Myths and realities about Making Safeguarding Personal

The briefing is aimed at front line practitioners and operational managers in all organisations that have a role in safeguarding adults. It is aimed at leaders at all levels and local councillors. It can also be used by anyone interested or involved in safeguarding adults because ‘safeguarding is everyone’s business’.

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This briefing has been developed to address misconceptions and a superficial understanding about Making Safeguarding Personal, and to caution those who interpret this approach simplistically. It supports and promotes relationship and strength based approaches in practice. It acknowledges the complexity of people’s lives and challenges for practitioners to enable people (with their representatives or advocates if they lack mental capacity) to keep themselves safe and safeguarded, and to achieve resolution and recovery in their lives.

The purpose of this briefing is to expose some ‘myths’ about Making Safeguarding Personal, which is not just about safeguarding practice but also about prevention, and strategic as well as operational safeguarding. We have also included some general ‘myths’ about safeguarding adults.

This can be used as a prompt for discussion in teams or partnerships, in workshops or conversations. We encourage you to identify and ‘bust’ your own ‘myths’ about safeguarding adults and use these conversations to shift your assumptions about how safeguarding works.