Safeguarding: Building Safe Homes, Not Just Houses
This week marks Safeguarding Adults Week, a week of nationally promoted awareness campaigns, learning, and opportunities for reflection on best practice.
The 2025 theme, ‘Prevention’, highlights the importance of taking early action to stop abuse before it happens.
As part of Safeguarding Adults Week, Trent & Dove's Tenancy Sustainment Officer Jodie Johnson spotlights her work and how we can all work together to support our communities and prevent abuse.
By Jodie Johnson
It’s easy to think of housing as bricks and mortar, the roof over someone’s head, the key in the door, the walls that provide shelter from the world outside. But behind every tenancy is a story, a life, and sometimes, a quiet struggle that needs a helping hand.
As a Tenancy Sustainment Officer on safeguarding duty at Trent & Dove, my role isn’t just about responding to concerns, it’s about helping people feel safe, supported, and seen within their homes and communities.
Creating a culture of safety
Every day brings a different challenge, but the goal is always the same: to make sure everyone has the chance to live without fear or neglect, and to feel part of a community that genuinely cares. It’s about creating a culture of safety.
My job begins at the very first point of contact:
My job is to listen. To join the dots, ask the right questions, and make sure no one slips through the gaps. Behind every report or referral is a person, and every story deserves attention.
Listening and reading between the lines
Safeguarding often begins with something small: a neighbour’s gentle concern, a housing officer noticing a change in someone’s routine, or a customer mentioning that something just doesn’t feel right.
Our colleagues also look at what repairs or property concerns might tell us about wider issues.
Sometimes a broken door isn’t just a repair, it’s a story of conflict.
Sometimes, arrears aren’t simply financial, they’re a symptom of control or crisis.
Trent & Dove's Tenancy Sustainment Officer Jodie Johnson
Safeguarding support
Whether it’s supporting someone facing domestic abuse, self-neglect, financial hardship or mental health challenges, safeguarding is about ensuring the right people are in the room at the right time. It’s about turning concern into coordinated care.
Receiving the concern, assessing the risk, triaging the information, and escalating it to the right service quickly, clearly, and confidently.
Within minutes, I might be on the phone to:
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adult social care
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children’s services
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the police
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mental health teams
All information matters, and knowing which strand to pull is the difference between someone falling through the cracks or being caught safely.
Some days, the urgency takes me straight into a child protection conference. These meetings bring together the voices of social workers, police, health professionals, schools and me, carrying the perspective from housing.
And when I share what I know, it often becomes a missing puzzle piece that helps the room understand the full picture.
Understanding your options
Empowering, not labelling safeguarding is about empowerment not control. It’s about helping people understand their options, make their own decisions, and rebuild confidence when life feels uncertain.
We approach every situation with empathy and respect, recognising that everyone’s journey is different. Safety and dignity go hand in hand, and lasting change happens when people feel heard, not judged.
How we support our customers
Every conversation counts; safeguarding isn’t always loud.
Often, it’s a whisper in a referral, a gut feeling in a case note, or a detail tucked into an email that others might overlook.
Housing Officers, Income Officers or Customer Services Advisors will call me and say,
“Something feels off. I can’t put my finger on it.”
And that’s my cue to dig deeper, to ask the right questions, to understand whether this is a welfare concern… or something that needs immediate escalation.
Risk assessment isn’t a checklist; it’s a skill
A blend of experience, empathy, and the ability to spot patterns before they become crisis.’
Some of the most powerful safeguarding work happens in everyday moments: a quick chat during a repair visit, a kind word at a customer’s meeting, or a follow-up call that shows someone genuinely cares.
These conversations might seem small, but they’re often the first step in building trust. They remind us that safeguarding isn’t just my job, it’s everyone’s responsibility. Every member of staff, every neighbour, and every partner plays a part in keeping our communities safe.
If you need help
If you need help or require further details, please call our Customer Services Team on 01283 528528, email hello@trentanddove.org or visit our dedicated webpage https://www.trentanddove.org/tenancy-support