Our Strategic Plan 2026/27
Our Strategic Plan for the year ahead is based around four key ambitions. We have summarise here, the actions we plan to take in each of these areas.
1. Develop a citizen led approach to safeguarding adults in Leeds.
To help us achieve this ambition, we plan to take these actions:
- We will continue to consult people about different aspects of our work, including engaging with citizen groups that wish to take part in our consultations.
- We have asked Leeds City Council to review feedback about how their Adult Health and Social Care teams could work to support Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise organisations regarding safeguarding adults.
- We will promote best practice to ensure that when people are helped to be safe, their views and wishes shape the support that they receive.
- Our Friends of the Board network members are from Third Sector organisations. They regularly tell us about their experiences of safeguarding adults in Leeds and help us hear about the experiences of the people they work with and support. We will continue to support and listen to the network and hopefully add more members.
2. Improving people’s awareness about safeguarding adults in Leeds.
To help us achieve this ambition, we plan to take these actions:
- To improve public awareness about safeguarding adults we will continue to offer talks to community groups, provide information leaflets, posters and short films, and use social media for messages.
- We will continue to take part in a regional project to develop safeguarding guidance for Faith organisations.
- We will continue to take part in a project with local organisations and partnerships to promote safeguarding in diverse communities in Leeds.
- We hope to work with some people who have been helped to be safe from abuse, to make short films about their experiences of the safeguarding adults process.
- To help people who work with adults understand their safeguarding responsibilities we will take part in West Yorkshire Safeguarding Week (June) and organise Leeds Safeguarding Weeks (November).
- To keep people who work with adults up to date with safeguarding adults processes and legislation we will publish a newsletter at least four times a year and promote it to reach as many people as possible.
- With relevant partners and organisations, we will review what safeguarding adults training is available and whether it meets the needs of organisations in Leeds.
3. Develop a city-wide approach to safeguarding adults in Leeds.
To help us achieve this ambition, we plan to take these actions:
- We hope to hold events for people from Faith, Further and Higher Education, and Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise organisations, to help them keep up to date with safeguarding adults approaches and processes in Leeds and help us understand their experiences.
- We will work to improve people’s understanding of when a safeguarding referral is necessary, including reviewing how National Safeguarding & Pressure Ulcer guidance is implemented.
- We will continue with a review of the current processes in Leeds to help people be safe from domestic abuse and violence.
- Our Exceptional Risk Forum provides advice and support to organisations working with complex situations of exceptional risk. We will review the Forum to ensure it is meeting its aims.
- We will continue to link into Housing Associations, to share safeguarding updates and to hear about their safeguarding experiences.
- Cuckooing is when someone’s home is taken over, often by criminals. We will explore the ongoing work in Leeds to tackle cuckooing, to find out where our work can link in.
4. Improve safeguarding work in Leeds by learning from people’s experience and feedback
To help us achieve this ambition, we plan to take these action
- We will review data from our partner organisations to identify any pattern in the types of abuse that are reported.
- We will carry out audits to find out how safeguarding referrals are being handled by partner organisations.
- We can be asked to carry out a Safeguarding Adults Review when an adult with care and support needs has experienced serious abuse or neglect, or has died because of it, and there is concern about how organisations worked together to protect them. We will continue to carry out reviews that meet the criteria and ensure that the learning is widely shared to improve experiences for people on the future.
- We will carry out a survey to help us understand the impact of new learning or processes that we share.
- When someone is being supported to be safe from abuse or neglect, safeguarding processes require that they are asked what they want to happen. We want our Board organisations to carry out audits to check that they are working to achieve what people want to happen. The results will be reviewed to identify where improvement is needed.
- We will continue to gather data and information about the work of our member organisations to keep people safe from abuse and neglect. We’ll use this to check how safeguarding practice is improving in Leeds.
We are always keen to hear peoples views, if you feel we have missed important actions or priorities for Leeds you let us know via our Contact Us page.