Background
When Southern Housing Group and Optivo merged, new safeguarding policies and procedures were introduced. A dedicated Safeguarding Team and a Corporate Lead for Safeguarding were also put in place. Since then, the number of safeguarding referrals has gone up by around 80%. This suggests that more concerns are being spotted and acted on, which is positive. The Panel wanted to understand how well these new arrangements are working in practice.
How the panel gathered evidence
Between August and December 2025, the Panel carried out a range of activities, including:
- Reviewing policies and documents
- Interviewing staff
- Holding a workshop with the Safeguarding Team
- Looking at anonymised safeguarding cases to check outcomes and response times
- Running a survey, completed by 28 residents and 172 colleagues
What did the Panel find?
Overall, the Panel found that Southern Housing has strengthened its safeguarding approach, and staff have a good understanding of what safeguarding is. However, there are still some areas where things could be clearer and more consistent.
Some of the key recommendations from the Scrutiny Panel were:
- Clearer senior level responsibility for safeguarding policies
- A simple safeguarding offer so residents and staff know what support is available
- Better joining up of systems to reduce duplication and improve records
- More frequent refresher training and clearer guidance on writing case notes
- Additional administrative support for the Safeguarding Team.
Residents who took part in the survey said they’d like clearer information about what safeguarding means and when to report a concern. Many also said they’d like to be updated after raising an issue. The Panel supports improving communication in this area.
The Safeguarding Team was open and helpful throughout the review. We’d like to thank them for their cooperation and their commitment to learning and improving. We’ll now be working on an action plan with them to implement the recommendations of the review.
Dave Burton, Resident Scrutiny Panel Chair
Need to report a safeguarding concern about a Southern Housing resident?
For more details visit our safeguarding web page.
Contact us
Email: safeguarding@southernhousing.org.uk
Tel: 0300 0200 538*
*This telephone number is available between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday. Please call your local authority if you need to report a safeguarding issue outside of these hours.
IMPORTANT: If the person is in immediate danger, call the most appropriate emergency service on 999.