Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults and Children

This assignment delves into the importance of safeguarding vulnerable adults and children, highlighting key concepts such as Family Group Conferencing (FGC) and Positive Risk-Taking (PRT). FGC is a community-based approach that brings together family members to address concerns and make decisions about the child's care. PRT involves empowering disabled adults to take risks and make their own decisions to improve their quality of life. The assignment also emphasizes the need for risk assessment and management in safeguarding practices. It provides a comprehensive overview of safeguarding principles, including types and indicators of abuse, and explores best practices in social work with vulnerable populations.

Health and Social Care
1

Introduction:
Vulnerable people like adults and children are unable to protect themselves from harm and
abuse. Safeguarding is mainly focused on the protecting people from the harm and abuse. In
such cases, safeguarding interventions need to be provided. Safeguarding vulnerable people
is a complex filed in the health and social sciences because vulnerable people are distributed
in wide age range, disability and complexity of life. Safeguarding of vulnerable people can be
achieved by implementing different tools like making safeguarding personal, family group
conferences and positive risk taking. All these tools proved helpful in improving wellbeing of
the vulnerable people and reducing abuse and neglect. Safeguarding tools should be person
centred. Empowerment, prevention, protection, partnership and transparency and
accountability are the important components of the safeguarding tools. Making safeguarding
personal is a person centred and outcome based tool which is useful in engaging and
enhancing vulnerable adults for their safety and protection from harm. Family group
conferencing is meeting of different stakeholders to solve problems related to child abuse and
neglect. Positive risk taking deals with the empowerment of the adults for self-sufficiency. In
this essay, making safeguarding personal, family group conferences and positive risk taking
are discussed for the empowerment of vulnerable people and benefits to these people.
Making Safeguarding Personal:
The Care Act (2014) made MSP a responsibility and developed guidelines to carry out
practice. MSP is a national level initiative for bringing a shift in both culture and practice to
ensure adults are being safeguarded from the point of view of the care provider. Making This
means safeguarding vulnerable adults is person led and outcome focused. MSP is helpful in
engaging the person and enhancing involvement, also it provided opportunity for choice and
control of the person. It is also helpful in improving quality of life to achieve wellbeing and
safety of the person and important to look towards MSP from the framework of Care Act,
2014, Section 42. Even though, MSP is a personalised activity, within and across an
organisation activities need to be performed to achieve it successfully. Vital cultural and
organisational changes need to be carried for shifting attention from the process to the people
(Cooper and White, 2017; Cooper, 2012). For bringing changes in the individual practice,
change in the framework of practice need to be carried out and a broad community approach
is required for achieving of MSP. MSP guidelines should comprise of focus on outcomes,
providing wellbeing and safety, prevention and protection from the abuse and neglect and
2

empowerment of the person through collaboration. MSP can be achieved through raising
responsiveness in the community, working to minimize damage to individuals, helping end
users of the service and caregivers to recognize and mitigate risks and investigating and
protecting adults with care and supporting them when they are abused (Anonymous, 2017;
Fenge et al., 2017).
This care intervenes, MSP is a personalised approach which involves noticing safety signs
and working for the people who are victims for example of scamming. It also includes,
listening, understanding and discussing with the people to understand their wish of outcome
and all the possibilities to achieve these outcomes. Change in culture is the upcoming aspect
for implementing a personalised approach for MSP in adults. It is possible that person’s self
assessment can differ from the caregiver’s assessment about the person. Hence, person’s self
assessment should be transparent. MSP is required for everybody, however few of the people
require additional support to make proper decision for living their lives. People should be
considered as expert in their own lives and their risks should be properly understood. Support
is required from all the stakeholders of the society for implementing MSP. Staff
development, support and prospect for reflection and support from the management are
required for MSP implementation (Koubel, 2016; Anonymous, 2014).
Life of people is complex and these people wish to be safe. Hence, it is necessary to
implement MSP by healthcare and social workers. MSP is required for improving skills,
allowing to make choices, enabling positive approach towards risks and preventing people
from isolation from the community. MSP would be helpful persons to find long term
solutions, to identify right people for the support, to assess severity of the risk, to avail
support for the family, to build self-confidence, to enable effortlessness to express and to get
quick results. MPS is necessary to build capacity in the person and through outcome-based
approach mental capacity and capacity can be built the adult person (Rogers, 2015). MPS can
be helpful in supported decision making and best interest decision making. It is helpful in the
mental capacity assessment. Supporting decision making can be made in both people with
capacity and without capacity. It can be helpful in empowering, engaging and informing
people to determine and prevent abuse and negligence in their lives which is beneficial in
building resilience. It can be helpful in addressing issues of social isolation which can be
helpful in preventing future risks. People can be connected in the individual circumstances
and strategy and policy can be informed to the concerned person. Issues of all the subgroups
3

can be addressed and user can be involved in all the core activities (Hafford-Letchfield,
2016).
Family group conference:
Family group conference is the meeting of family members, child protection stakeholders and
other members of the society those are working for the children at risk of abuse and neglect.
All these stakeholders plan and provide services for wellbeing of the children. Coordinator of
the family group conference plays important role in arranging the meetings, communicating
with all the stakeholders and implementing conference plans. There should be coordination
and confidence among family members and state officials. Family group conferences can
support families to care of their children and to build solid bond between children and family
members in cases where out-of-home care is required (Meert et al., 2013). Main requirement
of family group conferencing is need of family for care and protection of their children.
Community support is required for the strengthening family members to take care of the
children. It acts as the active voice of parents for their children. Unless, families provide
voice for the safety and protection of their children, their capacity can be weakened in solving
problems of child abuse and neglect. Family group conferencing act as democratic process
which can be helpful in creating and sustaining healthy communities. Face-to-face
interactions and honest communication is required to address safety concerns of the children.
Family group conference broaden the expertise and it can be helpful for the family members
to prepare plan, present it, discuss, modify according to suggestions of child safety
professionals (Cypress, 2011).
It is evident that family group conferences get special attention from the policymakers,
researchers and practitioners. Cooperation of family members and child safety officials can
children safe. However, efforts are required to prepare family member and child health
officials for the conferences. Extended family members and significant members can be
added advantage for the family group conference. It can be helpful improving decision
making of the family members. In most of the case, plans prepared by the family members
are acceptable to the officials. Measures taken for child safety can be implemented in the
planned manner. Family members feel satisfactory due to involvement in the decision
making. Extended family members can provide safety and protection to the children, those
want to be away from the family members and people abusing these children. It is advisable
4

to create large support system for child protection because small contribution from each of
the support system can be added advantage for the child protection. Large support for the
protection of the child can be generated by family group conference (Burford, 2017).
Long-standing and serious problems of the children can be effectively tackled in family
group conference. It can be helpful in bringing substantial change in the children. Child
protection and safety is a difficult task, however through family group conference it can be
made easy. Children of the indigenous group are mostly affected due to child abuse and
neglect. Problems of these indigenous child can be effectively handled through family group
conference. Aspects like specific context and culture of these indigenous children can be
effectively addressed. Child welfare, education and justice can be addressed. Injuries and
rupture due to abuse can be managed (Powazki et al., 2014). Incorporation of law and social
justice can give robust solution for the child abuse and neglect. Family group conference is
appropriate, sensitive and comfortable tool to tackle the problems of children. Daybreak
family group conference proved more suitable for the children because children wish to avoid
life in the car system. It can help children to get back their parents and their love. Children
can get responsible caretaker. Emotional stability can be provided to the children. Children
can improve their character and capabilities. Children can get appreciation from their parents
and feeling of safety and care from the parents. There would not be any uncertainty and
insecurity in the children. Children would not be afraid of any problem (Banks, 2012; Fox,
2018).
Positive Risk Taking :
It is evident that people with disability and older people are often discouraged to take risk.
This might be due to the distinguished limitations and probability of harming others. Society
should change its attitude towards these disabled people and should encourage them to
improve their independence. These people should be independent in their daily activities and
decision making. Positive risk taking enables people to improve their abilities rather than
focusing on their disabilities. It can be helpful in minimising risk and allowing to make
choices. Risk is always considered as negative aspect in the form of danger, loss, threat,
damage or injury, however risk taking can provide positive benefits (Thompson, 2016;
Woodward, 2014). Risk taking is the balance between the safeguarding harm and promoting
independent life. Risk identification, assessment and management are the important
components of the positive risk taking. Adults and disabled persons should not be considered
5

solely as the source of risk; however, family members and caregivers should be considered
during the risk identification. Strengths and abilities of disabled and adult person should be
considered during positive risk taking (Anonymous, 2015). A person-centred approach can be
more beneficial in identification, assessment and management of the risk. High quality
practice, clinical supervision and support is required for the positive risk taking. Managers
and supervisors should take accountability of the risks and should give confidence to the
service users to support in case anything goes wrong. Person centred planning is required for
the positive risk taking. Person centred planning include person’s capacities, needs,
commitment and ability to learn and listen to achieve wellbeing in the life. Indicators should
be recognised for safegusrding disabled and older people during positive risk taking.
Information about the disabled and older person should be collected and thoroughly evaluated
for taking positive risk. Decisions should be recorded appropriately and policies and
procedures should be implemented effectively. Different levels of risks should be tackled
differently and risk threshold should be used for the assessment of the risks. Actions related
to the positive risk taking should be taken based on the level of risk (Kemshall and
Wilkinson, 2011).
Positive risk taking can be helpful in the addressing issues like falls prevention, mental health
problems, accidents, inability to perform daily activities, medication usage, misuse of drugs
and alcohol, neglect, abuse, violence and poor planning. Taking risk positively can be helpful
in the developing plan and action for bringing up positive potential in the disabled person.
Disabled person can handle specific situation and circumstances effectively. It can be helpful
in giving self-support, giving sense of responsibility, developing trusting relationship, giving
learning experiences, understanding consequences of difficult situations, developing positive
attitude about potential risks, understanding own strength and understanding reasons for
problems. There can be different perspectives of the family carers, practitioners, advocates
and service providers about the older and disabled person (Davis and Eppler-Wolff, 2009).
Positive risk taking can be helpful in changing perspective of all these people about the older
and disabled person. Person centred transition planning can be made through the positive risk
taking. Positive risk taking can build confidence in the person and enable person to improve
involvement in the community activities. It can be helpful in preventing and minimising
harmful risks. It can be helpful in promoting opportunity and decision making. It can be
helpful in protecting disabled and old people from dangerous situations and bringing welfare
to them. Physical and psychological wellbeing of the person can be improved. Rights,
6

independence, choice and inclusion of disabled and older person can be effectively addressed
in the positive risk taking. It would also be helpful in changing persons aspirations and
priorities. Violence, self-neglect, self-harm, suicide or hate-crime can be effectively
prevented (Chisnell and Kelly, 2016; Jones and Watson, 2013).
Conclusion :
MSP is person centred and outcome-based tool for improving quality of life of the vulnerable
adults by protecting from the harm. MSP is a continuous process and evolve and develop
with respect to situation, person and time. Listening, understanding and discussion are the
necessary aspect for the effective implementation of the MSP. MSP is useful in making
complex life safe. Issues related to abuse and neglect of the children can be addressed in the
family group conferencing. It provides services for the wellbeing of the children. It enables
family members to give voice for their children. It works on the democratic principles and is
useful in producing sustained healthy communities. It gives opportunity for the family
members for the to prepare and execute plan for safety and protection of their child.
Cooperation of different stakeholders is necessary for the effective implementation of family
group conferencing. Long-term problems of the children can be effectively addressed in
family group conference to bring substantial changes in the children. In positive risk taking,
empowerment can be given to the disabled adults to take risk to improve quality and
wellbeing of their life. It is useful in making them independent and empowering them to take
their own decisions to minimize potential risks. Identification, assessment and management
of the risks are important steps in positive risk taking. In summary, safeguarding personal,
family group conferences and positive risk taking are central tools for empowering vulnerable
people and reducing harm to them.
7

References:
Anonymous. (2017). https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/adult-pocket-
guide.pdf. Retrieved on 14.03.2018.
Anonymous. (2014). https://www.adass.org.uk/media/5147/making-safeguarding-personal-
2013-2014-case-studies.pdf. Retrieved on 14.03.2018.
Anonymous. (2015). https://www.scie.org.uk/publications/ataglance/69-adults-safeguarding-
types-and-indicators-of-abuse.asp. Retrieved on 14.03.2018.
Banks S. (2012). Ethics and Values in social work 4th edition London UK: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Burford G. (2017). Family Group Conferencing: New Directions in Community-Centered
Child and Family Practice. Routledge.
Chisnell C. and Kelly C. (2016). Safeguarding in Social Work Practice: A Lifespan
Approach. Learning Matters.
Cooper A. and White E. (2017). Safeguarding Adults Under the Care Act 2014:
Understanding Good Practice. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Cooper, A. ed. (2017). Safeguarding Adults under the Care Act 2014. London UK: Jessica
Kingsley Publishers.
Cypress BS. (2011). Family conference in the intensive care unit: a systematic review.
Dimens Crit Care Nurs, 30(5), pp. 246-55.
Davis S. and Eppler-Wolff N. (2009). Raising Children Who Soar: A Guide to Healthy Risk-
Taking in an Uncertain World. Teachers College Press.
Fenge LA., Lee, S. and Brown, K. (2017). Safeguarding Adults: Scamming and Mental
Capacity. Learning Matters.
Fox D. (2018). Family Group Conferencing with Children and Young People: Advocacy
Approaches, Aspirations and Impacts. Springer.
Jones K. and Watson S. (2013). Best Practice with Older People: Social Work Stories.
Macmillan International Higher Education.
Kemshall H. and Wilkinson, B. (2011). Good Practice in Assessing Risk: Current
Knowledge, Issues and Approaches. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Koubel G. (2016). Safeguarding Adults and Children: Dilemmas and Complex Practice.
Macmillan International Higher Education.
Letchfield TH. (2016). Learning in Later Life: Challenges for Social Work and Social Care.
Routledge.
Meert KL, Clark J, Eggly S. (2013). Family-centered care in the pediatric intensive care unit.
Pediatr Clin North Am, 60(3), pp. 761-72.
Powazki R, Walsh D, Hauser K, Davis MP. (2014). Communication in palliative medicine: a
clinical review of family conferences. J Palliat Med, 17(10), pp. 1167-77.
8

Rogers J., Bright L. and Davies H. (2015). Social Work with Adults. Learning Matters.
Thompson, N. (2016). Anti Discriminatory Practice (6th Edition) London UK: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Woodward P. (2014). Positive risk taking for individuals with disabilities : a care quality
guide for health and social care staff and carers. Pavilion.
9