Safeguarding Adults

What is Safeguarding Adults?

‘Safeguarding adults’ means protecting an adult’s right to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect.

In open-age adult disability football ‘safeguarding adults’ means creating safe environments and responding when an adult is at risk.

This includes:

• Adopting best practice and creating an inclusive, safe, and positive environment.
• Ensuring coaches and others in positions of power understand their responsibilities and respect clear boundaries in relationships.
• Ensuring everyone knows how and when to report concerns about an adult at risk.
• Swift and appropriate action when an adult might be at risk.
• Whistle-blowing if a safeguarding concern is not properly addressed.

Categories of Abuse:

The categories of abuse are:

• Self-neglect (not looking after personal hygiene, health or surroundings or hoarding).

• Domestic abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, financial, emotional abuse ‘honour’ based violence). 

• Discriminatory abuse (including forms of harassment, slurs or similar treatment because of race, gender and gender identity, age, disability, sexual orientation, or religion)

• Organisational abuse (including neglect or poor practice within an organisation, it can be through neglect or poor professional practice because of the structure, policies, processes, and practices within an organisation).

• Physical abuse (includes assault, hitting, slapping, pushing, kicking, misuse of medication, restraint or inappropriate sanctions).

• Sexual abuse (includes sexual harassment, inappropriate looking or touching, sexual teasing or innuendo, sexual photography, subjection to pornography or witnessing sexual acts, indecent exposure, and rape which the adult has not consented or was pressured into consenting).

• Financial or material abuse (including theft, fraud, internet scamming or coercion in relation to an adult’s financial affairs or arrangements. This includes wills, property, inheritance or financial transaction or the misuse or misappropriation of property, possessions, or benefits).

• Neglect and acts of omission (including ignoring medical, emotional, or physical care needs, failure to provide access to appropriate health, social care or educational services, the withholding of medication, food, or heating).

• Emotional / Psychological (could include emotional abuse, threats of harm or abandonment, humiliation, blaming, controlling, intimidation, coercion, harassment, verbal abuse, cyber bullying isolation or withdrawal from services or supportive networks).

• Modern slavery (slavery, human trafficking, forced labour and domestic servitude).

• Bullying (the repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power).