Radical Safeguarding – an anti-oppressive perspective on responding to homelessness

In Victorian Britain, most disabled people and those who needed support were confined to the degradation of the workhouse, indeterminate stays in squalid institutions or left to beg for pity on the streets of our towns and cities.

Although their names may be offensive to us now, self-organised radical groups such as the Guild of the Brave Poor Things and The Birmingham and District Union of Cripples used military imagery and the language of workers rights to fight for the ‘radical’ notion that disabled people were people, deserving of safety, care and opportunity. In doing so, they achieved educational reforms, challenged harmful institutional practices and shaped early ideas of human rights. This history shows us how social justice movements, viewed as radical by many at the time, have always shaped services and support for adults with care and support needs.

Since the 1960’s, anti-psychiatry activists and campaigners fought for an end to asylums and the widespread use of practices such electro-shock therapy. Their activism secured ‘care in the community’ and a range of other welfare rights.

In the final two decades of the 20^th century, disabled activists, people living with HIV (groups such as ACT-UP in the US, and Positive East in the UK) and people experiencing addiction (Recovery Pride and Alcoholics Anonymous) used civil disobedience, protest and radical media campaigning to demand an end to discrimination, to forced hospitalisation, and towards person-centred care and legally enshrined rights and protections.

In 1995, the UK government introduced the Disability Discrimination Act, the first of its kind in the country, in response to decades of this radical activism. These rights are now embedded in the legislation that informs adults social care practice; the Care Act 2014, the Equality Act 2010 and the Human Rights Act 1998. From this we can see that what seemed radical at one point in history goes on to appear normal, natural and undisputable in years to come.

Just like the radical campaigners and reformers in the past, modern social justice movements, such as Black Lives Matter and Me Too, continue this radical tradition of social change. Their work invites us to imagine a world in which systemic harm and violence are no more. In highlighting and challenging how systemic inequality plays out through police and state violence, these movements demand that public institutions commit to tackling racism, patriarchy and ableism, and that they reckon with the ways that statutory systems and practices cause harm themselves. In popularising anti-oppressive thinking, movements like Black Lives Matter offer a radical lens to look at how we safeguard people affected by homelessness. Their work helps us to see that the causes, effects and consequences of homelessness are rooted in racism, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia.

Systemic change is about more than individual behaviour and practice; this kind of transformation requires collective action and widespread social, political and economic change. Nonetheless, as radical social care and homelessness practitioners, we can adopt perspectives and ways of working that make an important contribution. By expanding definitions, responding to the intersecting experiences of the people we support and pushing at the limits of our knowledge and insight, we can birth an anti-oppressive approach to safeguarding that recognises and resists systemic harm.

Radical change can often feel uncomfortable and challenging. Anti-oppressive practice shines a light on our attitudes, prejudices and decisions. In doing this, it asks us to acknowledge that we may have inadvertently caused or contributed to harm affecting the people we seek to protect. Anti-oppressive practitioners look at their own identities and life experiences and reflect on how these inform their viewpoints and the decisions they make at work. They adopt principles of solidarity, accountability and autonomy in their work. This can be tough going, but it’s also empowering and growthful – especially if we do it together.

With that in mind, and inspired by the pioneering work of Maslaha, a small group of practitioners with lived experience of homelessness, state violence and social care have started working on a Radical Safeguarding Toolkit for practitioners working with adults affected by homelessness.

Our hope is that the toolkit is a practical guide for people who want to embed anti-oppressive practice into their work, and that it offers a different and at times challenging perspective on ideas of safety, harm and agency in relation to vulnerable people affected by homelessness.