Meet Jacqui: An insight into safeguarding in Manchester

We caught up with Jaqui King, Manager of Manchester’s integrated safeguarding board to find out more about the service and how it helps vulnerable people. 

Welcome

Hi my name is Jacqui King, I am the current Manager of Manchester’s integrated Safeguarding board which consists of the Manchester Safeguarding Adults Board (MSAB) and the Manchester Safeguarding Children Board (MSCB).

The two boards are statutory bodies made up of organisations that work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of adults, children, young people and their families in Manchester. This work is overseen and scrutinised by our independent Chairperson Julia Stephens-Row. There are various pieces of legislation and policy that underpin both boards from the Care Act 2014 for adults to the Children and Families Act 2014.

At present we are continuing to look at “Making Safeguarding Personal” in the Adults board, along with our other priorities including Child neglect, Engagement and involvement, Complex Safeguarding, Adult neglect and finally Transitions.

Hello Jacqui. So what is “Making Safeguarding Personal” about?

Making Safeguarding personal is personalised approach to Safeguarding vulnerable people in our communities and tries to ensure that anyone who requires safeguarding is supported to improve or resolve their circumstances. It also seeks to ensure that safeguarding is undertaken with them, and not done to.

Making safeguarding personal is also an approach that enables practitioners, families, teams and Safeguarding Adults Boards to know what difference has been made.

Why is it important for our city?

In Manchester we have a lot of vulnerable people in our community who have experienced or who are at risk of abuse. Last year there were just over 8,000 recorded safeguarding concerns for Adults 18+ that we know of, which is a 35.9% increase on the 6,000 concerns the previous year. We need to ensure that those individuals experiencing or who have experienced abuse are listened to and supported in making their wishes known.

Tell us about the strategy and how you aim to make it happen?

There are several community groups and engagement networks in Manchester at present that do some great work in speaking on behalf of communities and challenge local policy, there are also individuals and families who have direct experience of Safeguarding that can also help inform local policy and practice, this is the essence of “Making Safeguarding personal” and We need to hear from them at our Making Safeguarding personal meetings.

What’s your message to local people about Safeguarding?

Safeguarding the vulnerable people in our communities is essential and we need to ensure that this work is undertaken in a positive and person centred way. In order for this work to be undertaken we need people from a variety of backgrounds and groups with experience and knowledge of Safeguarding at our meetings to look at how we can continue this valuable role and continue to make improvements for our communities.

How can people contact the Safeguarding Boards?

If you are interested in joining us for our next meeting please send an email to :

manchestersafeguardingboards@manchester.gov.uk

For more information please go to:

www.manchestersafeguardingboards.co.uk

Twitter: @McrSafeguarding

Thank you Jacqui.