When Rough Sleeping Becomes a Safeguarding Issue Seeing the person beyond the street: the role of adult social work

to 1:30pm
About this event

For Adult Safeguarding Week, join Ellie Atkins, Chair of the National Peer Network for Homelessness Social Work in England, to explore how social work can strengthen safeguarding responses for people experiencing multiple exclusion homelessness.

Rough sleeping is not simply a housing issue. For some people, it is the visible expression of trauma, cognitive impairment, self-neglect, unmet care and support needs, and repeated exclusion from the services intended to help them. Yet how often do we recognise the adult safeguarding implications of long-term rough sleeping? And how often do people fall between the boundaries of housing, health, substance use services and adult social care?

Drawing on practice, national peer learning and research from King’s College London, this session will challenge assumptions about engagement, capacity, self-neglect and personal choice. It will explore how we can better recognise unmet need, apply the Care Act 2014 and Mental Capacity Act appropriately, and develop more joined-up, trauma-informed responses that uphold people’s rights, dignity and autonomy.

The central question is: are we recognising and responding to safeguarding needs, or are people experiencing rough sleeping still falling through the gaps?

This is an opportunity to reflect on practice, challenge professional boundaries and consider what needs to change to strengthen adult safeguarding for some of the people most at risk of exclusion.

Find out more A national Peer Network for social workers specialising in homelessness and rough sleeping | King's College London

For any queries contact events@basw.co.uk.

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