Safeguarding Adults Week 2025

Each year, Safeguarding Adults Week provides a national moment for organisations, professionals, and communities to refocus attention on the safety, dignity, and rights of adults at risk. Led by the Ann Craft Trust, the week (17–21 November 2025) aims to raise awareness, deepen understanding, and build confidence across sectors that have statutory safeguarding responsibilities.

This year, the official theme is: "Prevention: Act Before Abuse”. The message is clear: it is far better to prevent abuse before it happens than to merely respond to it afterwards.

In health and social care, education, housing, local authorities, the voluntary sector, and other regulated environments, safeguarding adults is not an optional priority; it is a legal, moral, and organisational duty. Yet safeguarding is also a rapidly evolving landscape: new patterns of harm, digital risks, workforce pressures, changing regulatory expectations, and the widening definition of “vulnerability” all shape how organisations must approach prevention, reporting, and protection.

In this blog, Anna Nova Galeon will explore the purpose of Safeguarding Adults Week 2025, key safeguarding concepts, emerging themes for organisations, and the practical steps leaders, managers, and front-line teams can take to embed a culture where adults feel safe, respected, and supported.

What is Safeguarding Adults Week?

Safeguarding Adults Week is an annual UK event led by the Ann Craft Trust. It aims to:

• Raise national awareness of adult safeguarding issues.

• Build skills and confidence among professionals.

• Highlight emerging trends and risks facing adults at risk.

• Encourage multi-agency collaboration and shared responsibility.

• Promote a culture of empowerment, not paternalism.

Each year features a range of resources, webinars, and awareness-raising activities focused on improving practice, strengthening prevention, and ensuring adults at risk can access support early and safely.

Safeguarding Adults Week serves as a catalyst, uniting organisations around a shared message: everyone has a role to play in preventing abuse and neglect.

Understanding safeguarding adults - Key concepts

For regulated organisations, safeguarding is built upon legal duties set out in the Care Act 2014, which defines safeguarding adults as:

“Protecting an adult’s right to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect.”

This definition emphasises two core ideas:

Safeguarding is a rights-based duty

Safeguarding is not just about responding to harm; it is about upholding human rights, promoting autonomy, and preventing abuse in all its forms.

It applies to specific groups

The Care Act places safeguarding duties on local authorities and partner agencies when an adult:

• Has care and support needs,

• Is experiencing, or at risk of, abuse or neglect, and

• They are unable to protect themselves because of their needs.

However, many regulated organisations extend safeguarding principles to all adults, not only those who meet the Care Act threshold, recognising that anyone can experience harm, coercion, exploitation, or unsafe practice.

Forms of abuse and neglect

Safeguarding Adults Week often highlights the wide range of harms adults may experience. These include:

• Physical abuse

• Domestic violence

• Emotional/psychological abuse

• Financial or material abuse

• Sexual abuse

• Neglect and acts of omission

• Self-neglect

• Institutional or organisational abuse

• Modern slavery

• Cyber abuse and online exploitation.

Regulated organisations, especially those providing care, education, supported living, or clinical environments, must ensure staff are trained to recognise the subtle warning signs and act quickly.

Why Safeguarding Adults Week matters for regulated organisations

Safeguarding is deeply embedded within the expectations of UK regulators, including:

• Care Quality Commission (CQC)

• Ofsted

• Local Safeguarding Adults Boards (SABs)

• NHS England

• Local authorities

• Health and Safety Executive (HSE)

• Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) (where financial exploitation or consumer vulnerability is relevant).

Safeguarding failures often lead to the most severe consequences, including enforcement action, reputational damage, loss of public trust, media scrutiny, service closures, and, in the most extreme cases, legal action.

Safeguarding Adults Week provides an opportunity for organisations to assess whether their safeguarding systems are robust, up-to-date, and truly centred on people.

Emerging safeguarding themes for 2025

While abuse and neglect remain long-standing issues, Safeguarding Adults Week 2025 emphasises evolving risks that require fresh attention.

 1. Digital and online harms

Adults, especially those with cognitive impairment, financial vulnerability, or social isolation, face escalating digital risks:

• Online fraud and scams

• Romance fraud

• Coercive online relationships

• Social-media grooming

• Deep-fake exploitation

• Data-privacy breaches.

Digital safeguarding now requires both education and proactive monitoring.

2. Mental health, loneliness, and self-neglect

Post-pandemic pressures, worsening economic conditions, and reduced social contact continue to drive a rise in:

• Severe self-neglect

• Hoarding behaviours

• Social withdrawal

• Unreported abuse.

Self-neglect is now one of the leading reasons for safeguarding referrals across the UK.

3. Workforce pressures and organisational risk

High turnover, recruitment challenges, agency dependency, and burnout can erode safeguarding practice and oversight. Regulators increasingly recognise that workforce instability is itself a safeguarding concern.

4. Transition to the Single Assessment Framework (SAF)

For CQC-regulated providers, safeguarding now sits across multiple quality statements, particularly those relating to safety, leadership, governance, and culture. Providers must demonstrate not only that safeguarding policies exist, but that people:

• Feel safe

• Understand their rights

• Can report concerns easily

• Trust leaders

• Experience compassionate, dignified care.

How organisations can strengthen safeguarding during Safeguarding Adults Week

Safeguarding Adults Week should not be a standalone event; it should support continuous improvement and long-term cultural change. Below are six key areas where organisations can take meaningful action:

1. Reinforce clear roles and responsibilities

Every staff member, regardless of position, has safeguarding responsibilities. Leaders must ensure:

• A named Safeguarding Lead and Deputy Lead are in place

• Staff understand when and how to escalate concerns

• Internal reporting pathways are unambiguous

• External referral routes are widely known (e.g., local authority, police).

Clear accountability saves lives.

2. Update and stress-test policies and procedures

Policies must reflect:

• Care Act 2014 requirements

• Local safeguarding board guidance

• Regulator expectations

• New and emerging forms of harm

• Professional boundaries

• Escalation and whistle-blowing frameworks.

Organisations should conduct annual policy reviews, and Safeguarding Adults Week is an excellent anchor point.

3. Strengthen training, competence, and induction

Safeguarding training must be:

• Role-specific

• Up to date

• Linked to statutory frameworks

• Reinforced regularly (not a one-off).

Training should go beyond awareness to build absolute confidence in recognising, reporting, and responding to concerns.

4. Build a culture of openness, listening, and psychological safety

Adults feel safest in organisations where:

• Abuse is not tolerated

• Concerns are welcomed, not dismissed

• Staff feel safe to escalate issues

• Leaders role-model honesty, empathy, and humanity

• People’s voices are prioritised, especially those with communication needs.

Safeguarding is not about procedures alone; it is fundamentally about culture.

5. Strengthen multi-agency working

Effective safeguarding requires collaboration with:

• Local authorities

• NHS services

• Police

• Housing teams

• Mental-health services

• Charities and community groups.

Information-sharing must be lawful, timely, and in the best interest of the adult.

6. Listen to the lived experience

Co-production with people who use services, especially adults with care and support needs, adds depth and realism to safeguarding practice. Their insight strengthens prevention and improves trust.

Practical ways to mark Safeguarding Adults Week 2025

Organisations may choose to:

• Run team briefings or toolbox talks

• Host webinars or learning sessions

• Share awareness resources from the Ann Craft Trust

• Conduct policy audits or spot-checks

• Review recent safeguarding concerns or themes

• Reinforce whistle-blowing and escalation routes

• Share stories of good safeguarding practice

• Celebrate teams who demonstrate compassionate, person-centred care

Small actions create safer systems.

Safeguarding is everyone's business

Safeguarding Adults Week 2025 serves as a timely reminder that safety is not achieved solely through compliance. It is achieved through vigilance, empathy, professionalism, and a culture where every individual feels valued and protected.

In every regulated sector, the responsibility is shared, and the impact is profound.

Strengthen your safeguarding systems with ComplyPlus™

At The Mandatory Training Group, we support organisations across health and social care, education, public services, and the voluntary sector to meet their safeguarding responsibilities with confidence.

Our ComplyPlus™ provides:

• Up-to-date safeguarding training aligned to UK legislation

• Seamless tracking of staff learning and compliance

• Policy management tools

• Audit and evidence-gathering dashboards

• Inspection-ready reports

• A structured approach to quality, safety, and culture.

Strengthen your safeguarding. Empower your workforce. Protect the adults who rely on you.