Safeguarding (Easy read)

Who can be abused?

Abuse can happen to anyone. It does not matter, for example, how old you are, whether you are a man or woman, or where you live.

What is abuse?

Abuse is when someone hurts you or treats you badly. Abuse is always wrong. There are different kinds of abuse.

Physical abuse

When someone hurts your body. This includes:

• Biting
• Hitting
• Kicking

Sexual abuse

When someone touches your private parts or other parts of your body in a way you do not like or want. This includes:

• Kissing you
• Making you touch them
• Having sex with you when you do not want them to
• Them touching you

Emotional, verbal or psychological abuse

When people talk to you in unkind ways. This includes:

• Teasing
• Using threatening language
• Swearing at you
• Ignoring you
• Shouting
• Putting you down
• Treating you like a child

Financial or Material abuse/Theft

This is when people take your money or things which belong to you. This includes:

• Stealing your money or property
• Buying things with your money for themselves

Neglect and acts of omission

This is when people who are supposed to help you don’t look after you properly. This includes:

• Not giving you enough food
• Not keeping you warm
• Not giving you your medication

Discrimination

This is when people treat you badly because:

• Your skin is a different colour
• You follow a different religion
• You have a disability
• You are lesbian or gay

Hate crime

This is when you feel that a person is picking on you because you are different from everyone else and it is usually someone you don’t know. What they are doing may or may not be against the law. This includes:

• Calling you unkind names
• Targeting/attacking your home

Mate crime

This is when people make friends with someone with a learning disability so that they can use them. This includes:

• You buying all the drinks or cigarettes
• You giving them money and not getting it back

Organisational abuse

This is when the people who provide your service put the needs of the business before your needs. This includes:

• Not taking the time to understand what you need
• Staff thinking that their wishes or needs are more important than yours
• They lock you in your room
• You are ignored a lot of the time

Forced marriage

• This is when one or both of the people getting married have not agreed.
• Other people are making them get married and often use physical or emotional abuse.

Self-neglect

This is when a person neglects their personal hygiene, health or environment

Domestic violence

This is where you are being threatened either psychologically, physically, sexually, financially, or emotionally by someone in your family or someone else you live with.

Modern slavery

This is when people force people into slavery, this might be:

• forcing a person to work for no pay or low pay
• Control what you do 
• Trafficking: sell another person to another person to do things they don’t want to do

Where can abuse happen?

Abuse can happen in many places. These include:

• Where you live. This might be in the home you rent or own, or in a residential or nursing home
• Where you spend a lot of your time such as a day service
• On transport
  In the street

Who can abuse?

You could be abused by someone that you know. These people might be:

• Family
• Neighbours or friends
• People paid to provide care or services
• Other people who use services
• You could also be abused by someone who you don’t know.

Who can help?

If someone is abusing you or you think someone else is being abused you must tell someone you trust. This could be:

• Someone in your family
• A professional like a social worker or support worker
• A friend
• An advocate or advocacy group
• You can also speak to someone at Careline on 0151 233 3800

YOU MUST ALWAYS TELL SOMEONE – ABUSE IS WRONG