Safeguarding Adults Week is a time for organisations to come together to raise awareness of important safeguarding issues.
We believe that working in partnerships allows us to share our knowledge of safeguarding, learn from others and ultimately create safer cultures.
During Safeguarding Adults Week 2025, we’ll be collaborating with our partners to explore a different safeguarding theme each day.
Prevention: Act Before Abuse
Safeguarding Adults Week 2025 is all about prevention.
Usually, when people talk about “safeguarding”, they are talking about the policies and procedures we might put into place to respond to concerns of abuse, or to minimise the risk of a person being harmed or abused again. They are also talking about the lessons we might learn from past cases of abuse.
It’s time to change the conversation.
It’s important to learn the right lessons when things go wrong. But it is much better to prevent abuse from occurring in the first place than it is to respond to instances of harm, neglect, and isolation.
Throughout the week, we’re encouraging people to take a closer look at their approach to prevention. We want individuals and organisations to ensure that prevention is embedded in their policies and procedures.
As well as discussing some key safeguarding topics, we will also be sharing stories of instances where early intervention has helped to avoid the crisis point.
We need the courage and the confidence to act on our instincts, and to speak up when something feels wrong. And we need to build resilient communities in which people know their rights and responsibilities, and understand what to do the moment they have concerns.
There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river.
We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.
– Desmond Tutu
Monday – Change the Conversation
Today’s about proactive intervention – about the good things we can do, as individuals and organisations, to create safer environments that actively work to prevent abuse. How can sport clubs, community groups, and other organisations build inclusive and resilient environments in which people look out for each other? How can we amplify individual voices to reduce the risk of harm, neglect, and isolation?
But just because we’re changing the conversation, it does not mean that we’re forgetting the importance of recognising poor practice to prevent it from escalating.
Tuesday – Prevention in Practice
How does prevention work in practice? What role should leadership play in setting the tone and building more supportive environments? Today, we’re inviting you to consider the role of good governance in shifting behaviours towards safer cultures, with a focus on values-based recruitment and meaningful training. We’re also exploring the differences between a complicit culture, a compliant culture, and a genuinely confident and competent culture.
Wednesday – Creating Empowering Environments
On this day we will explore how empathy, understanding, co-production, and positive risk taking can help create trauma informed approaches. This can support staff to feel confident in enabling and empowering individuals.
Thursday – Trust Your Instincts
Today’s all about how we can build our courage and resilience as individuals to speak out. To do this, we will look at organisational and individual tools that help develop supportive cultures in which good safeguarding practices can thrive.
Friday – Celebrate the Safer Cultures
On the last day of Safeguarding Adults Week, we want to shine a spotlight on examples of good practice, so that we can illustrate what we mean by “safer cultures”. So we want you to shout about your success stories. We want to hear stories of positive outcomes, constructive conversations, exciting initiatives, and fruitful partnerships. We want to hear as many voices as possible, so if you have anything to share, please do!