{"id":16331,"date":"2022-11-21T09:59:27","date_gmt":"2022-11-21T09:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/?p=16331"},"modified":"2026-04-22T10:52:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T09:52:59","slug":"why-an-open-culture-is-the-key-to-good-safeguarding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/blog\/why-an-open-culture-is-the-key-to-good-safeguarding\/","title":{"rendered":"Why an open culture is the key to good safeguarding"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading alignwide has-text-align-center is-style-title-secondary\">National safeguarding week<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-intro\">Creating a safe environment is the single most important responsibility we have as social care providers. We achieve this by fostering an open, transparent culture. Our head of safeguarding, Steve Kiekopf, explains more about our strategy.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At Sense, everyone belongs. We value our differences, and we work to ensure that no one is left out of life.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In all of our services \u2014 from our residential care to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/our-services\/meeting-people\/virtual-buddying-befriending-service\/\">Virtual Buddying<\/a> \u2014 we take time to understand each other, no matter the differences in how we communicate or experience the world.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We need to ensure the people we support are able to live the life they choose and that they have a safe and supportive environment. Here are some of the ways that we make sure we\u2019re getting safeguarding right at Sense.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Building an open and transparent culture<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/information-and-advice\/conditions\/what-does-complex-disabilities-mean\/\">Disabled people with complex needs<\/a> can be particularly vulnerable and may find it hard to tell others about abuse. Sense has comprehensive guidance, policies and procedures in place to protect the people we support. Everyone who works at Sense knows these policies inside out and believes in them.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On top of that, we believe that our success in safeguarding comes down to our culture as an organisation. We work hard to maintain an open and honest work environment, where everyone feels safe to challenge inappropriate attitudes and behaviours.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are a few key ways we do this.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list is-style-primary-bullets\">\n<li>We cultivate <strong>a person-centred approach<\/strong> to safeguarding. Our goal is to support people to grow in confidence and skills, and to make their own choices. \u00a0<br>\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>We train our staff<\/strong> to identify peer-to-peer incidents. We ensure that they understand how to support and protect both parties.\u00a0<br>\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>We make sure everyone at Sense understands that people across our services have <strong>different ways of communicating<\/strong>, so that they can recognise a safeguarding concern raised by someone with non-formal communication.\u00a0<br>\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>We involve people in their own safeguarding<\/strong>. For adults with complex needs, safeguarding is also about being independent and making their own choices. We follow the basic principle: <strong>no decision about me, without me<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>These ideas inform our approach to how we deliver our services.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, where some organisations avoid risk at all costs, we believe in managing risk and including people in their own decision-making. At Sense, we support people to try new things and take informed risks.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why hiring the right people matters<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We believe that it\u2019s crucial to hire people who\u2019ll uphold our standards. That\u2019s why we use a values-based approach to recruitment, focusing on the attitudes, values and behaviours of our applicants.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We look for people who:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list is-style-secondary-bullets\">\n<li>Respect people\u2019s diversity and protect their right to dignity.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Focus on people\u2019s abilities and not their disabilities.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Work inclusively and collaboratively.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Adapt their communication to suit each person\u2019s individual needs.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This way, we know that people at Sense <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/about-us\/\">share the same set of values<\/a> as the organisation. We can be confident in their commitment, and that they understand the benefits of spending productive and meaningful time with people, rather than simply performing necessary functions.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>We monitor, review and always keep learning&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Good safeguarding practice is in our bones. We were the first charity to set up an internal safeguarding board and, in the years since, we developed robust monitoring systems for all our services.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, no organisation can rest on its laurels. As the independent Chair of our Safeguarding Board, Bridget Warr, explained in a recent review of Sense:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>It is tempting to assume that a well run, quality focussed organisation, such as Sense, would never develop closed cultures. But experience shows that no organisation, management team or Trustee body should be complacent.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>We live by that philosophy. We\u2019re proud of our record of keeping people safe, but we\u2019re focused on the future. We continue to develop and train staff, to update our resources and to keep abreast of best practice.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n  <div class=\"wp-block  box    is-style-textured-primary-tint-10\">    <div class=\"acf-innerblocks-container\">\n\n<p>Throughout this week, we\u2019ll be sharing more information on safeguarding. Our director of trading talks to us about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/content\/how-our-team-built-a-strong-safeguarding-culture\/\">what Sense do to ensure safeguarding in our shops<\/a>, and we\u2019ll be posting on social media about what we\u2019re doing to engage staff and ensure we remain best-in-class when it comes to safeguarding.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n  <\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are some of the ways that we make sure we\u2019re getting safeguarding right at Sense.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"display_author":[120],"class_list":["post-16331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","display_author-steve-kiekopf"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16331"},{"taxonomy":"display_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display_author?post=16331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}