10,000 Voices: service users’ experiences of adult safeguarding

The purpose of this paper is to describe a small scale pilot study undertaken in Northern Ireland to gather service user feedback from individuals who have been subject to adult safeguarding procedures.

The aims, methods and findings of the “Adult Safeguarding: 10,000 Voices” pilot project are presented.

The pilot project highlighted how an initiative which captures the experiences of patients, service users, carers and staff in the health and social care sector (10,000 Voices) could be successfully adapted for use in adult safeguarding, facilitating the collation of complex experiences and enabling insights to be gleaned and shared.

The pilot study is limited by the small number of participants. The findings are preliminary.

For the first time in Northern Ireland the 10,000 Voices model was utilised in the context of a non-health related service, namely, adult safeguarding.

This outline of the model and methodology for obtaining service user feedback can inform user involvement in other contexts.

This paper provides an accessible overview of an innovative approach to engaging service users in adult safeguarding, such approaches, to date have been limited.