Fraud awareness poster wins national award
The work of Carmarthenshire Trading Standards to support the wellbeing of vulnerable people has been recognised with a national public health award. A poster illustrating the team’s innovative Financial Exploitation Safeguarding Scheme (FESS) won the top award at the Wales Public Health Conference earlier this month. FESS works not only to prevent fraud and identify victims but also protects them from further exploitation by putting a range of measures in place from social care and housing teams. It also forms part of an academic research project undertaken with Cardiff University to evaluate Trading Standards Interventions from a health and social care perspective. Evidence has already linked the experience or threat of fraud to ill health – in particular mental health, with many older victims suffering from emotional, social and medical stresses. Left unattended, this can often lead to increased burdens on health and social care services. The Carmarthenshire Trading Standards team ...