Welcome to the 11th edition of the SSCP Business Unit communication update! We thought it would be better, rather than sending several separate e-mails that we try and combine them all together into an easily digestible update. Please take a moment once you have finished reading to share this update with your colleagues and that you can sign up to the SSCP mailing list through the website.
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· Safeguarding Adults Week 2025
· Championing Race Equality in Mental Health Services’ - Opportunity to join Midland Partnership Foundation Trust’s Lived Experience Advisory Group
· Shropshire Early Help Newsletter
· October is Health Literacy Month
· Joint Training
· Free resources from the Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse in response to government recommendations
· Is there anything you want to share?
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Safeguarding Adults Week 2025 – 17th to the 21st of November
Safeguarding Adults Week 2025 is all about prevention.
Usually, when people talk about “safeguarding”, they are talking about the policies and procedures we might put into place to respond to concerns of abuse, or to minimise the risk of a person being harmed or abused again. They are also talking about the lessons practitioners might learn from past cases of abuse.
It’s time to change the conversation.
It’s important to learn the right lessons when things go wrong. But it is much better to prevent abuse from occurring in the first place than it is to respond to instances of harm, neglect, and isolation.
Throughout the week, The Ann Craft Trust are encouraging people to take a closer look at their approach to prevention. The Trust want individuals and organisations to ensure that prevention is embedded in their policies and procedures.
As well as discussing some key safeguarding topics, the Trust will also be sharing stories of instances where early intervention has helped to avoid the crisis point.
The Trust say “We need the courage and the confidence to act on our instincts, and to speak up when something feels wrong. And we need to build resilient communities in which people know their rights and responsibilities, and understand what to do the moment they have concerns.”
Have you got anything planned for Safeguarding Adults Week? If so, please do let us know and we’ll share it in the communication updates leading up to the 17th of November.
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‘Championing Race Equality in Mental Health Services’ - Opportunity to join Midland Partnership Foundation Trust’s Lived Experience Advisory Group
‘If you are passionate about influencing your local mental health services, walk with us on this journey and join our diverse, supportive and inclusive Lived Experience Advisory Group
We welcome people (of any age) who are:
· Service users or carers
· From a racially or ethnically minoritised community
The Trust want to better the needs of your communities by inviting you to share what matters to you, whether this is something that works well or any challenges you have experienced.
No prior knowledge is necessary - your lived experience is what matters, and the Trust provide all the support you need
The next meeting is on Monday the 27th of October 2025 from 12:00pm to 2:00pm
If you are interested in joining us or want more information, please contact Fiona Burns - fiona.burns@mpft.nhs.uk
Here are the details of the next and future meetings and a link to the Trust’s form:
· Monday 27th October from 12.00pm - 2.00pm
· Friday 28th November from 9.00am - 10.30am
· Wednesday 17th December from 12.00pm to 2.00pm
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Shropshire Early Help Newsletter
For the latest version of the Early Help newsletter please follow this link – Early Help Newsletter September 2025
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October is Health Literacy Month
Did you know that the average reading age in the UK is between 9 and 11 years old?
But health literacy isn’t just about being able to read – it’s about having the skills, knowledge, and confidence to access, understand, and use health information.
43% of adults in England struggle with low health literacy, and that number jumps to 61% when the information includes numbers as well as words. This means many people find it hard to navigate the healthcare system, or understand health related information, especially online.
Consider these statistics:
· Around 7% of households still do not have home internet access
· Around 1 million people cancelled their broadband package in the last 12 months due to rising costs
· Around 10 million adults are estimated to lack foundation-level digital skills
Health literacy requires inclusive and equitable access to quality education and life-long learning. Health literacy is shaped by a wide range of societal factors and is, therefore, not the sole responsibility of individuals to develop and maintain. All information providers, including government, civil society and health services should enable access to trustworthy information in a form that is understandable and actionable for all people. We can all do our part with our communications, design choices and information sharing when dealing with the public or partners.
Some useful resources for making your communications simpler, more efficient, and more effective:
· NHS Document Readability Tool
· A to Z of NHS health writing - NHS digital service manual
· Health literacy how to guide.pdf
· University of Southampton - Health Literacy: Prevalence Estimates for Local Authorities
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Joint Training
The following courses have been announced by Joint Training – follow the links below for more information and to book your place
· Safeguarding Adult Awareness
· Mental Health First Aid (YOUTH) Aware
· Safeguarding Children & Young People Awareness
· Children’s Exploitation Pathway
· Coercive Control and Trauma Informed Practice
· Domestic Abuse: The impact on children and young people
· Domestic Abuse – Empower and Protect: Building confidence in Domestic Abuse support
· Safeguarding Adults for Provider Managers
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Free resources from the Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse in response to government recommendations
Recently, the Government has renewed its focus on reducing the impact of child sexual abuse. Key to shaping the Government response are the report findings and recommendations from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel’s report, “I wanted them all to notice.”, and most recently the Casey review on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.
We are aware that organisations and services are currently working to address these recommendations, and so we wanted to get in touch to tell you about the free resources and events that we offer at the CSA Centre.
The reports above highlight the need for all professionals working with children to be better informed about:
the prevalence of child sexual abuse
the signs and indicators of child sexual abuse
the impact of child sexual abuse
how we can respond when we have concerns about child sexual abuse
This is because conservative estimates suggest that at least one in ten children or young people will experience some form of sexual abuse before the age of 16.
All professionals working with children should have the skills, knowledge and confidence to talk to children when there are concerns about child sexual abuse.
This suite of resources aims to directly inform practice and provide guidance on what steps can be taken to support children and families. These practice resources will help to improve your knowledge, skills and confidence in identifying and responding to child sexual abuse. These practice resources can be found here: CSA Centre Practice resources
Throughout the year, we deliver a series of free webinars to introduce practitioners to our resources. These hour-long sessions guide professionals on how to navigate our resources and consider how it can support and inform their practice. The webinar dates can be found here: Events | CSA Centre.
Identifying and responding to intra-familial child sexual abuse. This is a free 90-minute, accessible and certified eLearning course for all professionals working with children. This can be easily added as part of your organisation’s safeguarding induction and refresher training. This free e-learning course can be found here: CSA Centre’s e-learning course
Further training opportunities
Our additional training sessions for professionals in a range of aspects relating to understanding and responding to child sexual abuse. These training courses can be found here: CSA Centre's training programme
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Have you got something you want to share?
If there is anything that you would like included the Business Unit newsletter going forward, or something you think should be linked to or shared on the website, then please let us know by e-mailing SSCPBusinessunit@shropshire.gov.uk and please include “Newsletter” or “Website” in the subject of the e-mail.
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The SSCP Business Unit