Councillors' briefing – Adult Safeguarding 2015

To cover:Legislative frameworkWhat’s changedRoles of key agenciesLocal multi-agency policy and procedures

Jane Elliott Tončić Adult Safeguarding Manager

What is adult safeguarding ?

Work aimed at preventing or stopping abuse and neglect of adults who are at risk of harm.

Policy and practice around safeguarding adults has developed rapidly over the past 14 years as society has become more aware of abuse and neglect in institutions, people’s homes and in the community.

Some of the high profile cases include the deaths of Stephen Hoskin and Gemma Hayter, and investigations into Winterbourne View and Mid Staffs hospitals (links provided)

6 principles of safeguarding adults

Empowerment - Presumption of person led decisions and informed consent.

Protection - Support and representation for those in greatest need.

Prevention - It is better to take action before harm occurs.

Proportionality – Proportionate and least intrusive response appropriate to the risk presented.

Partnership - Local solutions through services working with their communities. Communities have a part to play in preventing, detecting and reporting neglect and abuse.

Accountability - Accountability and transparency in delivering safeguarding

How?

Safeguarding of adults at risk takes place in communities through a number of different factors:

Awareness raising and an absence of tolerance of abuseHealth and Social Care Services and Police responses that are of decent qualityEffective responses to allegations of harmProviding access to services, advocacy, justice and supportUsing learning from Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SARs, the new term for serious case reviews or SCRs) to improve services

Legislation

Unlike for Children’s Safeguarding, up until recently there has been no direct legislation.

Many organisations, including Action on Elder Abuse and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), had for some time called for adult protection to be on a legislative footing, in order that it received equivalent priority

From April 1st 2015, the Care Act 2014 put adult safeguarding on such a legal footing, replacing the ‘No Secrets’ guidance of 2000

What’s Changed - legislation

Under the Care Act 2014, the local authority must:

•make enquiries, or ensure others do so, if it believes an adult is subject to, or at risk of, abuse or neglect

•set up a Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB) with core membership from the local authority, the Police and the NHS (specifically the local Clinical Commissioning Group/s)

•arrange, where appropriate, for an independent advocate to represent and support an adult who has ‘substantial difficulty’ in being involved in the process and where there is no other appropriate adult to help them

•cooperate with each of its relevant partners in order to protect adults experiencing or at risk of abuse or neglect.

Despite calls to the contrary, it provides no powers for the LA to enter a person at risk’s accommodation without permission. This suggests that there are already sufficient powers under current legislation.

Related legislation

• Criminal Justice & Courts Act 2015 – new offences

involving ill treatment or wilful neglect under S 20/21

• The Human Rights Act 1988• The Equality Act 2010• The Mental Capacity Act 2007 (incl. powers of the

Court of Protection)• Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (amended the

MCA 2005)• Mental Health Act 2007• Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004• Youth Justice & Criminal Evidence Act 1999

What’s Changed – terminology and definitions

The term ‘vulnerable adult’ is no longer in use; the preferred term is now

‘adult at risk (of abuse or neglect)’.

Where a local authority has reasonable cause to suspect that an adult in its area (whether or not ordinarily resident there) -

• has needs for care and support (whether or not the authority is meeting any of those needs),

• is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect, and

• as a result of those needs is unable to protect himself or herself against the abuse or neglect or the risk of it

it must follow up any concerns about either actual or suspected abuse. It must make enquiries, or cause others to do so, regardless of whether it is providing any services.

Categories of abuse

Domestic abuse – including violence, psychological, physical, sexual, financial, emotional abuse; so called ‘honour’ based violence, coercion or controlling behaviour

Sexual abuse – including inappropriate looking or touching, sexual teasing or innuendo, sexual photography, subjection to pornography or witnessing sexual acts, or sexual acts to which the adult has not consented or was pressured into consenting

Psychological abuse – including threats of harm or abandonment, deprivation of contact, humiliation, blaming, controlling, intimidation, coercion, harassment, cyber bullying, isolation or unreasonable and unjustified withdrawal of services or supportive networks

Financial or material abuse – including theft, fraud, internet scamming, coercion in relation to an adult’s financial affairs or arrangements, including in connection with wills, property, inheritance or financial transactions, or the misuse or misappropriation of property, possessions or benefits

Modern slavery – encompasses slavery, human trafficking, forced labour, domestic servitude and inhumane treatment

Categories of abuse

Discriminatory abuse – including forms of harassment, slurs or similar treatment; because of race, gender and gender identity, age, disability, sexual orientation or religion

Organisational abuse – including neglect and poor care practice within an institution or specific care setting such as a hospital or care home, or in relation to care provided in one’s own home. This may range from one off incidents to on-going ill-treatment. It can be through neglect or poor professional practice as a result of the structure, policies, processes and practices within an organisation

Neglect and acts of omission – including ignoring medical, emotional or physical care needs, failure to provide access to appropriate health, care and support or educational services, the withholding of the necessities of life, such as medication, adequate nutrition and heating

Self-neglect – this covers a wide range of behaviour; neglecting to care for one’s personal hygiene, health or surroundings, and includes behaviours such as hoarding

What’s changed - practice

Making Safeguarding Personal agenda - a major change in practice in a move away from the process-led, tick box culture

to a person centered approach which aims to achieve the outcomes that people want

‘no decision about me without me’ - the adult, their families and carers work together with agencies to find the right solutions to keep them safe and support them in making informed choices

practice must focus on what the adult wants, which accounts for the possibility that individuals can change their mind on the outcomes they want through the course of the intervention

best practice guidance includes working with someone towards achievable results should their stated desired outcomes be unrealistic

Who is responsible?

Adult safeguarding is everyone’s business. Any person may recognise and report abuse or neglect and everyone can play a part in building communities where abuse does not happen. However, specialist skills are required to investigate.

Guidance calls for all agencies responsible for adult safeguarding to work effectively with each other; i.e. community healthcare providers, CCGs, Health and Wellbeing boards, Children’s and Adult Safeguarding Boards, and Community Safety Partnerships as set up by the Home Office to create links between Police, Local Authorities, Fire, Health and Probation Services, and Healthwatch.

Harm and Abuse

Anyone can be at risk of harm, people may be harmed at home, in their communities, in a care home, at hospital, in college, at work or in community centres.

People who harm adults at risk largely fall into four main categories:

Paid staff members or support workers Family members, partners or carers Friends, neighbours and members of the community People who deliberately exploit adults they perceive as

vulnerable to abuse;

While a lot of attention is paid, for example, to targeted fraud or internet scams perpetrated by complete strangers, it is far more likely that the person responsible for abuse is known to the adult and is in a position of trust and power.

Roles of Key Agencies

Councils - to ensure that they set up a Safeguarding Adults Board, commission services that safeguard individual’s dignity and rights, and respond appropriately to concerns about harm or abuse

Health agencies – to identify abuse, play an important part in monitoring and supporting adults at risk, and participate in the local multi-agency arrangements

Clinical Commissioning Group - to commission and provide independent oversight of services that are safe and that safeguard individual’s dignity and rights, and to work with partner agencies.

Police and Criminal Justice System - to join the multi-agency process, investigate where crime is suspected, and to play a key role in promoting community safety

Roles of key agencies

Care Quality Commission: to register and monitor compliance against essential regulated standards of quality and safety

Providers: to ensure they provide quality services that uphold individual’s dignity and rights, and adhere to safe recruitment guidance

Safeguarding Adults Board: meets quarterly to co-ordinate the delivery of adult safeguarding across agencies

Health and Wellbeing Board: to build strong and effective partnerships, which improve the commissioning and delivery of services across NHS and local government, leading in turn to improved health and wellbeing for local people.

The role of Councillors

As community leaders, championing the wellbeing of your constituents, you are in a position to raise awareness of adult safeguarding. You may become aware of individual cases of abuse through your work with constituents, and have a duty to report it

Councillors, as part of governance, can ask council executives and partner agencies to account for the safety of adults within their area

Nationally, every council will have a Lead Member for Adults Services whose role will be to promote wellbeing, prevent social exclusion and protect adults at risk

SAR (Safeguarding Adults Return)National government requirement

• a collection of data that succeeds the Abuse of Vulnerable Adults (AVA) Return

• Collected by the Health and Social Care Information Centre

• designed to strengthen the information held nationally and locally on the incidence of abuse, supporting local authorities to reduce incidents of abuse and neglect, and to respond appropriately when incidents occur

• more focused on the outcomes of safeguarding activity, supporting local authorities to identify areas for improvement, and enabling the sharing of learning and expertise between councils

Statistics

1 April 2015 - 31 August 2015 (5 months)809 alerts received - annually increasing407 went onto investigation - increasing %

Of which:155 were people 18-64252 over 65

233 Female167 Male

7 were anonymous alerts relating to whole service

Statistics

Location of abuse155 Care Home221 Own Home5 Hospital9 Service in the Community17 Other

Alleged Perpetrator147 Care/Support worker239 Known to person 21 Unknown/stranger

Types of Abuse146 Physical28 Sexual104 Emotional105 Financial183 Neglect20 Discriminatory29 Institutional

Raising a safeguarding concern

If you have witnessed or received a concern about possible abuse or neglect of an adult at risk, report this to the PCC Contact Centre by ringing 668000 to raise a safeguarding concern

This information will be sent to the Retained Function team as a referral, who will gather information and hold a strategy discussion/meeting with key agencies

Priority will be to ensure that an immediate protection plan is in place for the adult at risk

Multi-agency policy and procedures manual

Following our revision of our Adult Safeguarding policy, we commissioned its digitalisation, in line with Children's Services’ arrangements, and the new version went live in November 2013

Public access is gained from our main PCC website: http://www.plymouth.gov.uk/homepage/socialcareandhealth/adultsocialcare/adultsafeguardingboard.htm

Or the policy can be accessed direct: http://plysab.proceduresonline.com

It is arranged in clear ‘chapters’, and is regularly updated on legislation and guidance. There is a facility to register for update alerts by email.

Multi-agency online policy and procedures manual:

Further training

We deliver several courses in conjunction with Plymouth Safeguarding Adults Board (PSAB) including:

Level 1 Alerter’s training: aimed at staff across the city who have contact with adults at risk

Level 2 Practitioners training: aimed at staff who undertake safeguarding enquiries

Registered Managers training: aimed at registered managers of provider services

All training is multi-agency and reflects learning from Safeguarding Adult Reviews, current legislation and guidance

Further details: http://www.plymouth.gov.uk/homepage/socialcareandhealth/adultsocialcare/adultsafeguardingboard/asbprofessionals/asbadultprotectiontraining.htm

Email: ascadultprotection@plymouth.gov.uk

Tel: 01752 306360

Useful information

Care and Support Statutory Guidance issued under the Care Act 2014, Dept. of Health (Safeguarding Pages 229- 259): https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/315993/Care-Act-Guidance.pdf

PSAB multi-agency policy and procedures: http://plysab.proceduresonline.com/

PCC Adult safeguarding leaflet – can be downloaded and printed: http://www.plymouth.gov.uk/safeguarding_adults_leaflet.pdf

Think Jessica http://www.thinkjessica.com : campaign to protect elderly and vulnerable people from 'scams' and exploitation

Prevent Strategy (2011) : part of the government's counter- terrorism strategy, aimed at preventing radicalisation of vulnerable people

Expected soon: RiPfA Safeguarding guide for Cllrs

Serious Case Reviews and reports

DoH (2012) Transforming Care: a national response to Winterbourne View hospital

Francis Inquiry (2013) report on failings at Mid Staffordshire Hospital

Cornwall County Council (2007) The Murder of Stephen Hoskin SCR

Warwickshire County Council (2011) The Murder of Gemma Hayter SCR

MENCAP (2007) Death by Indifference

Councillors' briefing – Adult Safeguarding November 2015

Thank you for listening.Any further questions?