Latest News September 2025
September 2025
Dear Colleagues,
We’re all busy here as the Salford Safeguarding Adults Board (SSAB) prepares to meet again this September for its quarterly meeting, continuing our shared commitment to promoting the wellbeing and protecting the rights of adults at risk across the city.
We’re also pleased to welcome Stephen Young, who has recently joined Salford City Council as its new Chief Executive. Stephen brings over 30 years of public sector leadership experience, with a strong focus on regeneration, community services, and improving outcomes for vulnerable groups. His values and collaborative approach align closely with our safeguarding priorities, and we look forward to working with him to strengthen partnerships and promote a fairer, more inclusive Salford.
In addition, Hilary Byles has recently been appointed as the Board’s new Training and Development Officer. Hilary is an experienced social worker who has worked in Salford for many years and has been a valued member of the SSAB team in her previous role as Senior Business Support Officer. We’re looking forward to the contribution she will make as she takes forward the Board’s learning and development work.
Just a reminder that this is our bi-monthly newsletter, keeping you informed of updates, useful resources, and highlights from across the Board.
Thanks for reading, and please do get in touch if you have any feedback or contributions for future editions.
The SSAB Team
Updated Cuckooing Guidance and Intelligence Form
The SSAB’s Cuckooing Guidance page has recently been updated to support professionals in identifying and responding to cuckooing and home invasion. This includes an updated Greater Manchester Police (GMP) Partner Intelligence Form (August 2025), which enables practitioners to share non-urgent intelligence that may help disrupt exploitation and safeguard vulnerable adults. The guidance and the approved pathway document have also been revised to reflect a new email address for submitting the form, so please ensure you’re using the latest version. Accurate and timely information sharing is essential in tackling this hidden harm, and the form plays a key role in enabling multi-agency responses.
Updated 7-Minute Briefing: Cuckooing and Home Invasion
To support awareness and understanding of this issue, we’ve also published an updated 7-minute briefing on Cuckooing and Home Invasion (plain text version also available). This form of criminal exploitation involves offenders taking over the home of a vulnerable adult to carry out illegal activities, often linked to county lines and modern slavery. The briefing outlines key indicators, risk factors, and professional responsibilities.
Other new 7-Minute Briefings: Making Safeguarding Personal (MSP), Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), Unconscious Bias & Professional Curiosity
We’re pleased to share a series of newly published 7-minute briefings. These short, accessible resources are designed to support reflection, learning, and discussion across teams.
- Making Safeguarding Personal (MSP) explores how safeguarding can be tailored to reflect what matters most to the individual, promoting dignity, empowerment, and meaningful outcomes.
- Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) highlights how inclusive practice is central to ethical and effective safeguarding, encouraging practitioners to challenge assumptions and tailor responses to diverse needs.
- Unconscious Bias examines how unconscious bias can influence safeguarding decisions, potentially leading to missed risks or unequal treatment. It includes learning from SAR Harry and offers strategies to reflect and respond fairly.
- Professional Curiosity focuses on the importance of asking questions, exploring concerns, and looking beyond the surface to identify hidden harm. It encourages practitioners to remain open-minded and inquisitive in their safeguarding work.
You can find all of these briefings, along with others and plain text versions, on our 7-minute briefings and factsheets page.
Learning from Tom's Experience: The Importance of Professional Curiosity
To complement our new 7-minute briefing on Professional Curiosity, we’re encouraging colleagues to watch a powerful video shared by the West Sussex Safeguarding Adults Board, now featured on our Training and Learning page.
In the video, Tom shares his personal story as the subject of a Safeguarding Adults Review, highlighting how serious neglect, coercive control, and intimidation went unnoticed due to missed opportunities for professional curiosity. His experience is a compelling reminder of why it’s so important to ask questions, explore concerns, and look beyond the surface.
This video is a valuable resource for team discussions, reflective practice, and training sessions. We encourage you to watch and share it with colleagues to support learning and strengthen safeguarding responses.
PiPoT Policy and Resources
Salford’s SSAB Persons in Positions of Trust (PiPoT) policy has recently been updated to reflect changes introduced by Adult Social Care in June 2025. The PiPoT process outlines how concerns or allegations about individuals in positions of trust—such as professionals, volunteers, or carers—should be managed when they work with adults who have care and support needs. It ensures that safeguarding responses are proportionate, fair, and consistent across agencies.
You can find out more, and access a range of helpful resources, on the SSAB’s PiPoT and Whistleblowing page. The resources are designed to help professionals respond confidently and appropriately to concerns involving people in positions of trust.
We’ve also added a short, engaging 6-minute video that introduces the key principles and responsibilities around PiPoT. We encourage everyone to watch it and share it with colleagues—it’s a great way to raise awareness and support good safeguarding practice across teams.
Celebrating Safer Cultures - Safeguarding Adults Week 2025
As part of Safeguarding Adults Week 2025, we’re hoping to host a special event focused on Celebrating Safer Cultures. This event will showcase good safeguarding practice from across Salford and explore how we can continue to build safer, more inclusive environments for adults at risk.
The theme of safer cultures reflects values such as respect, dignity, empowerment, transparency, and equal opportunities—principles that underpin effective safeguarding and support the wellbeing of individuals and communities.
We’ll be sharing more details soon, so keep your eyes peeled for further information in upcoming newsletters and communications.
Spotlight on Loan Sharks: Awareness Sessions from the England Illegal Money Lending Team
Did you know that an estimated 1.2 million people in England are currently in debt to illegal money lenders—commonly known as loan sharks—and that figure is expected to rise to 3 million within the next three years?
To help tackle this growing issue, the England Illegal Money Lending Team (IMLT) is offering a series of free 1-hour awareness sessions this autumn and winter. These sessions are designed to give professionals and community members a basic and working understanding of illegal money lenders, including:
- What makes a lender illegal and how they operate
- The devastating impact loan sharks have on borrowers
- How the Stop Loan Sharks Team works to support victims and bring offenders to justice
- How to spot the signs and start a conversation with someone who may be affected
- How to report concerns and what happens next
These sessions are ideal for anyone working with adults at risk, families, or communities where financial exploitation may be a concern.
Session details:
- Platform: Microsoft Teams
- Start time: 09:30
- Joining info: A Teams link will be sent via Outlook calendar invite a few days before each session
- Booking support: If you experience any issues booking, please contact Dave Monk at dave.monk@birmingham.gov.uk
Upcoming dates and booking links:
- 7 October – Book here (Booking opens 7 Sept)
- 23 October – Book here (Booking opens 23 Sept)
- 6 November – Book here (Booking opens 7 Oct)
- 26 November – Book here (Booking opens 27 Oct)
- 11 December – Book here (Booking opens 11 Nov)
- 16 December – Book here (Booking opens 16 Nov)
Let’s raise awareness, start conversations, and help protect our communities from financial exploitation.
Upcoming SSAB Training
Keep an eye out for the following training sessions which we are running in September and October:
September 2025
- 18 September – Introduction to Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) and the Duty to Cooperate
- 24 September – Stalking and Harassment Training
October 2025
- 14 October – Bite Size Briefing: Raising Safeguarding Concerns with Adult Social Care
- 16 October – Working with People who Perpetrate Domestic Abuse
We send out a booking form for our training sessions 6 weeks in advance. If you are allocated a place, you will receive an MS Teams invite the week before the session takes place. To find out more about our training sessions, request to join our training mailing list by e-mailing SSABTraining@salford.gov.uk
Links to other news
If you would like us to include anything in our next bulletin or have any feedback, please e-mail us at ssab@salford.gov.uk
Salford Safeguarding Adult Board (SSAB)
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