Today in our 'safeguarding superheroes' series, we'll dive into the everyday superpowers all care professionals have that help us break down barriers to safeguarding.
Here, we'll show you seven ways you can uphold good safeguarding practices in your daily work, protecting those you care for.
1. Create connections to fight alienation
Imagine a colleague who thrives on isolating those who raise concerns (for example a service user or their family member): it can feel like they spread darkness wherever they go. That's malignant alienation for you!
However, heroes, we have the power of connection.
By standing up against exclusion and digging further to understand and report the concerns raised, we can banish malignant alienation to the shadows.
2. Be an optimistic beacon of hope
In a world full of uncertainty, those who are optimistic shine like a beacon of hope to those in their care.
Showing optimism gives you the power to help you (and others) see the silver lining and believe that better days are ahead. So put on your optimism capes, heroes, and let's spread positivity wherever we go.
3. Follow your professional curiosity
Professional curiosity guides us all on a quest for knowledge and innovation.
With this superpower, we're always eager to learn, explore new ideas and push the boundaries of what's possible.
At Florence one of our values is to ‘always ask another question’ to make sure we fully understand what we’re doing. So dust off your curiosity, heroes, and let's always unearth concerns when we see them.
4. Out-think confirmation bias
Confirmation bias is the villain that tricks us into seeing only what we want to see, blinding us to new perspectives and ideas.
With the power of open-mindedness and critical thinking, we can outsmart confirmation bias. Ask another question - and confirmation bias will shrink.
5. Fight institutional indifference
Institutional indifference happens when care providers fail to be responsible, neglect safeguarding policies, and don’t provide proper training to their staff. Extreme institutional indifference results in reports of abuse and neglect being ignored.
As care professionals, our commitment and unwavering determination helps us fight institutional indifference and stand up for those in our care. We always speak up and report when we suspect wrongdoing.
6. Push back on disguised non-compliance
Disguised non-compliance means when a colleague avoids their responsibility to care. Our safeguarding superpowers help us see through this with our intuition and integrity.
By standing firm in our commitment to professionalism, we'll expose this behaviour, report and push back against non-compliance when we hear of it, and stand by our duty to care.
7. Celebrate multi-agency working
Last but not least, we have the power of multi-agency working, where different organisations come together as allies to tackle common challenges.
Like a league of superheroes joining forces, we celebrate being able to pool our strengths and resources to make the world a safer, more inclusive place for all.
Find out more about how Florence's governance team supports you professionally here.
You might also be interested in:
- Six tips to de-escalate challenging situations on shift
- How to set yourself up for success on shift in 5 steps
- Working full time for the NHS vs an agency: which path to choose?
