Ann Craft Trust Safeguarding Adults Conference 2026
About this Event
Every Voice. Every Choice.
By prioritising choice, safeguarding can become more preventative, build trust, and empower individuals.
Our focus this year is on how co-production is central to safeguarding adults.
We’ll explore how a collaborative approach aligns closely with key principles of the Care Act 2014, such as empowerment and prevention.
A key theme is Making Safeguarding Personal, which prioritises the outcomes for the individuals. It’s all about giving people a voice, and making it their choice as to what happens, and what makes them feel safe.
The conference will contribute to continued professional development for professionals and volunteers working with adults across a range of sectors.
Safeguarding Adults Conference 2026 Programme
The day will bring together inspiring keynote speakers, practical workshops, research insights, and opportunities to network with colleagues from across the sector, as well as hot lunch and refreshments.
- A keynote speaker sharing their personal experience of abuse and the lessons it offers to us all about the importance of both listening and hearing a person’s voice.
- Interactive sessions exploring co-production, including learning from Reach's Voice and Participation Group, who work with organisations to improve services, influence change, and ensure that people's voices are heard and valued.
- New research from Oxcil Research Group on financial abuse and its implications for practice, along with a selection of workshops that will include discussions on key safeguarding topics including hoarding and cuckooing.
- An exclusive training workshop by the Ann Craft Trust, exploring the topic of adult grooming. This will feature excerpts from the new Invisible Scars film, which offers a survivor's experience of abuse in sport, and is normally only screened in private training courses.
- United Response showcasing their Our Life Stories exhibition. Through powerful personal stories, artwork, and film, this celebrates the voices of people with learning disabilities and autistic people, demonstrating the importance of ensuring people are at the heart of decisions that affect their lives.
As with previous conferences, the day will conclude with an inspiring interactive session which we hope will help you think creatively in your approach to learning.
Agenda
🕑: 09:50 AM - 10:00 AM
The Safer Citizens film - Main Auditorium
Host: Reach Voice & Participation Group
Info: Reach is a Nottinghamshire charity supporting people with learning disabilities to live happier, healthier lives in their communities. The team will talk about their co-production journey so far and feature the Safer Citizens film, highlighting how lived experience and people’s voices can influence change and shape better service.
Don’t miss their Workshop to follow in the afternoon!
🕑: 10:05 AM - 10:30 AM
Safeguarding Matters Live - Listening Beyond Assumptions - Main Auditorium
Host: Lisa Curtis
Info: An interview with FGM survivor Di Richardson, hosted by Safeguarding Matters podcast presenter Lisa Curtis.
Centred on Di’s lived experience, the conversation encourages us to listen, reflect and consider how hearing survivors’ voices can strengthen safeguarding practice.
🕑: 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM
Adult Grooming: The Invisible Scars of Abuse in Sport - K4
Host: Cath Sykes
🕑: 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM
Every Voice Heard: Tackling Cuckooing Together - K5
Host: Fitzroy
🕑: 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM
Listening Beyond Assumptions Workshop: Person Centred Practice - K6
Host: Lisa Curtis
🕑: 01:00 PM - 01:45 PM
Nothing About Us Without Us - Main auditorium
Info: What peer-led life story work taught us about safeguarding, voice, and power.
This session will explore what a peer-led oral history project can teach us about safeguarding, voice and choice. Through Our Life Stories, people with learning disabilities interviewed their peers about their lives, creating a collection of life stories.
🕑: 01:45 PM - 03:15 PM
Safeguarding Adults Against Scams and Fraud - K4
Host: OXIL Research
🕑: 01:45 PM - 03:15 PM
Choice, Control and Collaboration - K5
Host: Hoarding Disorders UK
Info: Effective Support for People Affected by Hoarding Behaviours
🕑: 01:45 PM - 03:15 PM
Better Services, Safer Lives: Learning From Voice and Participation - K6
Host: Reach Learning Disability
Info: Presented by : Kay Grenwell, Dani Noquet, Tracey Thurlow.
Group participation from: Chelsea, Isobel, Jamie and Lorraine.
Supported by Laura Thorpe, Ann Craft Trust
🕑: 03:30 PM - 04:15 PM
Consent as a Creative Practice - Main Auditorium
Host: Sense Dance Team
Info: With resident Dance Artist Rebecca Randall & Stephanie Tyrell, Sense Consent as a Creative Practice.
Our final keynote explores co-production, leadership and consent through movement and dance. The Sense Dance Team will demonstrate how people can communicate choice, lead others, and express consent using movement, eye gaze, gesture, sound, objects and a total communication approach. This inspiring session highlights how creative practice can support autonomy, participation and safeguarding, placing consent at the heart of every interaction.
🕑: 04:15 PM - 04:30 PM
Conference Reflections - Main Auditorum
Host: Keith Ford
Info: Drawing on his experiences of recovery and poetry, Keith Ford closes the conference with reflections on the day, highlighting key learning, insights and conversations.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 200.00 to GBP 225.00
