Thank you for joining the Safeguarding Leaders Network (10.12.2024)
Minutes
Actions from the previous meeting
Diana Hofler: Waiting to hear from CALM Mediation
Some Community Southwark members had reported problems accessing Southwark Council’s My Learning Source portal which hosts the online Safeguarding training courses.
Action: Syeda had flagged this to Southwark Council and there will be a short survey in the New Year to group members to capture what the problem is and the extent of the problem.
If you are having issues logging in to ‘My Learning Source,‘ please add your login details to this form. We will share them with Southwark Council to investigate.
Or email Raks on rakshita@communitysouthwark.org setting out what specific problems you are encountering as she will compile a table of issues to send to the Council for resolution.
Adult Safeguarding Updates – Ross Diamond
Ross reported the Safeguarding Adults Board was meeting tomorrow (Wednesday 11 December). On the agenda was:
- Right Care, Right Person: The policy where the police are no longer immediately the first point of contact for people experiencing a mental health crisis as other services may be better placed to respond
- Rough Sleeping: You now have to have a named lead, and in Southwark this will be a Senior Council Officer
- CQC Inspection: This will be coming soon, so peer reviews are currently underway in preparation
Community Southwark Safeguarding Updates – Anood Al-Samerai
Anood said she was following up with the Council as Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers had flagged serious concerns and issues at a previous Safeguarding Leaders Network meeting. Complex cases were now presenting at the Day Centre which staff did not feel equipped to deal with. Issues raised were trafficking, modern slavery, housing, homelessness, mental health, and suicide. Senior people, including Council officers, had met a couple of months ago to discuss the issue and a way forward but things had gone quiet since then.
Priya Commander, the Clinical Lead at Waterloo Counselling Centre, echoed the concerns and issues raised by the Day Centre. They had similar concerns and issues and were now dealing with more complex cases. Staff felt they had to leave clients in unsafe situations which was very stressful for them.
Action: Anood said she would follow up with the Council, and chase for a follow-up meeting. Ross would also push for a date for a follow-up meeting at the Safeguarding Adults Board meeting.
Nell Blane said she would send the Day Centre the link to the Suicide Prevention training, as they may find it very useful.
Child Safeguarding Updates – Ahlam Laabori
Ahlam was not at the meeting so no update.
Learning Network Update – Diana Hofler
Diana said people had raised with her issues around accessing the My Learning Source portal, and she was currently collating the problems people were raising with her.
Action: Diana’s data gathering exercise would be combined with the data collection exercise Community Southwark would be conducting in the New Year and all the information sent to the Council for resolution.
The Jen Group: Mental Health First Aid and Suicide Prevention workshops – Nell Blane
Nell Blane from The Jen Group was our first guest speaker. The Jen Group have been commissioned by Southwark Council to deliver free Mental Health First Aid Training and Suicide Prevention Training in the borough. Her presentation is attached.
The training is free for participants and is available to anyone working or volunteering with Southwark residents, or to community groups of Southwark residents. You need between 8 to 16 confirmed attendees to make it worthwhile running a session.
The training is best delivered in-person and sessions could either by run at the Council offices in Tooley Street or they could come out to community venues if that was better for everyone. The training can be delivered online too, but was better in-person.
Action: Groups working or volunteering with Southwark residents, or community groups of Southwark residents, are welcome to get in touch with The Jen Group to book this free training (Mental Health First Aid and Suicide Prevention)
Promotional presentation 12 24
Contact: The Jen Group <admin@thejengroup.com>
Southwark Council’s Borough Resilience team – Camilla Cunningham
Camilla Cunningham, one of the Emergency Planning and Resilience Officers from Southwark Council, was our second guest speaker. She was there to introduce herself and the wider team, and give a broad overview of who they are and what they do. One of their goals is wider community engagement. Her presentation is attached.
Action: If any groups are planning community events in 2025, please do get in touch with the team and invite them along.
Community Groups intro presentation
If you have any upcoming events you would like them to present please contact the team
Contact: Camilla.Cunningham@southwark.gov.uk
Updates from members
Tagwa Hamed from Forward said they were building contacts. They were holding weekly coffee mornings, covering topics like domestic violence and PTSD
Priya Commander from Waterloo Counselling Centre said they had had to close their waiting list to new referrals due to unprecedented demand. They were hoping to be able to reopen the waiting list to new referrals in January. They were struggling with getting funding for their work
Andre Silver from Together said their service was to support people in crisis. This could be due to homelessness, addiction, suicide etc.
Diana Hofler from Time and Talents said they had been given extra funding for fuel vouchers for working age adults.
Updates from Community Southwark
Raks Patel was introduced as the new VCS Support Officer for Community Southwark, who had joined in early November. Raks would be taking over the running of the Safeguarding Leaders Network from Avi (who had moved to another role).
Future agenda items
FGM – suggested by Tagwa Hamed from Forward
Elder abuse – middle aged adults pressurising parents – intimidation and abuse. Hourglass are an organisation who could speak to this topic and could be invited to the meeting.
Southwark Safeguarding Adults Board – suggested by Ross Diamond from Age UK Lewisham and Southwark
Statutory sector (relationships with) – suggested by Diana Hofler from Time and Talents
AOB
Ross Diamond was currently the group’s representative on the Southwark Safeguarding Adults Board. If anyone wanted to take on this role he would be happy to handover.
Action: Raks would email round to see if there were other group members who would be interested in representing the group at either the Adults or the Childrens Safeguarding Board and report back at the next meeting.
Raks would be in touch with the Chairs to agree new meeting dates for 2025.
