Bexley's 'We See You' Campaign, an initiative by the Bexley Safeguarding Adults Board (BSAB), has garnered national recognition, winning a prestigious award for its innovative approach to safeguarding. The award was announced at a national ceremony in November 2024, marking a significant achievement for the borough.
The Bexley Safeguarding Adults Board (BSAB) collaborates with various organisations, including the Bexley S.H.I.E.L.D. Partnership, Bexley Community Safety Partnership, London Metropolitan Police Services, London Fire Brigade, housing services, and voluntary sector organisations within Bexley. The BSAB also works with regional and national communities to ensure the safety and well-being of vulnerable adults.
The Bexley Health and Wellbeing Board received an update on the BSAB's activities, including the success of the 'We See You – We Hear You' campaign, during their meeting on Thursday, 11 September 2025. The annual report, detailed in the Public reports pack 11th-Sep-2025 Bexley Health and Wellbeing Board, highlighted the board's commitment to ensuring safe and effective safeguarding practices for Bexley residents.
The 'We See You – We Hear You' campaign, launched in the summer of 2021, aims to improve access to safeguarding information, ensuring that individuals know where to go and who to speak to in a timely and effective manner. The campaign also focuses on enhancing professional curiosity among staff, particularly in areas concerning mental capacity.
The Bexley Safeguarding Adults Board's strategic priorities for 2023-2026 are:
- Ensuring staff understand Making Safeguarding Personal, especially with adults who self-abuse and self-neglect. This is being addressed through a new multi-agency Self-Neglect Panel, which aims to apply swift and pragmatic actions to resolve and manage cases of self-neglect.
- Improving access to safeguarding information.
- Improving professional curiosity for staff's safeguarding practice, including all areas regarding Mental Capacity.
One of the key challenges the Bexley Safeguarding Adults Board faces in achieving its strategic priorities for 2023-2026 is ensuring learning from Safeguarding Adult Reviews is embedded locally. The board strives to ensure workshops and learning briefs are available and effectively support improved practice across all agencies. Another challenge is working together across agencies and boards as strong leaders in local, regional, and national communities.
In 2024-25, the board together with its wider partners introduced new processes to deal with some of the difficult issues people in need of safeguarding support encounter. These include:
- A new multi-agency partnership Self-Neglect Panel to apply swift and pragmatic actions to resolve and manage people self-neglecting.
- A 'Joint Transitional Safeguarding Protocol' being developed with the Bexley Children's partnership to provide a unified approach to supporting young people who continue to require safeguarding support into adulthood.
The Bexley Safeguarding Adults Board continues to work closely as a partnership to ensure safe and effective safeguarding practices for the residents of Bexley.
Alexandra Bennett, BSAB Partnership Officer, and Anita Eader, BSAB Practice Review & Learning Manager, can be contacted for further information about the board's activities and the award-winning campaign.
The Health and Wellbeing Board noted the contents of the Bexley Safeguarding Adults Board's tenth statutory Annual Report 2024-25, including plans for the partnership's current year, at the meeting which was held at the Council Chamber - Civic Offices and chaired by Councillor Baroness O'Neill of Bexley OBE, Leader of the Council.