agreed to focus on Think Family as a strategic priority. Learning from Local Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews and Safeguarding Adults Reviews have highlighted the importance of adult and children’s services working collaboratively and taking a joined up, whole family approach.

The development of the Think Family Practice Guidance is designed to help define our Think Family approach and to support practitioners in achieving this.

The Board along with the Lewisham Safeguarding Children's Partnership has also produced a toolkit for professionals Working with Father's and Male Carers Toolkit,                                                      along with the toolkit are a Toolkit Checklist and a list of Local Resources which focus on men. 

We have also produced a helpful Think Family Poster to support practitioners.

This important area of work will continue on into 2025-26.

Sexual Abuse and Sexual Exploitation

Sexual Abuse is defined in the Care Act 2014 Care and Support Statutory Guidance as:

• Rape.
• Indecent exposure.
• Sexual harassment.
• Inappropriate looking or touching.
• Sexual teasing or innuendo.
• Sexual photography.
• Subjection to pornography or witnessing sexual acts.
• Indecent exposure.
• Sexual assault.
• Sexual acts to which the adult has not consented or was pressured into consenting.

Facts and figures

• 798,000 women are raped or sexually assaulted every year. That is 1:30 women. Source: Office for National Statistics (2023).
• There were in the region of 1,000 sexual offences reported to police in Lewisham in the 12 months to December 2024.
• More than 1:4 women have been raped or sexually assaulted as an adult and 1:18 men. Source: Office for National Statistics (2023).
• 5:6 women who are raped do not report to police and 4:5 men. Source: Office for National Statistics (2021)
• Lots of these survivors tell someone else what happened. So, why don’t they tell the police? 
  • 40% said ‘embarrassment’.
  • 38% said they did not think the police could help.
  • 34% said they thought it would be humiliating.
• Less than 5% of Safeguarding Enquiries conducted in Lewisham and England are for Sexual Abuse and less than 1% for Sexual Exploitation. This has remained relatively unchanged for the last 7 years.
• The overall volume of local authority led Safeguarding Enquiries in Lewisham has more than doubled in the last 7 years. 
• Adults aged 65+ are 10 times more likely to be the subject of a Safeguarding Enquiry in Lewisham than those aged under 65. 
• Data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW, 2019) indicates that people living with a disability aged 16 to 59 are almost twice as likely to have experienced sexual assault in the past year than non-disabled people.
• Around 1:3 adults living with a learning disability experience sexual abuse in adulthood (four times higher than the general population). Behind Closed Doors: Preventing sexual abuse against adults with a learning disability 
• Research highlights significant under-reporting of sexual abuse in care settings. Sexual Abuse in Care Homes - SCIE
  • Resident-to-resident harm in care homes and residential settings - SCIE
  • Resident on Resident Sexual Assault | Dementia Support Forum
• 35,000 sexual safety incidents were reported to 212 NHS trusts in England between 2017 and 2022. 58% involved patients abusing staff, with patients abusing other patients the next most common type of incident (20%). British Medical Journal
• Detailed research found in 2023 that roughly 10% of women and 3% of men with severe mental illness had experienced recent sexual violence. Ministry of Justice: Formal support needs of disabled adult victim-survivors of sexual violence

"Rape and sexual assault can happen to anyone at any age, from the very young to the very old".

What to do if someone tells you they have been sexually abused - including historical abuse

When someone tells you they have been sexually assaulted or abused, it can be a lot to handle. A supportive reaction is essential to diminish any shame or blame that person might be feeling as a result of experiencing sexual abuse. Encouraging words and phrases can avoid judgment and show support.

The most important thing that you can do is to listen empathetically and tell the person that you believe them. Acknowledge the harm done to them and recognise the courage and strength it has taken for that person to disclose to you.

If the person is still in contact with the perpetrator, try to avoid saying anything negative about them as the person may still have complicated feelings about the perpetrator. Instead, focus on the victim-survivor and what they need now to help them: 

• Be honest that you will have to tell somebody about some of what you have been told.
• Include the victim-survivor as much as possible with information sharing, such as telling them exactly what details you need to share, who with and when. Offer the option to be present when you share information.
• Reassure the person that they are doing the right thing by telling you.
• It is important to let them know that they have not done anything wrong and will not get into trouble.
• Try and establish if the person is still at risk of harm from the perpetrator, or if any other person is, by asking gentle exploratory questions, for example: ‘Are you comfortable sharing with me how you know this person?’ or ‘Are you worried it will happen again?’
• Think Family and follow child safeguarding procedures if relevant. 
• If the person is not comfortable disclosing certain information or does not want to, then that is okay. You should not try and pressure them for information.
• Follow the guidance on 'How to Respond' outlined below. 
• Do not assume someone else has raised concerns or has shared the same information that you have.
• Let the person know that they do not have to talk about what happened with anyone unless they want to.
• Offer to support or assist them if they want to make a report themselves. 
• Avoid pressuring them into disclosing to someone else but offer to support them if they want to do so
• Do not suggest that they are responsible for the behaviour of the perpetrator. Avoid phrases such as: ‘If you don’t report this it could happen to someone else.’
• If you do not know something, say that you do not know and offer to find out. You are not expected to have all the answers.

Supporting Survivors – The Survivors Trust

How To Support A Survivor - The Survivors Trust

Sexual violence in later life

Both women and men can be victims of sexual offences, although most recorded offences involve a female victim and male offender. Offenders can be partners, spouse, family members, acquaintances, neighbours, friends or strangers.

Research found that most offenders were known to victims, and most were younger than victims.

Research found that most rapes happened in the victim’s home, however sexual offences can also be perpetrated in other locations including the offender’s home, or other private, or public, places. They can also happen in care homes; the second most common location in the research was a care home.

Rape of Older People in the United Kingdom: The British Journal of Criminology

Hourglass is a charity that aims to end the harm, abuse, and exploitation of older people in the UK. Hourglass recently hosted The Sexual Abuse of Older Adults - Webinar 2025 which included some excellent speakers talking about this subject and the extent of this problem, which is significantly under reported/ researched. 

This presentation from the London SAB Conference in November 2024 also links to this subject: Systematic Invisibility of Older Victims of Domestic Abuse - Amanda Warburton-Wynn

What is Adult Sexual Exploitation?

There is no national definition of Adult Sexual Exploitation (ASE) and this is often only seen as a form of sexual abuse, but there are differences and this is a distinct and separate type of abuse.

Adult Sexual Exploitation occurs where a person or a group of people (including grooming gangs) take advantage of someone else, normally using an imbalance of power, to coerce, manipulate or deceive an adult into sexual activity:

• In exchange for something the adult needs or wants (food, drugs, money, cigarettes etc); and or
• For the financial advantage or increased status of the perpetrator.

“Sexual exploitation happens when a person is coerced, forced or manipulated into engaging in sexual activities”

The adult may have been sexually exploited even if the sexual activity appears consensual. It is important to note that those living with *mental ill health and/or a learning disability may appear to consent to sexual activity but may lack capacity to do so. Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board - Mental Capacity, DoLS and Advocacy

* The Sexual Offences Act 2003 contains a number of offences in relation to those who have a mental disorder.

ASE does not always involve physical contact; it can also occur through the use of technology:

• Being forced to take part in or watch pornography.
• Being victim to revenge porn - when a previously taken video or photograph, which was taken with or without consent, is shared online.
• Sextortion – which is a type of online blackmail where criminals threaten to share sexual pictures, videos, or information. Victims are often tricked into sharing sexual images or the abuser has hacked into a victim’s electronic device(s).
• More broadly, the internet acts as an enabler of trafficking for sexual exploitation: 75% of victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation are advertised online. This is often in the form of Adult Service Websites (ASWs) - which are unregulated. These can allow traffickers to anonymously advertise victims of sexual exploitation. Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner

It is important to understand the difference between a capacitated adult consensually engaging in ‘sex work’ and an adult who takes part in sexual activity as a result of being exploited.

Many leading charities argue that more effort is needed to completely eliminate sex work or ‘survival sex’ which links in with the wider initiatives to end violence against women and girls.

UK charity working to end sexual exploitation | Beyond The Streets

Sexual Exploitation can happen in lots of different ways, including:

• Sex for rent arrangements, where a landlord offers accommodation in exchange for sexual activity.
• Being forced to exchange sex for money, accommodation, food in order to survive – also known as ‘survival sex’.
• Being coerced into the sex industry by a third party – such as a partner or friend.
• Being coerced into unwanted sexual activities with third parties by a partner, family member or friend.
• Being trafficked for the purpose of performing sexual acts. Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board - Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking

What is grooming? 

Grooming happens when someone builds a relationship or connection with a person in order to abuse or exploit them.

This might appear as forming a friendship, offering help with money or housing, or creating dependency on the groomer. This position of trust is then used to coerce someone into exploitation, often under the pretence of repayment for the help provided.

It is important to remember that exploitation can still be happening, even if the sexual activity appears to be consensual.

Who are the victims of Adult Sexual Abuse and Adult Sexual Exploitation (ASE)?

While the majority of victims are women, men can also experience sexual abuse and ASE. Adults can be groomed and sexually exploited in many different ways, e.g. online, street, gangs, leisure industry, religion, position of authority, celebrity. Perpetrators may work together in groups, or as individuals. At one end of the scale adult sexual exploitation can be described as a one-off situation between two adults, while at the other end it may include instances of Serious and Organised Crimes (SOC) with multiple adults and/or multiple perpetrators. The common theme in all cases is the imbalance of power and the control exerted over the victims.

Risk or vulnerability factors (not exhaustive):

• Age: Older adults can be victims: Sexual Incidents in Adults Social Care; Evidence Review Briefing - SCIE
• Cognitive impairment.
• Isolation, lack of strong social networks.
• Breakdown of family relationships.
• Victims of domestic abuse/ coercive and controlling behaviour including force marriage. Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board - Domestic Abuse and Safeguarding
• Lack of engagement or inconsistent engagement with support networks.
• History of local authority care (looked after children).
• Previous trauma or experience of abuse as a child.
• Low self-esteem.
• Bereavement or loss.
• Adults who are ‘missing’, and in particular repeated missing episodes.
• Dependency on the alleged perpetrator (including caring responsibilities).
• Substance misuse or dependency.
• Victims coerced into county lines (drug gangs) activity. Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board - County Lines & Cuckooing
• Learning disability or difficulty. 
• Mental ill-health.
• Insecure housing or homelessness (including rough sleeping).
• Insecure immigration status.
• No recourse to public funds.

Sexual exploitation has a very serious effect on the physical and mental health of adults.

Physical and sexual violence can lead to victims having long-term injuries that impact on their ability to have children, and mental health problems that have a lasting and severe impact on the person.

Sexual Harassment

"Sexual harassment is unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature which makes the victim feel intimidated, humiliated or that their dignity has been violated". 

These unwanted behaviours may only happen once or be an ongoing series of events. Objecting is not a prerequisite for defining an event or pattern of behaviour as harassment. Even if the perpetrator did not mean to offend, having the effect without intent is sufficient for the behaviour to be categorised as sexual harassment. Sexual harassment may include sexual comments or jokes; sexualised emails; displaying photos of a sexual nature; unwelcome sexual advances and various forms of sexual assault. Sexual harassment is a form of unlawful discrimination under the Equality Act 2010. Defining sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment | UNHCR UK

Why don’t victims just tell someone?

Victims can be fearful of perpetrators and the potential consequences if they refuse sex. They may feel it is ‘safer’ to comply. Perpetrators may intimidate their victims so that they don’t talk to professionals.

Victims can depend on perpetrators to provide a roof over their head, money, food, drugs or alcohol. This makes it more difficult for them to report abuse or escape because they rely on them for their basic care needs.

Victims may witness/be involved in crimes and do not often report to services for fear of going to prison or being deported.

Victims may have been groomed and sexually exploited as a child and as an adult their understanding of ‘normal’ relationships can be misconstrued, truly believing that they are consenting to sex. They may not believe they are a victim at all or understand that they are being exploited.

Lack of prosecutions can lead to victims feeling unsafe/ withdrawing their statements and can increase the perpetrators’ power over them.

How to Respond?

- Follow the detailed guidance in the Lewisham Adult Safeguarding Pathway:

- Talk to the adult (unless it is not safe to do so).

- If the adult does not wish to report the abuse: Are they in immediate danger or risk of serious harm?

Has a crime been committed? If so, and the adult is in immediate danger or risk of serious harm, then this should be reported to the Police immediately. Help to keep the adult safe until the Police respond. The adult does not need to give their consent under these circumstances due to ‘vital interest’ considerations (immediate danger or risk of serious harm). 

- If it is reported as a crime still consider reporting the incident as a Safeguarding Concern. 

- Refer to the Think Family page where you will find the Lewisham Think Family Protocol, the Think Family Practice Guidance and resources.

- Consider if this matter meets the Section 42 (1) criteria within the Care Act 2014 as a Safeguarding Concern: 

a. do I have reasonable cause to suspect that the adult has needs for care and support; and

b.do I have reasonable cause to suspect that the adult is at risk, or, experiencing abuse or neglect. 

It must be noted that the third criteria (c) under the legal duty for a Section 42 Enquiry (1) is not relevant 'for the referrer' at the Concern Stage. This is for the local authority to determine, but referrers should pass on any evidence to help support decision making. 

c. as a result of those needs is unable to protect himself or herself against the abuse or neglect or the risk of it. 

- Seek the adult’s consent to submit a Safeguarding Concern to the Local Authority.

- Gather as much information as possible.

- Submit the Adult Safeguarding Concern. How to Report Your Concerns About an Adult

Do not ignore sexual abuse in hospitals or care settings, including incidents between patients and residents: Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board - Safeguarding in Care Homes Guidelines and Tools

Think about what support can be offered to the victim (see below).

Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs)

SARCs provide a safe space and dedicated care, through the NHS, for people who have been raped, sexually assaulted or abused, regardless of when the incident happened. They offer specialist practical, medical and emotional support 24/7.

SARCs offer a range of services, including crisis care, medical and forensic examinations, emergency contraception and testing for sexually transmitted infections. They can also arrange access to an independent sexual violence advisor, as well as referrals to mental health support and voluntary sector sexual violence support services.

There are three SARCs in London – The nearest to Lewisham is Camberwell Haven, near to King’s College Hospital The Havens

Rape Crisis South London 

Rape Crisis South London are a registered charity and a member of Rape Crisis (England and Wales) we run the national Rape Crisis Helpline, and provide specialised counselling, support and independent advocacy for women who have experienced sexual violence both recently and/or in the past. Our helpline also provides information, referrals and short term support to family, friends and partners of survivors. 

For confidential, free and specialist support please contact the 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line on 0808 500 222

For general enquiries: info@rasasc.org.uk

For confidential, free and specialist support please contact the 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line on 0808 500 2222

National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC)

NAPAC offers support to adult survivors of all types of childhood abuse, including physical, sexual, emotional abuse or neglect. Information including opening hours can be found on NAPAC’s website which offers a large range of resources for survivors, as well as those who care for and work with them. NAPAC also offer a support email service for those who feel more comfortable seeking support in writing.

Private and confidential helpline: 0808 801 0331
Email: support@napac.org.uk

Victim Support

Victim Support operates a free and confidential 24/7 Support Line offering specialist support to anyone who has been a victim of crime or a witness.

Telephone: 0808 16 89 111

Live chat: victimsupport.org.uk/live-chat

My Support Space: mysupportspace.org.uk/MoJ

More information can be found at www.victimsupport.org.uk

The Survivors Trust

The Survivors Trust provides confidential information, advice and support for women, men and young people, their parents/carers or partners via a helpline or email.

Telephone: 08088 010818

Email: info@thesurvivorstrust.org

More information including opening hours can be found at www.thesurvivorstrust.org

National Male Survivor Helpline and Online Service

The National Male Survivor Helpline is a confidential helpline for male victims of sexual violence and abuse. They also provide emotional support via telephone, SMS (text), live chat and email.

Telephone: 0808 800 5005 Email: support@safeline.org.uk Text: 07860 065187

Please access our live chat service via our website at https://www.safeline.org.uk/contact-us

Now open 7 days a week. For more information, including specific opening hours, visit www.safeline.org.uk

Galop - for members of the LGBT+ community

If you are a member of the LGBT+ community and experienced sexual assault, abuse, or violence, Galop runs a specialist helpline.

Telephone: 0800 999 5428
Email: help@galop.org.uk

More information including opening hours can be found at Galop.

Criminal Exploitation of Vulnerable Adults: County Lines & Cuckooing

What is cuckooing?

Cuckooing is when a person’s home is taken over for the purpose of criminal activity. It is most commonly seen in County Lines. This is where a drug dealer or group of drug dealers takes over the premises of a vulnerable person either by friendship, force, or a combination of both, before turning it into a base to store money, weapons, and prepare, and sell drugs from. A criminal will often befriend a vulnerable person, as comfort levels rise more criminals are brought to the home, adding to the activity, and taking over the property entirely. Cuckooing is typified by some form of power imbalance in favour of those perpetrating the exploitation. Whilst age may be the most obvious, this power imbalance can also be due to a range of other factors including gender, cognitive ability, physical strength, status, and access to economic or other resources.

• Can affect any vulnerable adult over the age of 18 years;
• Can still be exploitation even if the activity appears consensual;
• Can involve force and/or enticement-based methods of compliance and is often accompanied by violence or threats of violence;
• Can be perpetrated by individuals or groups, males or females, and adults or young people.

Home Takeover – Targeted and Trapped

Watch and share our Animated Video Home Takeover – Targeted and Trapped to find out more.

 

Lewisham Project ADDER (Addiction, Diversion, Disruption, Enforcement, Recovery) 

The programme seeks to ensure that more people get effective treatment, with enhanced treatment and recovery provision, including housing and employment support, and improved communication between treatment providers and courts, prisons, and hospitals.

The Lewisham Project ADDER Team have produced an Are You Aware of Cuckooing leaflet. 

For additional information on cuckooing, please see the 'Introduction to Cuckooing' presentation. 

What to do if you suspect a property is being ‘cuckooed’?

Call the Metropolitan Police Service on 101 (or 999 in an emergency or crime in progress) to report your concerns.

You can also report your concerns online. 

If you don’t want to speak to the police directly, you can call

Crimestoppers 0800 555 111.

or

Lewisham Council by telephone (non-emergency only) 0800 028 2028 or contact them by email.

What to do if you are a Lewisham professional who is concerned

There are many forms and ways that adult abuse and neglect can occur, so we should not be constrained by definitions and terminologies.

Adult abuse is also often complex involving more than one type of abuse occurring at any one time.

How to Report Your Concerns
Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Lewisham Victim Care Pathway

Professionals should also make a report to Police if you think someone may be a victim of exploitation, contact them on 101 or report it online.

Guidance and Toolkits

LSAB Cuckooing A Brief Guide for Professionals

A brief guide for professionals including information on 

• What is Cuckooing
• Common Indicators of Cuckooing
• What can I do to help make the adult safe?
• Relationship-Based Practices
• Person-Centred Interventions 
• Partnership Working
• Advice for Submitting an Adult Safeguarding Concern
• Support for Lewisham Professionals

Preventing and Disrupting Cuckooing Victimisation: Professional Toolkit

Leeds University, Law School has produced a professional toolkit aimed at preventing and disrupting Cuckooing. 

The toolkit resources have been designed to improve awareness of cuckooing victimisation, encourage professional and public curiosity, and improve reporting and intervention.

Crime and Policing Bill

Child criminal exploitation and 'cuckooing' factsheet (Published 25 February 2025)

The government are creating a new standalone offence to prosecute adults committing child criminal exploitation and creating a new regime for child criminal exploitation civil preventative orders to prevent exploitative conduct committed by adults against children from occurring or re-occurring. 

They are also creating a new bespoke criminal offence to tackle the practice known as ‘cuckooing’ (home takeover), whereby criminals take control over the home of another person to use it for criminal activity. 

Learning from Safeguarding Adults Reviews

Hampshire Safeguarding Adults Board has conducted a Thematic Safeguarding Adults Review on three cases of Cuckooing: Katie, James And Luke. Read about the cases, the findings and recommendations.

Cuckooing Posters

A series of four posters for different groups of professionals outlining the key signs to look out for in identifying a victim of home invasion/ cuckooing.

Cuckooing: Know the Signs Posters | Faculty of Social Sciences | University of Leeds

Cuckooing Awareness and Response Toolkit

Cuckooing Toolkit

The Voice of the Adult

Catalyst Support presents a short film based on a personal experience of a cuckooing victim.

Steven's Story - A personal experience of Cuckooing

Scams Information and Advice

New! Scams Easy Read Booklet 

This booklet was made by Lewisham Speaking Up on behalf of the Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board.

Read and download the Scams Easy Read Booklet

What is Fraud

Fraud is when a person lies to you, or ‘scams’ you, to gain an advantage, such as taking your money or learning private information about you.

This could be by email, text, phone or in person, either on the street or on your doorstep.

Criminals are turning to more sophisticated ways to take your money, whether through online offers, emails or telephone calls.

Scams affect the lives of millions of people across the UK. People who are scammed often experience shame and social isolation as a result.

With a little knowledge you can protect yourself from fraudsters.

Watch out for Scams like these

• Banking Fraud
• Cash Machine Fraud
• Cheque Scam
• Holiday Fraud
• Identity Theft

• Online shopping Fraud

Watch this video from the Metropolitan Police Service on online shopping fraud

• Impersonation Fraud

Watch this video from the Metropolitan Police Service on Impersonation Fraud

• Investment Fraud

Investing in stocks and shares or any other commodity can be a successful way of making money. However, it can also lead to people losing their entire life savings. Fraudsters will persuade you to invest in all kinds of products. They will offer you high rates of return, particularly over longer periods of time, which often do not exist.

Common products that will be offered include binary options, virtual currency, carbon credits, wine, rare metals, gemstones, land and alternative energy. Often, initial investments will yield small returns as an incentive to invest further funds. However, larger investments or cashing out will be met with excuses or a penalty charge. Eventually contact with the fraudster will be impossible and all funds and bogus returns lost.

Fraudsters are organised and they may have details of previous investments you have made or shares you have purchased. Knowing this information does not mean they are genuine.

Criminals may direct you to well-presented websites or send you glossy marketing material. These resources do not prove they are a genuine company. Many fraudulent companies have a polished customer image to cover their illegal activities.

It is relatively easy to register a company with Companies House. This does not confirm or endorse that they can provide genuine investments. Indeed, emerging investment markets may be unregulated, making these open to abuse.

• Invoice and Mandate Fraud
• Payment in Advance Fraud
• Purchase Scam

Companies may be registered at prestigious addresses, for example Canary Wharf or Mayfair. This does not mean they operate from there. It is an accepted business practice to rent such a virtual office to enhance a business’s status. However, fraudsters are also aware of this and exploit it. The fraudster may put pressure on you by offering a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’ or claim the deal has to be done quickly to maximise profit.

In addition - be wary of companies that offer to ‘recover’ any funds you have lost to any sort of investment scam. They may be linked to the company who initially defrauded you in the first place and may be targeting you again. This is known as ‘Recovery Fraud’.

How to protect yourself

• There are no get rich quick schemes. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
  Genuine investment companies will not cold call you. Be extremely wary of anyone who does.
• Research both what you have been offered, and the investment company. Speak to Trading Standards if you have concerns.
  Before investing, check the Financial Conduct Authority register to see if the firm or individual you are dealing with is authorised (https://register.fca.org.uk/)
• Check the FCA Warning List of firms to avoid.

REMEMBER - Don’t be pressured into making a quick decision.

CAUTION - Seek independent financial advice before committing to any investment.

THINK - Why would a legitimate investment company call me out of the blue?

• Rental Fraud

Sometimes, criminals advertise properties to rent when these properties don’t belong to them, or even don’t exist! Victims are then tricked into paying an upfront fee to rent the property.

In reality, the property does not exist, has already been rented out, or has been rented to multiple victims at the same time. The victim loses the upfront fee they have paid and is not able to rent the property they thought they had secured with the payment. Rental fraudsters often target students looking for university accommodation.

How to Protect Yourself

• Do not send money to anyone advertising rental properties online until you are certain the advertiser is genuine.
• If you need to secure accommodation in the UK from overseas, seek the help of the employer or university you are coming to, or get a friend, contact or relative to check the property exists and is available.
• Do not pay any money until you or a reliable contact has visited the property with an agent or the landlord.
• Ask for copies of tenancy agreements and any safety certificates such as Gas Electricity or HMO Licence.
• Do not be pressurised into transferring large sums of money. Transfer funds to a bank account having obtained the details by contacting the landlord or agent directly after the above steps have been followed. Be sceptical if you’re asked to transfer any money via a money transfer service like Western Union.

• Romance and Dating Fraud

Dating online is now one of the most popular ways for new couples to meet, with millions of people finding new relationships, romance and love this way. Unfortunately, amongst the genuine profiles are fake profiles set up by fraudsters. They are after your money, not your love. They are masters of manipulation, playing on your good nature and emotions to ultimately steal your money.

Criminals will build a relationship with online members, quickly asking to move communication off the dating website. This is so they can continue their contact with you, even if their profile is later identified by the site as fraudulent and subsequently deleted.

Fraudsters are often very flattering, appearing really interested in you within a short space of time. However, they will use a range of excuses as to why they can’t meet in person, such as they are stuck overseas, have a family emergency or have an issue with their business. They then start asking for money to help with their problems, assuring you they will pay it back as soon as they can. The fraudster may claim to be desperate to meet you as soon as this obstacle is overcome. This is all a scam and their true intention is to take as much money from you as they can.

Watch Sarah's Story

How to Protect Yourself

• Stay on site.
  
• Keep all communication on the dating website you are using. Don’t be convinced by profile pictures, they may have been taken from somewhere else on the internet. You can check photos using a reverse image search on the internet through websites like https://www.tineye.com or https://reverse.photos
  
• Do your own research on the person – are they members of any other social networking sites? Can you confirm what they are telling you about themselves, such as where they work or where they live?
  
• Never send money to someone you have not met in person and be extremely wary of giving money to someone you have recently started a relationship with.
  
• Be wary of anyone asking you to receive money on their behalf and transfer it on. They may be using you to launder money.
  
• Talk to family and friends for advice, even if the other party is asking you to keep the relationship secret.
  
• Watch Metropolitan Police's video on Romance Fraud

REMEMBER - Stay on site! Never send money to someone you have not met in person, or receive/ transfer money on their behalf.

CAUTION - Be wary of continuing the relationship away from the dating website you initially made contact on.

THINK - Why are they so quick to declare their love for me? How do I know they are telling me the truth?

Find out more about Romance Fraud from Action Fraud

Doorstep Crime and Scams

Remember:

Your bank, the police, or tax office will never ask you to attend your bank, withdraw, transfer or pay money over the   phone or send couriers to collect your card or cash. Nor would they ask you to buy goods or vouchers.

This is a scam.

Hang up (Never give details or money following a cold call)

Take 5 (Seek a second opinion, tell someone what has happened)

Verify (if concerned, contact the company via a pre-confirmed method)

Friends Against Scams is a National Trading Standards (NTS) Scams Team initiative, which aims to protect and prevent people from becoming victims of scams by empowering communities to "Take a Stand Against Scams".

Friends Against Scams has been created to tackle the lack of scams awareness by providing information about scams and those who fall victim to them. This information enables communities and organisations to understand scams, talk about scams and cascade messages throughout communities about scams prevention and protection.

Friends Against Scams encourages communities and organisations to take the knowledge learnt and turn it into action.

Friends Against Scams Easy Read Resources Webpage

https://www.friendsagainstscams.org.uk/easyread

Anybody can join Friends Against Scams and make a difference in their own way.

Become a friend

If you would like to be a Friend Against Scams you can attend a short awareness session in person or complete the online training.

After this session you will be asked to start taking action to "Take a Stand Against Scams". 

Take Five Campaign

Beware if you receive a text message purporting to be from a trusted organisation such as your bank – can you be sure it’s genuine?

It is a good idea to follow the advice from Take Five

STOP

Taking a moment to stop and think before parting with your money or information could keep you safe.

CHALLENGE

Could it be fake? It’s ok to reject, refuse or ignore any requests. Only criminals will try to rush or panic you.

PROTECT

Contact your bank immediately if you think you’ve fallen for a scam and report it to Action Fraud.

Remember these ten golden rules to help you prevent fraud and beat the scammers.

1. Be suspicious of all ‘too good to be true’ offers and deals. There are no guaranteed get-rich-quick schemes.
2. Don’t agree to offers or deals immediately. Insist on time to get independent or legal advice before making a decision.
3. Don’t hand over money or sign anything until you’ve checked someone’s credentials and their company’s.
4. Never send money to anyone you don’t know or trust, whether in the UK or abroad, or use methods of payment you’re not comfortable with.
5. Never give banking or personal details to anyone you don’t know or trust. This information is valuable so make sure you protect it.
6. Always log on to a website directly rather than clicking on links in an email.
7. Don’t just rely on glowing testimonials. Find solid, independent evidence of a company’s success.
8. Always get independent or legal advice if an offer involves money, time or commitment.
9. If you spot a scam or have been scammed, report it and get help.
10. Don’t be embarrassed about reporting a scam. Because the scammers are cunning and clever there’s no shame in being deceived. By reporting it, you'll make it more difficult for them to deceive others.

Get help or report a scam

If you think you’ve uncovered a scam, been targeted by a scam or fallen victim to fraudsters, contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or at Action Fraud.

Call the Police on 101 if you know the suspect or they’re still in the area.

Reporting crime, including fraud, is important. If you don’t tell the authorities, how do they know it’s happened and how can they do anything about it?

Remember that if you’re a victim of a scam or an attempted scam, however minor, there may be hundreds or thousands of others in a similar position. Your information may form part of one big jigsaw and be vital to completing the picture.

Other useful Information

Age UK Avoiding Scams Guide

Crimestoppers Romance Fraud e-Booklet

Change People.org Keeping-Safe-Online-Easy-Read-Guide

Scam Marshals - play a role in helping National Trading Standards (NTS) Scams Team to stop scam mail (friendsagainstscams.org.uk)

CONTEST and the Prevent Strategy

What is CONTEST and the Prevent Strategy?

The Prevent Strategy is one of the key elements of CONTEST, the Government's counter- terrorism strategy and it aims to stop people from being drawn into terrorist-related activity. Prevent has strong links to safeguarding because vulnerable adults and children can be susceptible to radicalisation and recruitment into violent extremist and terrorist organisations.

CONTEST has four strands:

• Protect: Strengthen our protection against terrorist attack.
• Prepare: Mitigate the impact of an attack.
• Pursue: Stop a terrorist attack.
• Prevent: Stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism by:

• • responding to the ideological challenge of terrorism and the threat we face from those who promote it,
  • preventing people from being drawn into terrorism and ensuring that they are given appropriate advice and support,
  • working with sectors and institutions where there are risks of radicalisation that we need to address.

What does the Prevent Duty mean for Statutory Organisations in Lewisham?

Since 2015, statutory agencies have a duty under the Counter Terrorism & Security Act "to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism". This means that local authorities should:

• Establish strategic and operational links with other specified authorities,
• Facilitate the assessment of risk for specified authorities, including providing advice and sharing threat assessments based on the Counter Terrorism Local Profiles (CTLP),
• Understand the full range of bodies affected by the new duties, and ensure they understand their responsibilities,
• Embed Prevent into commissioning, procurement, and grant funding processes,
• Embed Prevent into Safeguarding Policies and ensure all providers are signed up to local Safeguarding arrangements. 

Lewisham Prevent Service

London Borough of Lewisham Prevent are available to assist agencies in complying with their Counter Terrorism Act duties. The support offer includes: 

•  The sharing of training opportunities to upskill frontline staff and those with additional safeguarding responsibilities.
• Management briefings regarding Prevent Duty compliance,
• Coordination of strategic and operational groups,
• The provision of Prevent-related resources and dissemination of relevant information.

Safeguarding vulnerable people against radicalisation and extremism

There have been several cases where extremist groups or individuals have attempted to radicalise vulnerable adults. This can include justifying political, religious, sexist, or racist violence, or to steer individuals towards an ideology of extremism and intolerance. A vulnerable adult might be groomed and radicalised into carrying out acts of violence and cause significant harm to others.

There are several ways in which vulnerable adults can be at risk of radicalisation.

• They can be groomed either online or in person by people seeking to draw them into extremist activity.
• Vulnerable adults can be radicalised online via networks, social media or online chat platforms.
• Grooming can also be carried out by those who hold harmful, extremist beliefs, including peer or family members who have an influence over the person's life.
• People can be exposed to violent, anti-social, extremist imagery and narratives which can lead to normalising intolerance of others and extremist ideology.

All agencies play a vital role in ensuring vulnerable adults and our communities are safe from the threat of radicalisation, extremist ideologies and terrorism.

If you are concerned that a vulnerable adult or other family members may hold extremist views or are at risk of being radicalised, it is important to ensure that they receive support to protect them from being drawn into terrorism.

Making a Referral

If you are a professional or work in the voluntary sector and are worried about a vulnerable person you should follow your own organisation’s safeguarding procedures.

To make a Prevent referral, practitioners should complete a Prevent Referral Form and email it to preventreferrals@met.pnn.police.uk

Ensure that Lewisham’s MASH team (mashagency@lewisham.gov.uk) and prevent@lewisham.gov.uk are copied in to this email.

If you are a member of the public your concerns should be reported to:

Act Early Support Helpline: 0800 011 3764 (helpline is open every day, 9am-5pm): Contact | ACT Early

In an emergency always dial 999.

If you have any questions regarding Prevent in Lewisham contact the Prevent team by email.

Training:

Prevent Awareness Course (30-40 minutes)

This e-learning package is provided by the Home Office and is intended for frontline professionals working in a safeguarding role. It covers how Prevent is relevant to your role, as well as spotting the signs of radicalisation and recognising some of the emotions and behaviours that might make someone susceptible to radicalisation.

Participants receive a certificate of completion, which can be used to demonstrate compliance.

It is recommended that all frontline professionals refresh their knowledge with full training every two years.

Access the full course here: https://www.support-people-susceptible-to-radicalisation.service.gov.uk/portal#awareness-course

For professionals who have already completed Prevent training, there is a short refresher course, which is recommended is completed annually: https://www.support-people-susceptible-to-radicalisation.service.gov.uk/portal#refresher-awareness-course

Prevent Referrals Course (30-40 minutes)

This course is primarily designed for professionals with a designated safeguarding role and covers how to make a well-informed Prevent referral. It includes the key principles of making a Prevent referral, how to identify valid causes for concern and what information to gather.

Access the course here: https://www.support-people-susceptible-to-radicalisation.service.gov.uk/portal#referrals-course

Channel Awareness (50-60 minutes)

This course is for any professional who may be asked to sit on a Channel panel.

It covers what a Channel panel is and how it functions, and prepares you for attending.

Access the course here: https://www.support-people-susceptible-to-radicalisation.service.gov.uk/portal#awareness-course

Public Advice

• If you see or hear anything that could be terrorist-related, trust your instincts and call the Anti-Terrorist Hotline on 0800 789 321.
• If you think you have seen a person acting suspiciously, or if you see a vehicle, unattended package or bag which might be an immediate threat, move away and call 999.
• If you are involved in an incident follow police advice to: 'RUN, HIDE AND TELL 
• Download the citizenAID App , which provides safety and medical advice from Google Play, Apple App or the Windows Store, for free.  

Guidance and Further Reading

The Prevent Duty guidance for partners and Local Authorities

PREVENT National Referral Form - October 2024