safeguarding forums with young people

In our organisation, safeguarding forums play a vital role in ensuring that young people feel safe, supported and empowered to share their experiences, ideas and concerns. These forums are more than just a place for discussion; they are a commitment to listening carefully, acting responsibly and putting the wellbeing of young people at the heart of everything we do.

Towards the end of last year, our Health, Safety and Safeguarding Director held four safeguarding forums with young people in three of our supported accommodation services, and with one of our classes in our further education provision. These forums help us to build understanding, strengthen trust and shape practice in a way that genuinely reflects young people’s voices.

Ten young people took part in total and all of them reported feeling safe at asphaleia. Whilst this is a positive reflection of our environment and practices, we recognise this is the viewpoint of a fraction of our service users and so we continually use professional curiosity, reflective practice, and regular feedback to guage how safe our service users are feeling.

Other key points of feedback:

• 100% of young people know who to call if they need help

• One young person reported that they received our welcome guide in their native language and said it was useful

• Several young people said that staff are supportive