On Monday 11th February, Shakil Ahmed, our Birmingham regional, delivered a session on ‘How to Safeguard Vulnerable Adults’ within your faith institution. According to AGE UK’s fact sheet on safeguarding older people from abuse and neglect, safeguarding duties seek to protect all adults who:

• Have needs for care and support (whether or not the local authority meets any of those needs)
• Are experiencing, or at risk of, abuse or neglect
• As a result of those care and support needs are unable to protect themselves from either the risk of, or the experience of abuse or neglect.

The safeguarding training covered the different types of abuse, within the context of faith communities, the session brought together women from Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Christian communities, held at Safe Heaven, a Pentecostal Church in Birmingham – part of the SFI network as part of our women’s leadership strategy.