Agendas, Meetings and Minutes - Agenda item

Agenda item

Worcestershire Safeguarding Adults Board

Minutes:

Kathy McAteer, the Independent Chairman of the Board, explained that it was a statutory requirement of the Care Act to have a Safeguarding Adults Board and publish an Annual Report.  The Board had a 3 year plan which ended in March 2018.

 

The Board's priorities were;

·       Improving Communication – with actions such as developing a website,

·       The Mental Capacity Act – to gain assurance that agencies had delivered training and that practice was becoming more consistent,

·       Listening to adults with care and support needs - it is a care act requirement that the adult should be at the centre of the process,

·       Cross Cutting Work with other Boards – Safeguarding Children's Board, HWB and also Community Safety Partnership,

·       Working with Partners to understand risks to Adults – ensuring the right information was being collected and spreading knowledge gained from safeguarding adults reviews,

·       Increasing community awareness – prevention strategy launched.

 

The foundations were in place to meet all the statutory functions and no major risks were identified. Some areas of work had slipped, but targets should be achieved by the end of the year. The main problem was the lack of capacity in terms of personal able and willing to serve on the Safeguarding Board and its sub groups.

 

5 Reviews had been started – 1 completed and published and 4 still in progress.  Some Boards had not carried out any reviews but it was good to get referrals from other agencies. The Worcestershire conversion rate (concerns being converted into full enquiries) was improving and was currently at 20% (the national benchmark was 25%).

 

Most abuse happened within peoples own homes and was carried out by people known to the adults involved. Most were elderly women and it was known there was an under-reporting from Asian groups.

 

The safeguarding board were assured that making care personal was being embedded in policies and practice at the County Council although they were less assured that it was happening in other organisations.

 

There were 4 key areas of focus for the future:

·       Improve awareness of professionals and the public as to what safeguarding is,

·       Create a reference group to listen to service users,

·       Seeking assurance from partners around mental capacity

·       Work with the Safeguarding Children's Board on transitions

 

In the ensuing discussion it was clarified that:

 

·       There were shortfalls in capacity to deliver the functions of the Board rather than shortfalls in the capacity to deliver services around safeguarding,

·       It was difficult to compare the numbers of cases to the numbers seen before the introduction of the Care Act as definitions had changed,

·       It was thought that the number of 2400 individual cases was quite high. There was a triage system which assessed whether the report was a safeguarding issue but professionals did not want to discourage people from reporting concerns,

·       Reports of concerns about home care and residential care should be dealt with when commissioners dealt with the quality of services although the Safeguarding Board would look for patterns of concerns. There was a link between safeguarding and quality assurance as concerns about quality could be an early warning sign of safeguarding issues,

·       The deprivation of liberty standards was a concern for the Council and was an expensive but un-costed burden,

·       Safeguarding concerns about vulnerable and homeless people should be picked up by the agencies who had contact with them. The Board was looking to improve its links with the housing sector,

·       There was still work to do to get service user engagement on the Board. An advert would be put in the press in order to attract people to the Board,

·       The Health and Well-being Board was addressing the issue of homelessness firstly through the refreshed JSNA which recognised homelessness as an emerging theme and secondly through inviting a housing representative to sit on the Board,

·       It was pointed out by a District Councillor that they did not know what services were available for homeless and vulnerable people and would appreciate more information.

 

RESOLVED that the Health and Well-being Board agreed to consider any cross cutting themes and to refer issues either directly to the Safeguarding Board or through the next joint Cross Cutting Issues meeting to be held between the Chairs of the four Boards.

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