In the last few weeks we have run a workshop at a regional public protection conference and held our own at the University of Stirling. These attracted practitioners from housing, NHS, social work and voluntary organisations. We were assisted by one or two of our older people co- researchers; and this added a richness to the discussion.

Good questions for discussion groups

At the public protection workshop we posed two questions.

• What does safety mean to you?

• How might this change as you get older?

These helped attendees to reflect on how their own ideas of safety had already changed as they moved from teenage years into their twenties, if they became a parent etc. So two good questions for anyone wishing to explore this in their teams or training sessions.

Talking about safety

A third sector worker commented that sometimes people are more anxious after safety talks than before. An over emphasis on stranger danger can leave some people feeling more vulnerable.

One of our co-researchers reflected on the advice given about door security. There was a feeling that safety advisers don’t always appreciate, or listen closely to the different perspectives of the person they are visiting. Here are some of other things we discussed around door safety:

• What are the pros and cons of Yale locks?

• Where do you site an emergency call button when you have curious grandchildren?

• Sometimes it is easier to keep the front door unlocked when there are carers coming in and out.

• It’s all very well being safely locked in but can you get out quickly if you needed too?

• Just how safe is a key safe?

Practitioners discussing safety and vulnerability

Two key learning points from the second and longer workshop with practitioners:

1. There are still tensions, or perhaps stereo types, between NHS workers as referrers and local authority staff as gatekeepers of limited resources that colour workshop discussions.
2. There can be an underlying emotional engagement in any discussion around older people, safety and vulnerability. Some attendees talked about their own parents and their efforts to support them and keep them safe. There can be emotional responses, spoken or unspoken, between those who had such experiences and those who perhaps had not and had more of a focus on their gate-keeping role in health and social care services.

Cultural and generational, as well as personal factors, colour how practitioners view family responsibilities and rights to services.