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I am very pleased to welcome you to the Annual Report.
The role of Safeguarding Adults Boards is to bring together key organisations in order to coordinate their work to safeguard people with care and support needs from abuse, neglect and self-neglect.
The Annual Report provides an opportunity to update everyone on the ongoing work being undertaken to help and protect adults in Leeds. A vast amount of work is undertaken by members of the public, carers, volunteers and practitioners across the city, who each and every day strive to keep people safe. Unfortunately, it is impossible to fully recognise all of this work within our Annual Report, and so here we have to focus on our strategic priorities.
The content of the Report reflects the commitment not just of our Board member organisations but also all those organisations that provide care and support, health services, advice, or who may simply come into contact with someone who may need help. This was particularly highlighted to me recently, through our Friends of the Board / Third Sector listening event in March 2025. Despite organisations having such distinct and diverse roles and functions, all shared the same passionate commitment to safeguard people within their communities and wanted to find the best ways to work together to achieve this. We look forward to building upon this and ensuring the feedback informs our action plans for the year ahead.
Ultimately, this is why I always feel optimistic about our work in Leeds. Safeguarding has to be a whole a city approach, and something we have to do together in order to reach out and support people who may need help or support. Whilst there are always challenges and more we can learn, and more we can do, the feedback I always receive as the Board’s Chair, is that we have so much to build upon. This comes strengths, diversity, commitment and support from organisations big and small, statutory and non-statutory to make Leeds a safe place for all who live here.
I look forward to building on our achievements in the year ahead, and I’d like to remind everyone, that we are always keen to hear your views on our work, on our planned priorities or emerging issues. You can do this at any time via the consultation page on our Board website.
Richard Jones CBE
Independent Chair
Leeds Safeguarding Adults Board
Leeds Safeguarding Adults Board is an independent statutory body with a strategic responsibility to work with its members and partners to protect and support adults with care and support needs from abuse, neglect and self-neglect in Leeds.
The Board’s vision is for Leeds to be: A safe place for everyone
To achieve this, the Board and its members work together to:
• Prevent harm and reduce the risk of abuse or neglect to adults with care and support needs
• Stop abuse or neglect wherever possible
• Address what has caused the abuse or neglect
• Safeguard adults in a way that supports them in making choices and having control about how they want to live
• Promote an approach that concentrates on improving life for the adults concerned
• Raise public awareness so that communities as a whole, alongside professionals, play their part in preventing, identifying and responding to abuse and neglect
• Provide information and support in accessible ways to help people understand the different types of abuse, how to stay safe and what to do to raise a concern about the safety or well-being of an adult
Safeguarding Adults Boards are established under the Care Act 2014 with a role that is distinct from its member organisations. Whilst member organisations provide safeguarding services and will support individuals in need of help and protection, the Board itself works strategically across its membership and with wider organisations to ensure there are safe arrangements in the city.
This role is set out in legislation: “The way in which an SAB must seek to achieve its objective is by co-ordinating and ensuring the effectiveness of what each of its members does” .
The Board’s coordination role includes:
• Provision of multi-agency safeguarding adults policy and procedures to ensure we are working together and with the person at risk
• Quality assurance processes around multi-agency working
• Identifying and sharing citywide learning,
• Promoting awareness of safeguarding amongst the communities of Leeds
• Learning from lived experiences
• Learning from best practice as well as situations where it could have been better
The Board’s role also involves gaining assurances from its members about effective arrangements being in place, this may involve:
• Multi-agency and single agency audits
• Assurances about learning from reviews
• Assurances about embedding board priorities and learning
A wide range of organisations are represented on the Safeguarding Adults Board in Leeds. This includes senior representatives from:
• Leeds City Council: Adults & Health
• West Yorkshire Police
• West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
• Leeds and York Partnership NHS Trust
• Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust
• Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust
• HMPPS: Probation Service
• West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service
• Leeds City Council: Housing
• Advonet
Richard Jones CBE is the Independent Chair whose role involves providing leadership, challenge and support to the Board in achieving its ambitions. The Board also works with wider strategic bodies in Leeds to support people to be safe. Further information about this is available in Appendix 2.
The Board’s work is focused around four key ambitions that capture our areas of development.
• Developing citizen-led approaches to safeguarding
• Improving awareness of safeguarding across all communities and partner organisations
• Developing city-wide approaches to safeguarding practice
• Learning from experience to improve how we work
Each are explained in the following sections:
Why this is so important:
The Care Act 2014 challenged Safeguarding Adults Boards and its members to work in person-centred ways that involve listening to the person at risk, ensuring they are involved within decisions about their own safety and wellbeing, and seeking to achieve the changes they want wherever possible. Establishing this as a strategic ambition sets the model for how the Board needs to work, and the expectations for how individual services must work to provide individuals with help and protection across the city.
The approach was first established within the Leeds Citizen-Led multi-agency policy and procedures in 2019 which includes the advice of nine citizen groups as to how they wish to be involved and supported. The phrase ‘Talk to me, hear my voice’ arises from these engagements and which has become adopted as our key citizen-led message. Each year the Board aspires to take further steps towards being truly citizen-led in its work.
This year:
We have been working with Voluntary Action Leeds, Safer Stronger Communities and the Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership to develop a new approach to engagement with ethnically diverse communities in Leeds. This approach is inspired by learning from local research and engagement with community representatives. This is a long term project that will span more than one year, it involves working closely with community representatives to help us understand how we can work in ways that best support local communities.
We have been working with Safeguarding Adults Boards and Safeguarding Children Partnerships across West Yorkshire and West Midlands to co-produce safeguarding guidance for faith communities. This will involve working with different faith communities to provide guidance that is explained in terms sensitive and relevant to their faith. This will result in guidance aimed principally at Islamic, Christian, Jewish, Buddist, Hindu and Sikh faiths – each will be available as a resource on the Board website. This project has been complex with so many Boards and Faith Communities involved, and will extend into 2025/26.
With People Matters Leeds we co-produced a film about financial abuse: Be safe from financial abuse. We want to build on this approach next year and invite other groups or communities to produce short films like this.
We have been developing new approaches around engagement and are currently exploring how we can link with existing citizen or service user groups convened by our members. We hope this will help us better hear people’s views about what is important to them, and to gain their support in relation to our work such as by producing new short films or advising on our safeguarding resources.
Feedback from the public told us our logo was confusing. So, we held a competition and people sent in their ideas. We used them to create a new logo which is more distinctive, recognisable and shows that citizens of Leeds are at the centre all our work. We felt it was important to be led by citizens, if we wanted them to engage with us as. We launched the new logo, together with our new website in October 2024.
In March 2025 we held a listening event for third sector organisations to feedback on behalf of the people they support. This was an opportunity to speak directly to the Board Chair as well as the Board Members for West Yorkshire Police, West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and Leeds City Council: Adults & Health. We will incorporate the learning into our plans for the year ahead.
Why this is so important:
It is recognised that members of the public are not always aware of safeguarding adults and how to get help. This is not unique to Leeds. Members of the public may not automatically know how to gain support unless this information is promoted by the Board and its member organisations. Similarly, we need to continue to support organisations across the city to understand their responsibilities to provide help and protect those at risk.
This year, for members of the public:
We invest in our own Engagement Officer, to enable us to reach out and connect with community organisations. We have provided a programme of awareness sessions for community and citizen groups in Leeds. Organisations that hosted “Keeping safe from abuse & neglect” talks last year, included:
o Caring Together in Woodhouse & Little London (LS6)
o Cottingley Court Transitional Housing Unit (LS11)
o Gascoigne House Extra Care Complex (LS10)
o Leeds Black Elders Association (LS8)
o Leeds Irish Health & Homes (LS8 & LS11)
o Meanwood Elders Neighbourhood Action (LS7)
o Moorhaven Court Sheltered Housing (LS17)
o Older People’s Action in the Locality – OPAL (LS16)
o People Matters Leeds (LS11)
o Richmond Hill Elderly Action (LS9)
o The Grove Sheltered Housing (LS27)
o Union Court Sheltered Housing (LS21)
o Westerton Close Sheltered Housing (WF3)
Support was also provided to enable Out Together LGBT+ charity to deliver a safeguarding talk using stories relatable to their members, and an information stall was hosted at Dementia Action Week Event at Headingley Stadium. Please visit our website for information about Talks for Community groups.
The Board also invested heavily in developing a new website which launched in October 2024. The website is the central resource for information about safeguarding in the city and its development has enabled us to provide specific sections and resources for members of the public. The design allows us to be much more accessible to all users, including the ability to translate content into different languages. We include sections about how to keep safe, what is abuse, how to report it and what will happen next: Public | Leeds Safeguarding Adults Board.
The website compliments and also hosts our wider information resources, such as posters, leaflets, and short films that explain what abuse is and how to seek assistance.
We have also expanded our presence on social media. This included adding Instagram to our other social media channels, X, Facebook and YouTube. We have continually sought to increase contacts across all channels to reach as many people as possible.
This year, for practitioners and services:
The investment in a new website was to the benefit of members of the public as described above, but it also enabled the development of new resources for practitioners and services, and made the current resources much more accessible: I work with adults | Leeds Safeguarding Adults Board. For example, we now have a dedicated space for self-neglect and an easily accessible toolkit to support practice. We added guidance about being an Always Care Organisation, mental capacity, how to seek a Safe and Well visit from West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue, risk assessments and management.
We led on coordinating a regional West Yorkshire Safeguarding Week for 2024, involving each Safeguarding Adults Board, Safeguarding Children Partnership and Community Safety Partnership in the region. This involved a programme with sessions hosted by each district but available to all. Hundreds of practitioners attended and benefitted for these sessions, we plan to do this again in the year ahead.
For the first time 2024 saw an additional Leeds Safeguarding Week in November. This was hosted by the Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership, Safer Leeds and ourselves. Talks / sessions were provided by about 30 organisations across the city, sharing their knowledge and expertise about various aspects of safeguarding. It was a huge success, with over 1000 places taken up across the sessions. This will become an annual event going forward.
In support of learning and development we share information about training opportunities across the city enabling these to be accessed by more people. We sent out 46 communications last year with information about one event or more. Sometimes these are specialist one off events or seminars but it may also be organisations sharing their internal programmes with wider partners. Feedback has been really positive that this is supporting the development of practice knowledge in Leeds.
We have supported and extended our Friends of the Board Network – there are now thirty organisations/services that work with us to to give advice, support workstreams and help us to promote safeguarding awareness. During 2024/25 we invited members to tell us where the challenges are, to inform our plans going forward. Membership is noted in Appendix 1 and any organisation wishing to join can do so via our dedicated website page.
We have been promoting our Board Bulletin. With approximately 900 recipients now, this is used to provide local, regional and national updates on safeguarding adults information and resources.
All this activity above is in addition to that undertaken by individual member organisations to promote awareness for people who access their services.
Why this is so important:
The core function of the safeguarding adults board is to coordinate the work of members so as to have effective safeguarding arrangments in Leeds. This means working with and across organsiations and other partnerships to develop a common understanding of issues and effective responses. Many areas of focus are drawn from our Safeguarding Adults Review learning, thus supporting change and development in the areas that will have the biggest impact for citizens in Leeds.
This year:
The Board provides the multi-agency safeguarding policies, procedures and guidance in Leeds to enable organisations to work together, and with the person at risk, in accordance with the legislative framework for safeguarding adults. This includes everything from procedures, practice guidance as well as learning and development resources, and useful information. This year we updated People in Positions of Trust guidance, and our Information Sharing Guidance. All this is available on the Board’s website: I work with adults | Leeds Safeguarding Adults Board
Information about the application of the Leeds Safeguarding Adults Multi-Agency Safeguarding Adults Policy and Procedures is summaries in Appendix 3. This includes information about how many safeguarding concerns were raised, how many safeguarding enquiries were undertaken and the outcomes of these.
We have worked to embed the Leeds Self-neglect Strategy through a multi-agency steering group. Over the course of the year this has included:
Engagement with seven wider strategic bodies in Leeds to promote understanding and awareness of self-neglect. For details see Appendix 2.
A Self-neglect conference being held in January 2025 for 130 front-line practitioners from approximately 44 different organisations and services. This included presentation of citizen stories, sessions on Trauma Informed Practice, Risk Assessment & Management, Multi-agency working, Understanding of the Mental Capacity Act, using case studies to apply the learning.
The feedback was extremely positive, 97 % rated their overall experience of the conference as excellent / good. 91% strongly agreed / agreed the conference had inspired them to try something different in working with self-neglect.
Development of Always Care Organisation guidance that highlights the arrangements needed within organisations to best support practice with people who self-neglect.
Development of the Self-neglect tool kit of practice resources.
The Board has also instigated a review of self-neglect training held across the city, so as to understand the support provided to front-line staff.
We have been working across sectors to co-produce an approach to improving multi-agency working in Leeds. This has involved partnering with the Social Care Institute of Excellence (SCIE), a leading sector improvement organisation to facilitate our learning and to help identify enabling factors that promote multi-agency working. This work has moved through three Phases:
Phase One involved an innovative approach of reviewing cases in Leeds to reveal the key enabling factors that promote best practice.
During 2024/25 we moved into Phase Two. This involved exploratory multi-agency workshops across three areas of local authority provision, and the two specialist support areas of mental health and learning disability services. This has helped identify key areas of change that can potentially enable best practice.
Phase Three extends into 2024/25 and will involve the development of new practice models and systems that bring the learning into practice. We will report on our Phase Three progress in next year’s annual report.
We have continued to provide an Exceptional Risk Forum (ERF). Established in 2021 the forum can accept referrals in relation to any adult aged 18 years or over:
- Who requires assistance with aspects of their day to day living as a result of a physical or mental impairment or illness (including a mental health condition or substance misuse), and;
- Who lives in circumstances of exceptional risk to themselves despite the best efforts of individual agencies and multi-agency approaches to mitigate those risks
Monthly multi-agency forum meetings provide an opportunity to explore possible further avenues of help and support. Chaired at Deputy Director level by the Local Authority, 15 people were discussed at the forum during 2024/25. There have been two previous indepth evaluations that have highlighted the importance of its role and support for frontline practitioners.
Worked to engage housing associations with the work of the Board. Housing Leeds meets with nominated leads from Housing Association partners twice a year to specifically discuss safeguarding. The June 2024 meeting focussed on Cuckooing with a presentation from the Anti-Social Behaviour Manager. The November meeting focussed on Domestic Violence & Abuse with a presentation from colleagues in the Safeguarding and Domestic Violence Team. Both sessions were interactive with good discussion, questions and comments. The Housing Manager is also a key contact throughout the year where a Housing Association has a query in regard to safeguarding. Support has also been provided to individual Housing Associations with training on Self-neglect and the role of the Exceptional Risk Forum. Housing Associations have also been encouraged to sign up for the LSAB Bulletin and to link in with the Citizen Engagement Officer to attend meetings and deliver the free public awareness.
Why this is so important:
This ambition is based on the need for continued improvement and learning from individual’s experiences of support. We want to make sure that learning changes practice and leads to improved experiences for others.
Safeguarding Adults Reviews are held to ‘promote effective learning and improvement action to prevent future deaths or serious harm occurring again’. The criteria for a Safeguarding Adults Review is set out in Section 44 of the Care Act 2014, and in summary these are held when:
• an adult at risk of abuse dies as a result of abuse, neglect or self-neglect or
• has experienced serious neglect or abuse, and
• there is concern about how organisations worked together to protect them.
Safeguarding Adults Boards have specific legal obligations to report report learning from Safeguarding Adult Reviews within their annual reports. The headings a-b below are reporting requirements set out in Schedule 2 of the Care Act 2014:
a. We must tell you the findings of any Safeguarding Adults Reviews which have concluded during 2025/26
b. We must tell you what has been done during that year to implement the findings of reviews
c. We must tell you about Safeguarding Adults Review that are ongoing at the end of that year
d. We must tell you about decision to not take forward a Safeguarding Adults Review recommendation, and the reasons for this.
During 2025/26 however, there were no Safeguarding Adults Reviews undertaken or completed by the Board. As such, there is is nothing to report in a) to b) above. Nonetheless there has still been much important learning and development activity:
Even if a Safeguarding Adults Review is not required, the Board will consider the learning achieved through the scoping enquiry process. There were two occasions where a review was not required but there was individual agency learning to be achieved. In each case the Board sought assurances as to how the learning was being taken forward by that organisation.
A Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) /SAR was completed in another local authority area, concerning a young woman who died in circumstances indicating domestic abuse. She had lived in Leeds before moving to another area where she died some months later. Although it wasn’t a recommendation from the review, we have decided to take the opportunity to undertake a review of domestic abuse arrangements for adults and care and support needs in Leeds. This will take place during 2025/26. We will also be taking forward and sharing learning about reproductive coercive control which was a possibly a factor in this person’s relationship.
We have implemented a new agreement between the Safeguarding Children Partnership, Safer Safer Leeds and ourselves, as to when we should have liaise across Boards in relation to statutory review notifications. Thus helping to ensure effective learning and coordination.
We undertook an Analysis of our SAR activity – this showed us that notifications over the last two years generally fell into one of three kinds of concerns: Self-neglect, sexual violence to women away from their home, and neglect by family members. This is based on small numbers but this continued approach will assist in identifying learning issue and themes.
We undertook a comparison of learning from the Second National Analysis of Safeguarding Adult Reviews: April 2019 - March 2023, gaining assurance that we were already sighted on key learning and development themes highlighted nationally.
The Board has no regulatory functions with respect to its members, but it does have a responsibility to ensure the effectiveness of what each of its members does, in support of the multi-agency safeguarding arrangements.
This year:
We focused quality assurance on safeguarding within care and health settings. At a dedicated board session the Board reviewed audit/intelligence reports from Leeds City Council: Adults & Health, West Yorkshire Police, West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, Leeds City Council Integrated Commissioning, Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust, Leeds & York Partnership Foundation NHS Trust, Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust and Advonet. Learning and development opportunities were noted and are being taken forward by the respective parties, and the emerging theme of ‘desired outcomes’ from this process is being taken forward into next year’s plans.
We have produced an Annual Quality Assurance Dashboard – inclusive of all member agency data / intelligence to inform our work and priorities and identify areas to be addressed within the Self-assessment: Quality and Impact Assurance.
We have undertaken a Quality and Impact Assurance with Board member organisations. This asks all member organisations how they have taken forward key Board generated learning, resources and ambitions during the previous 12 months. The findings are reported to the Board and the need for further actions is explored.
An Annual Conversation event was held in relation to the ‘adults who use your services feel safe and know how to report concerns’. This topic was highlighted as an area to explore from the Self-assessment: Quality and Impact Assurance. The event provided much reassurance about the diverse and varied ways that members organisations sought to achieve this.
We have undertaken a multi-agency audit programme on the theme of safeguarding in health and care settings and undertaken a practitioner survey about practice knowledge and use of Board resources.
Our Annual Report provides a snap shot of our progress in Leeds, our Strategic Plan provides details of how we intend to build upon these in the year ahead. This summary highlights some key objectives, but a fuller summary will be available on our website.
Developing citizen-led approaches to safeguarding
We plan to develop a partnership approach to engagement with local community / citizen groups around safeguarding adults
We plan to support and develop our Friends of the Board Network
Improve awareness of safeguarding across all communities and partner organisations
We plan to develop a partnership approach to promoting safeguarding awareness using people’s real-life stories and experiences
We plan to provide safeguarding guidance for faith communities
We plan to adopt a community first approach that seeks to learn from ethnically diverse communities as to how organisations can provide accessible services.
We plan to hold a West Yorkshire Safeguarding Week (June) as well as a Leeds Safeguarding Week (November) to promote awareness and understanding.
Develop citywide approaches to safeguarding
We plan to co-produce new multi-agency practice models in support of people who self-neglect
We plan to undertake a review of safeguarding arrangements for adults and care and support needs at risk of domestic abuse
A review and refresh our Self-neglect Strategy and the actions needed this year.
Learn from experience to improve how we work
We aim to embed a new coordinated approach to multi-agency and single agency audits
We plan to adopt a partnership audit around how we hear and respond to the ‘desired outcomes’ of people who are supported within our safeguarding adults procedures.
We plan to update our approach to holding Safeguarding Adults Reviews, to ensure these are timely, focused and effective in identifying learning.
The Care Act 2014 requires Safeguarding Adults Boards to outline what each member has done during that year to implement the strategy that was set out at the beginning of the year. The Board has a range of workstreams that are taken forward via Sub-groups, Task & Finish Groups and Champion Roles. This summary illustrates the commitment and involvement of member organisations in realising the Board’s strategy, as well as the engagement and support of wider partners.
Quality Assurance & Performance Sub-group
This sub-group is responsible for developing the Board’s quality assurance and performance processes, as well as the Board’s policy and procedures. It meets monthly. Its core membership is listed below, but wider members may take part within specific meetings.
• Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (Sub-group Chair)
• Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust
• Leeds & York Partnership Foundation NHS Trust
• Leeds City Council: Housing
• Leeds City Council: Adults & Health: Commissioning
• Leeds City Council: Adults & Health: Social Work Services
• West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
• LSAB Strategy Unit
Safeguarding Adults Review Sub-group
This sub-group oversees all Safeguarding Adults Review (SAR) processes on behalf of the Board. This will include the seeking of assurances of both learning and change in situations where a SAR was not deemed to be required. Membership:
- Independent Chair (Sub-group Chair
- The Chair of the Quality Assurance & Performance Sub-group)
- Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust
- The Board’s Learning & Development Lead
- West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
- Leeds City Council: Adults & Health: Social Work Services
- West Yorkshire Police
- Advonet
- Leeds City Council: Legal Services
- LSAB Strategy Unit
Learning & Development Lead and Links
A representative from the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board holds the lead role in relation to the Board’s Learning & Development, working in conjunction with Learning & Development Links across member/partner organisations. These links are outlined below:
• Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
• Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust
• Leeds & York Partnership Foundation NHS Trust
• Leeds City Council: Housing
• Leeds City Council: Adults & Health: Commissioning
• Leeds City Council: Adults & Health: Social Work Services
• NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
• Voluntary Action Leeds
• Leeds Probation
• Department of Work & Pensions
• Advonet
• Leeds City Council: Adults & Health Workforce Development
• West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service
• West Yorkshire Police
• LSAB Strategy Unit
Leeds Self-neglect Strategy Group
The Leeds Self-neglect Strategy Group has both developed the strategy and is working to promote and embed this within Leeds. Membership comprises:
• Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (Group Chair)
• Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust
• Leeds & York Partnership Foundation NHS Trust
• Leeds City Council: Housing
• West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service
• Leeds City Council: Adults & Health: Commissioning
• Leeds City Council: Adults & Health: Social Work Services
• NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
• Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership
• Safer Stronger Communities
• LSAB Strategy Unit
Exceptional Risk Forum (ERF)
The Exceptional Risk Forum was developed to support practitioners when working with people living within situations of exceptional risk. It is established by the Board but the advice given is that of its member organisations. Core membership includes the following, with additional representation included where relevant to a particular case discussion:
• Leeds City Council: Adults & Health (Forum Chair)
• Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
• Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust
• Leeds & York Partnership Foundation NHS Trust
• Leeds City Council: Housing
• Forward Leeds
• NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
Multi-agency working Steering Group
This steering group has been working to understand how to improve multi-agency working in Leeds. It involves sector leads as well as SCIE as an independent partner with expertise. It comprises:
• Independent Chair (Steering Group Chair)
• Social Care Institute of Excellence (SCIE)
• Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
• Leeds City Council: Housing
• NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
• Adults & Health: Social Work Services
• Integrated Commissioning
• West Yorkshire Police
• LSAB Strategy Unit
Safeguarding within ethnically diverse communities
This working group is seeking to develop a community first model of working with communities, to find accessible ways for people to be able and feel able to access safeguarding services. Membership comprises the following, however a wider steering group is currently being established.
• LSAB Independent Chair (Working group Chair)
• Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership
• Safer Stronger Communities
• Voluntary Action Leeds
• LSAB Strategy Unit
Friends of the Board
The Friends of the Board are a network of supportive services/organisations that are willing to provide us with advice and support and to help us promote awareness of safeguarding adults. They meet with the Independent Chair and the Board’s Engagement Officer at least annually each year.
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Multi-agency working workshops; 16-18th October 2025
The workshops were held as a commitment of the Board to enhance multi-agency working approaches in Leeds and involved reviewing practice and opportunities across five different service areas within Leeds. Attendance was varied and full and included agency involvement as below:
• Leeds City Council: Adults & Health: Social Work Services
• Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust
• Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust
• Leeds & York Partnership Foundation NHS Trust
• West Yorkshire Police
• Leeds City Council: Housing Leeds
• Various Housing Association and Third Sector organisations
LSAB Third Sector Event (March 2025)
Facilitated by Independent Chair, Leeds City Council: Adults & Health; West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and West Yorkshire Police, the event sought feedback from third sector organisations about their experiences and about the people they support, alongside their views of areas of needed development. Attendance included the following, and additional organisations contributed via surveys.
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Although each Board has its own role, function and legal duties, there are often shared issues and concerns across Boards. This is well recognised within Leeds and appropriate opportunities are sought to collaborate and work together. The following are examples of this:
1. Working with Safeguarding Children Partnership and Safer Leeds
Chairs / leads for each Board / partnership meet periodically throughout the year to understand each another’s emerging priorities and to identify potential cross cutting workstreams. In addition, the Board managers for each partnership / board meet monthly. These meetings provide a forum for sharing information about emerging issues and workstreams.
A project group was established by the respective business units to progress shared workstreams. This has enabled the joint planning associated with West Yorkshire and Leeds Safeguarding Weeks, the establishment of a shared approach to Professional Curiosity and joined up approaches to statutory reviews. Separately there are a shared workstreams around the development of approaches to Think Family, Work Family and Self-neglect.
2. Working with wider partnerships:
During 2024/25 the Independent Chair and Chair of the Self-neglect Strategy Group sought to engage with a range of partnerships and bodies, to promote awareness and understanding of self-neglect. This included meetings with the following:
a. Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership
b. Leeds Safer Stronger Communities - Executive
c. Health & Wellbeing Board
d. Leeds Health & Care Partnership
e. Drug and Alcohol Board
f. Housing Strategy
g. Better Lives Board
h. Mental Capacity Act Professional Movement
i. Trauma Informed Professional Movement
j. Domestic Abuse Local Partnership Board
The Board will always link in with wider partnerships wherever there is a shared agenda and an opportunity to collaborate.
3. Working with regional and national networks
The Independent Chair and Board Manager for the Safeguarding Adults Board are members of national and regional networks for Chairs and Safeguarding Adults Boards. Additionally, links are made with the work of the National and Regional Networks for the Association of Directors of Social Services (ADASS).
Application of the Leeds Citizen-led multi-agency safeguarding adults policy and procedures during 2024/25[1]
Whilst it is the Safeguarding Adults Board that produces the multi-agency safeguarding policy and procedures, it is the local authority who then lead and coordinate the work of partners to help and protect an individual from abuse, neglect and self-neglect. This responsibility is given to them under Section 42 of the Care Act 2014. The following information provides a brief overview of their work, with partners, to safeguard people in Leeds:
Safeguarding Concern raised:
There were 12,997 safeguarding concerns raised with the local authority from April 2024 to March 2025. There was a small decrease of 216 from 2022/23.
- 2020/21: 10,915
- 2021/22: 12,205
- 2022/23: 13,526
- 2023/24: 13,213
- 2024/25: 12,997
When a safeguarding concern is received, the local authority will need to decide whether to undertake a safeguarding enquiry. This decision will be made based upon the legal criteria set out within Section 42 of the Care Act 2014. Although the number of safeguarding concerns raised with the local authority decreased slightly, the number of safeguarding enquiries that needed to be undertaken increased to 5101 during 2024/25. This is 991 more than in the previous year.
- 2020/21: 3,095
- 2021/22: 2,990
- 2022/23: 3,261
- 2023/24: 4,110
- 2024/25: 5,101
On occasions when a safeguarding enquiry was not required, other forms of support, advice, information or other services will often have been provided dependent upon the nature of the risks, the specific concerns and the person's particular needs.
The nature of the concerns:
During 2024/25 safeguarding enquiries concerned the following types of possible abuse.
- Neglect and acts of omission: 33%
- Physical abuse: 26%
- Financial or material abuse: 11%
- Psychological abuse: 10%
- Self-neglect: 10%
- Domestic abuse: 4%
- Sexual abuse: 5%
- Organisational abuse: 1%
- Sexual exploitation: 1%
- Discriminatory abuse: < 1%
- Modern slavery: < 1%
This pattern of safeguarding concerns is consistent with recent years. The most significant change from 2024/25 concerned a 3% rise in self-neglect, which may reflect the Board’s continued focus on this issue. It is important to note however that a safeguarding enquiry may involve a person at risk who is experiencing more than one type of abuse.
The support needs of people at risk:
Safeguarding works to help adults with care and support needs who are unable to protect themselves without support. The type of social services being provided to the adult at risk at the time of the incident/concerns is outlined below:
- Physical Support: 30%
- Support with Memory & Cognition: 16%
- Learning Disability Support: 18%
- Mental Health Support: 13%
- Social Support: 2%
- No support reason: 3%
- Not known: 18%
- White: 83.9%
- Mixed / Multiple: 1.3%
- Asian / Asian British: 3.5%
- Black / African / Caribbean / Black British: 3.3%
- Other ethnic group: 0.5%
- Undeclared/unknown: 7.4%
These figures relate to a person’s primary support reason and as such it is important to note that a person may have more than one form of support need. ‘No support reason’ means that the individual was not receiving, nor did they need, any social services support at the time of the safeguarding incident.
The ethnic diversity of people at risk:
During 2024/25 the ethnicity of those supported was:
According to census records for 2021, 79% of the Leeds population are White and so this group may be slightly over-represented within safeguarding enquiries. Conversely some minority ethnic communities may be under-represented. For these reasons the Board is currently undertaking a project to work with diverse communities to make support more accessible (See Ambition 2).
Location of safeguarding concerns
Safeguarding concerns may arise within very different situations and circumstances. Whilst most commonly these concerns arise within people’s own homes (46%) a significant proportion occur within health and care settings as illustrated below:
- Own Home: 46%
- In the community (excluding community services): 3%
- In a community service: 3%
- Care Home – Nursing: 6%
- Care Home – Residential: 31%
- Hospital - Acute : 6%
- Hospital - Mental Health: 2%
- Hospital – Community: 2%
- Other: 3%
Outcomes of safeguarding enquiries
Support provided within the multi-agency policy and procedures should always be with recognition of the person's desired outcomes and with the objective of reducing risk to that person's safety and well-being.
- Desired outcomes:
During 2024/25 these desired outcomes were Fully or Partially achieved in 95% of occasions, compared to 94% in 2023/24. It should be noted however that it is not always possible to achieve someone's desired outcomes, these can sometimes be unachievable, or actions may be required for the safety of others contrary to the person's wishes.
- Risk reduced or removed:
During 2024/25 the risk experienced by the person was reduced or removed in 90% of safeguarding enquiries, this is a slight increase from 89% in the previous year. Sometimes people may choose to live with risk or it may remain with strategies in place, and so it is again necessary to look at individual cases to understand why a risk may remain.