NHS Wales Safeguarding Network ensures vulnerable people safeguarded during challenging period
The NHS Wales Safeguarding Network is a strategic group within NHS Wales made up of members from NHS Wales health boards and trusts, Welsh Government, the National Safeguarding Team and other key stakeholders.
In a new report published today, the network sets out the valuable work they do to act as a crucial resource in keeping children and vulnerable adults safe across Wales.
The National Safeguarding Team, based at Public Health Wales, coordinate the Network and work closely with stakeholders to continually improve safeguarding of vulnerable groups such as children, young people and vulnerable adults across NHS Wales by linking up people, learning and resources.
The NHS Wales Safeguarding Network Annual Report 2020-21 shares the ways in which the Network has utilised an agile approach throughout the Coronavirus pandemic to continue working together to achieve ‘A Wales where everyone is safe’. The report expands on the challenging deliverables achieved in 2021-22 through collaboration across the Network and the implementation of new ways of working.
Dr Aideen Naughton, Service Lead National Safeguarding Team, at Public Health Wales, said: “Safeguarding within a global pandemic has changed and shaped NHS Wales in ways that could not have been predicted. As we emerge to living with COVID-19, safeguarding practitioners benefit from innovative practice developed during the pandemic whilst retaining an agile mindset for the challenges ahead as the world around us continues to present new pressures and demands.
“The cumulative impacts of Brexit, coronavirus and climate change - the ‘Triple Challenge’ - will have direct and indirect impacts on the population providing insights we must be mindful of for future safeguarding practice. Our forward planning and horizon scanning sections demonstrate how the Network is preparing for emergent challenges; mindful that we will need to look forward whilst simultaneously building on the resilience and knowledge base from the last period.”
Key reporting areas include:
All Wales System Leadership
Looked After Children and Adoption
Improvement Tools
Embedding Policy into Practice
Violence Against Women Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence
Upskilling a Competent Workforce
Innovative Regional Practice across Health Boards and Trusts
Preparedness and Horizon Scanning
NHS Wales Safeguarding Network Annual Report 2021-22 - English
NHS Wales Safeguarding Network Annual Report 2021-22 - Welsh