Safeguarding, risk & empowerment

1. Safeguarding, risk & empowerment

2. Overview • Empowerment, choice and safeguarding • Divergent policy agendas • Choice and independence • Safeguarding • Squaring the circle: considerations for practice

3. Divergent policies? Personalisation: encourages choice & independence Safeguarding: protecting the vulnerable

4. Independence & Safeguarding • People with learning disabilities want to be part of their communities and to have friends. • People with learning disabilities may not identify risky situations or relationships. • Some people may use this to exploit people with learning disabilities. • Everyone has a right to make bad choices and to refuse help. • Independence is not the only measure of quality of life – people must be safe. • Yet, services must avoid paternalism.

5. Independence & Safeguarding • When and how should agencies intervene? • People with learning disabilities need the support of others to make choices and maintain an optimum level of independence. • Empower people with learning disabilities by giving them the skills and knowledge to make informed choices. • Tackle abusers promptly (e.g. act on anti-social behaviour and low level exploitation). • It is not Independence vs. Safeguarding

6. Safeguarding & independence Independence & safeguarding should be considered together Proactive, not reactive, measures are needed True empowerment requires vulnerability to be acknowledged

7. Empowerment, risk and vulnerability • When did independence become the new moral virtue? • Independence & choice have little value if they come at the cost of being neglected or abused • Protection from abuse has little value if it comes at the cost of losing all choice & independence

8. Ann Craft Trust – ACTing against abuse Ann Craft Trust Centre for Social Work University of Nottingham University Park Nottingham NG7 2RD Telephone: 0115 951 5400 Fax: 0115 951 5232 Ann-Craft-Trust@nottingham.ac.uk www.anncrafttrust.org