By Matthew McKenzie – Member of Southwark Carers Strategy Working Group

Southwark Council is inviting unpaid carers from Southwark to share their experiences and help shape its review of adult safeguarding services.

The council’s Health, Adult Social Care and Community Safety Scrutiny Commission is examining how safeguarding services can better support adults and their carers while promoting independence, dignity, choice and wellbeing.

The Commission would particularly like to hear carers’ experiences of:

• Working with safeguarding and other professionals
• Accessing information and support
• Being included in safeguarding decisions
• Preventing abuse, neglect and other forms of harm
• Balancing personal safety with independence and choice
• Self-neglect and hoarding
• The use of technology
• Communication with carers
• Supporting someone living with dementia or mental ill health
• Caring for an adult child or sibling with a disability

Your experiences could help the Commission identify what is working well, where improvements are needed and how carers can be more effectively recognised and involved.

Complete the carers’ survey

Unpaid carers can share their experiences through Southwark Council’s online Adult Safeguarding Review Carers’ Survey:

The survey is anonymous and will remain open until Friday 11 September 2026.

Join the online carers’ workshop

Southwark Council is also holding an online workshop where carers can discuss their experiences in greater detail.

Join the online carers’ workshop

Southwark Council is also holding an online workshop where carers can discuss their experiences in greater detail.

Date: Thursday 20 August 2026
Time: 12:30 pm
Location: Online via Microsoft Teams

To request the Microsoft Teams joining details, please contact Julie Timbrell, Scrutiny Project Manager, at:

julie.timbrell@southwark.gov.uk

Please include “Adult Safeguarding Carers’ Workshop” in the subject line.

For safeguarding and meeting security, the direct Teams link and passcode are not being published on this website.

If you cannot attend the workshop, you can still contribute to the review by completing the anonymous survey.

Confidentiality and use of information

Taking part in the survey or workshop is voluntary.

Notes will be taken during the workshop, but participants’ comments will be anonymised before they are included in reports or presented to councillors. Individual participants will not be identified without their explicit consent.

Survey responses will also be analysed and reported anonymously. Southwark Council is interested in identifying common themes and experiences rather than identifying individual carers.

The information collected will only be used to inform the Adult Safeguarding Review and its recommendations. A report containing the Commission’s findings and recommendations will be published after the review has been completed.

Further information

If you have any questions, please contact:

Julie Timbrell
Scrutiny Project Manager
Southwark Council
julie.timbrell@southwark.gov.uk