Connection is the Foundation of Safeguarding

For #SHW26 we’re exploring how we can champion connection in an increasingly individualised world. In this blog, Brook’s Designated Safeguarding Lead, Simone Last, explores the role of connection in safeguarding best practice.

When we talk about safeguarding, it can be easy to think about processes, policies, referrals and risk assessments. These things are important, but safeguarding is ultimately about people. And for me, connection is at the heart of it.

If we are unable to create some form of connection with the people accessing our services, it is much harder to build trust and confidence. Connection can look different from person to person, day to day and service to service, but the aim is the same: creating a space where someone feels safe enough to be open with us.

In a sexual and reproductive health setting, someone might come to see us for contraception, an STI test or HIV support. They may not have come intending to talk about their mental health, relationships, or something else that is affecting their safety and wellbeing. But at Brook we find those things can often come up during a consultation. For several years now, the most common safeguarding concerns in our clinical services have been mental health related, with clients disclosing issues to our staff that are not directly about their sexual health.

Building trust

The reason for this is the trust we establish that enables clients to be open with us. At Brook, we have built specific direct questions about wider wellbeing into our clinical processes because we know that people may be experiencing concerns that they haven’t initially come to us about. But asking the question is only part of it. How we ask it is just as important, if not more so.

The strongest connections are often built through a relational, conversational approach.

We can’t treat these questions as a list of things that we are simply ticking off. We need to focus on making them naturally part of the conversation we’re having with the person in front of us.

Professional curiosity is really important here. This means demonstrating a genuine interest in a person’s life and a willingness to explore something that doesn’t quite feel right. Being professionally curious doesn’t mean being nosy or asking someone to tell us everything. It means being interested enough to ask the next question when we need to understand more.

If someone discloses that they have experienced sexual assault, for example, we may need to understand more about their circumstances and whether there is an immediate risk. That doesn’t mean asking them to relive their experience or repeatedly tell their story.

A trauma-informed approach means being thoughtful about what we need to know, why we need to know it and how we ask.

Building trust also means being honest with people about what we are doing, and why we are doing it. One of the most difficult parts of safeguarding can come when we identify a concern and the person doesn’t agree with what we think needs to happen next to ensure they are safe and supported.

We have to balance the person’s wishes and autonomy with our responsibility to act when there is a safeguarding concern. That can be particularly challenging in situations where someone has already experienced a loss of control.

For example, in cases of assault, someone may already feel that control has been taken away from them. If we then say, “We’re going to have to share this information,” it can feel as though control is being taken away again. That makes how we communicate incredibly important.

We need to be open and transparent about what we’re concerned about, what we may need to do, and why.

In situations where we do need to share information with another service, we can still look for ways to give the person some control over how that happens.

Could they sit with us while we make the call? Would they feel more comfortable having someone else with them to support? Can we involve them in the conversation? These might seem like small choices, but they can make a significant difference to someone’s experience of safeguarding.

Trust is difficult to build if we’re not honest about what might happen. It is much better to explain the boundaries and processes clearly, rather than making someone feel that decisions are simply being imposed on them.

Working together

Safeguarding is also about the connections we have with each other as professionals. None of us have all the answers. Safeguarding can be complex, and different people will bring different knowledge, experience and perspectives to a situation. That’s why having colleagues we can talk to matters so much.

At Brook, we might talk through concerns with colleagues, including our escalation team, to bring different insights into decision-making. Sometimes simply picking up the phone and talking through a concern helps us see something we hadn’t considered. Those internal relationships are part of safeguarding practice. If colleagues don’t feel able to question, discuss or challenge decisions, we risk creating barriers for the people who use our services.

The same is true beyond our organisation. Good safeguarding depends on different agencies being able to work together. We need strong relationships with local authorities, safeguarding partnerships, statutory services and other voluntary and community organisations.

Those relationships don’t only matter when something goes wrong.

Building them before we need them means that when a difficult situation arises, there is already some understanding of who we are, how we work and what our respective responsibilities are.

I’ve seen the value of this when working through challenging situations with external agencies. Sometimes the most useful conversations happen afterwards, when we have sat down together to understand each other’s processes and ask what we can learn from what happened. Taking the time to understand those differences helps us to work together more effectively. Ultimately, the better we work with other agencies, the better the service we can provide to the people accessing our services.

Connections Create Safety

For me, connection runs through every part of safeguarding, whether it is the relationship between a clinician and a client, between colleagues within an organisation or between different agencies.

It creates the conditions for people to tell us things they may otherwise keep to themselves. It helps professionals remain curious and confident enough to explore concerns. It enables us to have difficult conversations while helping people retain as much control as possible. And it gives organisations the relationships they need to make good decisions together.