Protecting & supporting you
Did you know that we have a team of Safeguarding Alerting Managers who are on-hand to protect you and support you if you’re being abused or neglected?
What is abuse?
There are lots of different types of abuse and some can be harder to spot than others. Some types of abuse are:
| Domestic abuse | can be controlling, threatening, or violent behaviour, often from someone who is personally connected to the victim. |
| Sexual abuse | is doing sexual things to another person who does not want it and may not understand what is happening. |
| Emotional abuse | includes blaming, humiliating, controlling & intimidating behaviour. |
| Financial abuse | examples include theft, fraud and internet scamming. |
| Neglect | includes leaving someone alone for a long time, ignoring their care needs, not giving enough nutrition or heating. |
| Self-neglect | is when a person is abusing themselves. They may not be looking after their own health or hygiene. However, sometimes some people choose to live like this, and it’s important their rights are supported. |
How do you spot abuse?
It can be tricky to know if someone is being abused or is neglecting themselves.
Some things to look out for could be:
- Being withdrawn.
- Showing obsessive behaviour.
- Their home being unkept, and changes in their home comforts.
- Curtains being closed in the middle of the day.
- Having unusual difficulty with finances.
- Being too protective of money and things they own.
- Awareness of adult issues inappropriate for their age.
- Injuries such as markings, bruising, cuts etc.
- Children running away from home.
How do we safeguard?
- When someone lets us know about suspected abuse or neglect, our team will respond within 1 working day, speaking to the person at risk to understand their situation.
- We will then work with the person at risk, offering advice and guidance, respecting their wishes.
- We may also talk to them about getting some specialist support from other organisations – this will depend on the individual situation.
- We’ll continue to keep in touch with the person at risk until they tell us that they no longer need our support.
Reporting abuse and getting help
Whether you’re worried for your own, or someone else’s safety, you can contact our domestic abuse and safeguarding team on 0330 175 9540 for a private chat. Anything that you discuss will be kept confidential.
If there is an emergency situation and you think someone is in immediate danger, call 999. If you are unable to speak tap 55 on your phone and your call will be transferred to the Police. To report a safeguarding or abuse concern to us at Incommunities, you can use one of the below options:
 By telephone - 0330 175 9540 |
 In-person with any Incommunities employee |
 Online |