Issue - meetings

Kathy McAteer the Independent Chairman of the Worcestershire Safeguarding Adults Board presented the Annual Report for 2014/15.

The following main points were made:

·         The Board had been preparing to ensure that they were compliant with the Care Act. This included improving the Board Governance with a new constitution and Board Structure.

·         Achievements included improved engagement with carers and service users, increased public awareness and development of a new multi-agency Mental Capacity Competency Framework.

·         The number of alerts received had increased but the number moving on to referral or on to case conferences had reduced. New multi-agency Threshold Guidance had been introduced with screened out lower level concerns and enabled improved consistency of decision making,

·         Data trends showed that there had been some under-reporting for minority ethnic groups which was equal to national trends; physical abuse and neglect were the most frequent sort of abuse and data was starting to be collected on self-neglect cases.

·         Independent sector referrals had increased by 13% which was partly as a result of public awareness after the Winterbourne View Inquiry. Referrals now averaged 50 per week which was in line with the national figure.

·         A new risk assessment process had been put in place and the Council had increased the resources available.

·         Strategic Objectives had been developed around key roles and functions.

·         The Board was committed to Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs but changes to the system would be called in and scrutinised at their next meeting. They were also assessing whether agencies had competencies with deprivation of liberty safeguards.

·         Priorities for 2015/16 had been developed and future annual reports would focus on reporting on the delivery of the Strategic Plan as well as having a shorter summary and easy read versions.

Richard Harling thanked Kathy for the work she had done to ensure the Safeguarding Board was prepared for the Care Act.

RESOLVED that the Health and Well-being Board considered the cross cutting themes and would refer issues either directly to the Board or through the next Joint Cross Cutting Issues meeting to be held between the Chairs of the Four Boards.