Yesterday, Cabinet members reviewed this year’s Barnsley Safeguarding Adults Board Annual Report, highlighting the great work happening locally to help adults be and feel safe.

This report looks at how we’re working with the public and our partners to prevent abuse, respond to issues when they do happen and support people to stop further harm.

Guided by our Strategic Plan, we continue to improve how we work together to protect our communities and promote their wellbeing. Over the past year, we’ve continued to strengthen our support – here’s just a snapshot of what we’ve been up to:

• We partnered with Barnsley Libraries to make it easier for people to know what to do when they have concerns, creating safeguarding bookmarks and digital screen adverts.
• We worked with Healthwatch Barnsley to better understand what the public already knew about safeguarding. Their insights helped us to improve our promotional materials and create our local radio campaign earlier this year.
• We used people’s experiences of safeguarding, including self-neglect and hoarding, to continue improving our training, putting their voices at the heart of our learning.
• We have developed new policies to help workers respond quickly to safeguarding concerns in care settings, protecting those in need of extra support.
• We joined forces with Barnsley’s Children’s Safeguarding Children’s Partnership to host another successful Safeguarding Awareness Week, filled with events in our town centre.
• We continued to offer a wide range of free training for workers and volunteers across Barnsley, helping everyone play their part in the safeguarding process.
• We worked with our commissioning colleagues in Adult Social Care and the Care Quality Commission to keep anyone who receives care and support locally safe.

We’re committed to putting people’s voices at the heart of safeguarding, working together to find solutions that make them feel safer and listening to their feedback to improve our work. It is therefore great to see that, of the adults we supported:

• 67% felt listened to.
• 87% felt involved in their safeguarding journey.
• 89% understood what was happening and why.

This year, we’ve worked with people who have lived experience of safeguarding to bring our Annual Report to life. We have produced a series of animations to go alongside this report, allowing you to hear from key members of the Board and learn more about their work.

This includes Ellie’s story, highlighting how our brilliant safeguarding partnerships are helping people to move forward positively from abuse and stop further harm.

Councillor Jo Newing, Cabinet Spokesperson for Place Health and Adult Social Care, said: “We believe everyone in Barnsley has the right to be and feel safe. We know we can’t do this alone, so it’s great to see our Safeguarding Adults Board continuing to improve the way we work together to keep people safe and elevate the voice of our residents in their work.

“I would like to thank the Board, our safeguarding colleagues and our partners for their passion and commitment to protecting our communities from harm and abuse. It’s great to see more residents coming forward when something doesn’t feel right, and we want to keep that growing. If you’re worried about someone’s safety, please speak up – we’re here to listen and help you.”

You can read more about this year’s Annual Report in our Cabinet papers. You can also view our animations on Barnsley Council’s YouTube channel.

The Barnsley Safeguarding Adults Board brings key organisations together to make sure we have the right processes, training and support in place to look after our communities. Their scrutiny and challenge help us make sure we’re working well together to keep our residents safe.

To learn more about how we can all help keep children, young people and adults in Barnsley safe, please visit our safeguarding webpages. Here you will find information on the signs of abuse to look out for, how you can report your concerns and how we can help you.