People supported by Hft are playing a key role in sourcing, creating and implementing new resources designed to keep people with learning disabilities safe.
To mark National Safeguarding Adults Week (19 – 23 November), Hft is launching an updated Keeping Safe Toolkit, produced in partnership with a person we support for people we support. The resource aims to raise awareness and provide vital information, as well as boost the confidence, resilience and independence of people with learning disabilities.
The new Keeping Safe Toolkit is designed to be used by people we support to help with all aspects of keeping safe – including useful guidance on hate and mate crime, relationships, online safety, radicalisation and physical and psychological abuse.
The resource can be used with staff at services all over the country, with a special e-learning version currently being developed and then trialled by people we support in Worcestershire, West Sussex and Wiltshire.
Becky, who chairs Hft’s speak-out group, Voices to be Heard, has worked closely on the toolkit and shares her experience:
“I applied for the job and interviewed for the post and then met regularly with Louise Bolton (one of Hft’s Learning and Development Specialists) to work through materials and research ideas for the Keeping Safe Pack. I had a lot of ideas of my own that I have been able to contribute to the toolkit.
“The toolkit will raise awareness for people with learning disabilities and give them lots of information that will be helpful.”
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Hft Learning and Development Specialist Louise Bolton said:
“Becky has been an absolutely brilliant person to work with. She’s a great researcher, a real ideas person, very creative and provided a really valuable insight into what going into the community is like as a person with learning disabilities.”
Voices to be Heard has also produced various other accessible safeguarding resources, all available on our Safeguarding page. These include information guides on online safety, good secrets and bad secrets, and making complaints. Resources like these help people with learning disabilities to:
- understand their rights
- recognise when they are at risk of abuse or neglect
- know who to tell when this happens.
The keeping safe toolkit is currently being adapted for e-learning, providing an interactive resource for people we support. This should be ready early next year. Anyone interested in reviewing these resources should contact Louise Bolton at louise.bolton@hft.org.uk.
