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Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board

Annual Report 2013 - 2014

If any person needs to report a safeguarding adults concern they should ring:

• Adult Care Access and Enablement Service: 0300 303 8886

Mon-Fri 8am – 4.45pm; except Bank Holidays

• Adult Care Emergency Duty Team: 0300 303 8875 at all other times.

Alternatively, in a non emergency, they can email, leaving contact details:

• [email protected]

If any person needs to report a crime:

• Non-emergency police number: 101

• In an emergency, dial 999

If any person would like advice in relation to a safeguarding adults concern, they may ring:

• Adult Care Access and Enablement Service on 0300 303 8886 and ask for the Safeguarding Duty Officer (Office Hours, Mon-Fri)

If any person needs advice about a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) concern, they may ring:

• Adult Care Access and Enablement Service on 0300 303 8886 and ask for the MCA Coordinator (Office hours Mon-Fri) or email [email protected]

If any person needs more information about Safeguarding Adults, Mental Capacity Act or Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) they can obtain further information from the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board website: www.safeguarding4rochdale.com

Important Contact Details

2 Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board

Foreword 4

Executive Summary 5

Local Safeguarding Adults Board (RBSAB) 6

National Context 8

Local Achievements and Developments 11

Sub Group Reports 15Training and Workforce Development sub group Safeguarding Adults and Practice Excellence Review sub group Communications and Publicity Sub group Quality Assurance and Performance sub group MCA/DoLS Advisory Group Dignity Champions

Safeguarding Activity Data 2013-14 18

Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (MCA DoLS) 22

Partnership Organisation Reports 25 Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group Pennine Acute Hospital Trust Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service Greater Manchester Police Rochdale Boroughwide Housing Adult Care, RMBC Age UK Metro Rochdale Rochdale and District MIND Healthwatch Greater Manchester Probation Service

Priorities for 2014-15 40

Appendix i 42 Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board Communications sub-group Communications Strategy 2014

Appendix ii 53 Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board Strategic Action Plan 2013/14

Appendix iii 61 Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board Strategic Action Plan 2014/15

Appendix iv 66 Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board Strategy and Action Plan 2013-2016

Important Contact Details Contents

3Annual Report 2013 - 2014

Foreword

It is the Board’s intention that the following pages give an insight into the work surrounding Adult Safeguarding in Rochdale by highlighting the achievements and the progress made in the protection of adults at risk and the strategies in place to react when the abuse and neglect is reported to the authorities.

One of my responsibilities as Chair is to ensure that all organisations and individuals work together in true partnership and I hold each to account. This is not a Council Board - they are just one of several partners coming together to address the issues and this report will inform the reader as to whom the other partners are and the role they all play.

I am satisfied that a partnership approach exists to safeguard adults in Rochdale.

Adult abuse and neglect continues to be in the headlines, which it is sad because it should not happen, yet I’m pleased that as a community we are now recognising adult abuse and more likely than ever to report it. We are no longer prepared to accept when standards slip and quite rightly we demand change and improvement. It has to be said that some abuse or neglect is caused by accident or by genuine mistake and error and is not deliberate. However some of it is and is clearly criminal. No matter what the cause or reason it is not acceptable and that is the core business of the Board.

The past 12 months has seen additional resources allocated to Adult Safeguarding in Rochdale and I am pleased this need was recognised and I thank those responsible for ensuring this has been addressed. We continue to learn the lessons from real life cases both locally and nationally, hopefully informing us so as not to allow a replication where things have gone wrong. We recognise we don’t have all the answers and by sharing ideas and different approaches we learn together. We are working towards making safeguarding personal, providing better outcomes for the individual who is at the centre of everything we do within the Borough.

2014 will see the Royal assent of the Care Act, which will impact on Health and Social Care and the way they work together. It also introduces statutory legislation for the Adult Safeguarding Boards and provides fresh up to date guidance, advice and better ‘tools’ supporting ‘our work’. We will continue to have a local approach, however by being given better tools, we will be aiming to improve the situation for those most at risk of abuse and neglect.

As last year, I again take this opportunity to publically thank all those working within the field of adult safeguarding in Rochdale. I know they make a difference, often working with complex and difficult cases and without their dedication I know we would be in a different place.

Please be assured we are working together and I conclude:

“Adult Safeguarding needs to be everyone’s responsibility”

As Independent Chair of Rochdale Borough Adult Safeguarding Board I am pleased to introduce our Annual Report for 2013/14 and welcome all readers.


Andy Searle, Independent Chair

Foreword Executive Summary

This year has seen major changes to our Health partners, with the abolition of Strategic Health Authorities and Primary Care Trusts and the creation of the Clinical Commissioning Groups, NHS England and Healthwatch. The responsibility for Public Health moved to Local Authorities.

The Supreme Court judgement on Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards in March 2014, the publication of the Confidential Enquiry into the Premature Deaths of People with Learning Disabilities (CIPOLD) and the Winterbourne enquiry have all influenced the work of RBSAB this year. RBSAB has been ensuring that it will be compliant with the expectations in the Care Act, which in the next few months will be given Royal Assent, to come into effect in 2015. All this has been set against the backdrop of public sector reform and the effects of the Government’s austerity measures.

It has been a busy year for the Board with the creation of the Safeguarding Adults Business Unit, the re-launch of the Partnership Forum, the Workforce Development sub-group resuming its meetings and the launch of the RBSAB newsletter.

A Learning the Lessons review has been completed and recommendations for multi-agency improvements across the partnership have been made. A Safeguarding Adult Review and a Learning the Lessons Review have been commissioned and will take place in early 2014/15.

As last year, we include case studies in this Report to help demonstrate the work of those involved in Adult Safeguarding and the changes to people’s lives these interventions bring.

The Board has a busy year ahead ensuring that the expectations of the Care Act are met. The next year will see the launch of the RBSAB website, the organisation of a joint Children’s/ Adults Safeguarding event, the production of new publicity material and the implementation of a quality assurance framework to help gauge and improve the effectiveness of the Board and its partners.

Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board (RBSAB) is a partnership of organisations that aims to safeguard vulnerable adults who are aged 18 years and over. It agrees policies and strategies to strengthen partnership working, helping us to increase our capacity to prevent abuse and neglect and it promotes the safeguarding interests of vulnerable adults.


Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board (RBSAB)

The purpose of the Board is to protect Adults at Risk who are defined as vulnerable by the “No Secrets” Guidance and has a key role in promoting the wider government agenda that Safeguarding is the responsibility of everyone. The Board has overall governance on the policy, practice and implementation of Safeguarding as well as leading and promoting the responsibility for safeguarding across all agencies and stakeholders.

The scope of the Board also encompasses the provision of support under the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

The Board has an Independent Chair, Andy Searle, whose prime duty is to ensure that agencies work together to safeguard adults at risk. Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board meets at least four times a year and has a number of sub groups. The day-to-day activities of safeguarding leads in all partner organisations also support the programme of work.

The Board has membership from the following statutory and voluntary sectors:

• Rochdale Borough Metropolitan Council (RMBC)

• NHS Heywood Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group

• Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust

• Pennine Acute Health Trust (PAHT)

• Greater Manchester Police (Rochdale Division)

• Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS)

• Greater Manchester Probation Trust

• HM Prison Buckley Hall

• Rochdale and District Mind

• Age UK

• Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH)

• Rochdale Care Home Association

• Healthwatch

• Elected Member representation

Representatives commit their agency involvement to the Board through the Board’s membership agreement. The commitment of our partners during 2013/4 has been consistent.

The Board aims:

• to work together to promote the prevention and protection of adults at risk of abuse by making sound strategic decisions and ensure that effective systems and processes are in place

• to determine and implement policy, ensure training is appropriate and monitor performance in Safeguarding

• to ensure that the continued development of services empower and support people to make their own choices and that interventions are proportionate and the least intrusive response to the risk presented

• to coordinate good practice and learning and to raise awareness of Safeguarding to the general public to create a safer community for all.

• to be accountable and transparent by making the function and work of the Board accessible to all.

• for Board Members to give assurance that the organisation that they represent is held accountable to the Board for all matters relating to safeguarding vulnerable adults and to recommend ways to implement necessary changes within their organisation

These aims form the basis of the RBSAB Strategic Work plan, which is being achieved by the work of Board’s sub groups of the Board, whose membership includes representatives across all the organisations on the Board.

The Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board (RBSAB) is a partnership constituted under the Department of Health guidance: ‘No Secrets’ (March 2000).


Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board (RBSAB)

Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board Structure


Quality Assurance & Performance Group

Chair: Karen McCormick (NHS HMR CCG)

Workforce Development GroupChair: Fiona Nuttall

(RMBC Organisational Development)

Safeguarding Adults Review & Practice Excellence GroupChair: Jane Timson

(RMBC, Head of Safeguarding &

Practice Assurance)

Communition & Publicity Group

Chair: Tricia Hornby (Rochdale & District

Mind)

Partnership Forum

MCA/DoLS Advisory Group

Rochdale Borough Children’s

Safeguarding Board

Health and Wellbeing Board

Rochdale Safer Communities Partnership

Cabinet: Audit & Safeguarding

Committee

National Context

Clinical Commissioning Groups

As part of the reforms brought in by the Health and Social Care Act (2012), all Primary Care Trusts and Strategic Health Authorities were abolished on 31st March 2013. Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) were established in their place, which are now the cornerstone of the new health system. All GP practices belong now to a CCG. The CCGs also include other health professionals, such as nurses. CCGs commission most health services, including:

• planned hospital care

• rehabilitative care

• urgent and emergency care (including out-of-hours)

• most community health services

• mental health and learning disability services

CCGs can commission any service provider that meets NHS standards and costs. These can be NHS hospitals, social enterprises, charities, or private sector providers. Locally, the Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale CCG has been created and are new partners on the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board.

At the same time the NHS Commissioning Board became NHS England. Its role is to:

• provide national leadership for improving outcomes and driving up the quality of care

• oversee the operation of clinical commissioning groups

• allocate resources to clinical commissioning groups

• commission primary care and specialist services

New Public Health responsibilities of Local Authorities

As part of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 a wide range of local public health and health improvement services moved from the NHS to become a responsibility of Local Authorities. This has been because of Local Authorities’:

• population focus

• ability to shape services to meet local needs

• ability to influence wider social causes of health and ill-health

• ability to tackle health inequalities.

These new responsibilities require Local Authorities to take the lead for improving health and coordinating local efforts to protect the public’s health and wellbeing, and ensuring health services effectively promote population health.

The new responsibilities also include commissioning such services as smoking cessation services, alcohol and drug misuse services, locally-led nutrition initiatives, increasing levels of physical activity in the local population and public mental health services.

Healthwatch

April 2013 also saw the creation of Local Healthwatch, which took on the work of the Local Involvement Networks (LINks) and also:

• Represents the views of people who use services, carers and the public on the Health and Wellbeing boards set up by local authorities.

• Provides a complaints advocacy service to support people who make a complaint about services

Local Healthwatch plays a valuable role in supporting the work of Safeguarding Adults Boards. Information gathered by Local Healthwatch from the first-hand experiences of members of the public, the complaints advocacy service and statistical surveys help Safeguarding Adults Boards to understand local peoples’ understanding of abuse, adult protection and safeguarding. This guides the preventative and awareness-raising work of the Board and supports it in questioning and holding other agencies to account.

Care Act (2014)

The Care Act (2014) will receive Royal Assent in May 2014. It will come into effect in 2015.

In relation to safeguarding, the Care Act will do the following:

• Make safeguarding adults boards statutory;

• Make safeguarding enquiries a duty for councils;

• Make safeguarding adults reviews compulsory when certain triggers have occurred;

• Place duties on agencies to co-operate over the supply of information;

• Place a duty on councils to fund advocacy for assessment and safeguarding for people who do not have anyone else to speak up for them;

2013 -14 has seen a number of important national developments which have, or will, impact significantly on Adult Safeguarding.


• Abolish councils’ power to remove people from insanitary conditions under section 47 of the National Assistance Act;

• Re-enact existing duties to protect people’s property when in residential care or hospital;

• Ensure openness and transparency from providers about failings in hospital and care settings, and create a new offence for providers of supplying false or misleading information.

The Act puts Adult Safeguarding on a statutory footing for the first time. Until now, Safeguarding has been guided by the non-statutory policy directive No Secrets (2000) together with a combination of common law, local authority guidance and statute law.

We believe our current RBSAB membership and the work undertaken by the Board meets the broad requirements specified by the Care Act, such as the requirements to produce an annual strategic plan and business report, and the conducting of safeguarding adults reviews (previously called serious case reviews) when appropriate. The Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board is therefore well placed to meet the challenges and requirements of the Act.

Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards – Supreme Court Judgement

A significant change in the criteria for Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) has come into effect this year, following a ruling by the Supreme Court. On 19 March 2014, the Court handed down its judgment in the case of “P v Cheshire West and Chester Council and another” and “P and Q v Surrey County Council”. This has become widely known as the ‘Cheshire West ruling’. The Supreme Court ruled that there is a deprivation of liberty for the purposes of Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights in the following circumstances:

The person is under continuous supervision and control and is not free to leave, and the person lacks capacity to consent to these arrangements.

The Court ruled that the person’s compliance or lack of objection to their placement, the purpose of it or the extent to which it enables them to live a relatively normal life for someone with their level of disability were all irrelevant to whether they were deprived of their liberty.

The implications of this ruling are that there are significantly more people who are now considered to be deprived of their liberty, and therefore Local Authorities face a sharp rise in DoLS authorisation requests. This poses a substantial challenge for statutory authorities in terms of resources to meet this new requirement.

These challenges are against the backdrop of a critical report issued by a House of Lords committee in March

2014, stating that the Mental Capacity Act is not fit for purpose. After a nine-month enquiry, the report concluded that social workers, healthcare professionals and others involved in the care of vulnerable adults were not sufficiently aware of the Mental Capacity Act, and were failing to implement it. The Committee also recommended that the DoLS be replaced with legislation that is in keeping with the language and ethos of the Mental Capacity Act as a whole.

Winterbourne View and the Confidential Enquiry into the Premature Deaths of People with Learning Disabilities (CIPOLD)

The BBC Panorama programme “Undercover Care: The Abuse Exposed” shown on 31st May 2011 exposed violent abuse of residents with learning disabilities at Winterbourne View hospital in Bristol. Eleven employees were subsequently prosecuted and convicted. The programme sparked widespread public outrage and led to a range of reviews, actions and investigations.

In December 2012, the Department of Health published a final report into the events at Winterbourne View (Transforming Care: A National Response to Winterbourne View Hospital - Final Report), setting out a programme of action to transform services.

In January 2013, the NHS Commissioning Board and the Local Government Association established the Winterbourne View Joint Improvement Board. The Board will work to ensure the implementation of the commitments identified in the Department of Health’s final report, and support the delivery of change and reform in this area.

The CIPOLD study (Confidential Enquiry into the Premature Deaths of People with Learning Disabilities), led by academics at the University of Bristol and funded by the Department of Health, investigated the extent of premature death in people with learning disabilities and offered guidance on prevention. The findings showed that people with learning disabilities are more likely to have a premature death than those in the general population.

The report, which was published in March 2013, highlighted the unacceptable situation in which people with learning disabilities die on average 16 years earlier than the general population. Up to a third of the deaths of people with learning disabilities were from causes that could have been prevented with good quality healthcare. The Inquiry made a series of recommendations including identifying people with learning disabilities in healthcare records, the principle of auditing the provision of reasonable adjustments, having a named health care coordinator for people with complex or multiple health needs, and patient held health records for patients with learning disabilities who have multiple health conditions.


National Context

Public Service Reform – opportunities and challenges

In July 2011, Government published the Open Public Services White Paper setting out its public service reform programme, through increasing choice, opening services up to a wider range of providers, devolving decision making to the lowest appropriate level and improving transparency and accountability of public services. The context for this reform is that the current model of public services is no longer affordable. Local Authorities have seen significant year on year reductions to their budgets, despite experiencing increased demand for public services and an increased public expectation about the quality of services. Local Authorities have had to cut services and Social Services have had to raise the threshold when people can receive services.

This has created the need for leaner, more efficient public sector Local Authorities, Rochdale included, are therefore driving transformational change and redesign of services by developing new partnerships and ways of working.

Integrated Care – Better Care Fund

The £3.8 billion Integration Transformation Fund (now called the Better Care Fund) was announced by the Government in the June 2013 Spending Round, to ensure a transformation in integrated health and social care. The Better Care Fund is a single pooled budget to support health and social care services to work more closely together in local areas based on a plan agreed between the NHS and local authorities. The Fund not only brings together NHS and Local Government resources, but also provides an opportunity to improve services and value for money by shifting resources from acute services into community and preventative settings It will help to address pressures on services and lay the foundations for a more integrated system of health and care delivered at scale and pace.

Welfare Reforms

The past year has seen the Government continue their agenda of welfare reform. These reforms include:

• Housing Benefit – Under occupancy, commonly known as the ‘Bedroom Tax’

• Housing Benefit - Direct Payments to tenants

• Abolition of Council Tax Benefit and new Council Tax Reduction Scheme

• Abolishment of the Social Fund – Crisis Loans and Community Care Grants

• Benefit Cap

• Personal Independence Payments

• Universal Credit

• The Universal Credit Support Services Framework: support for vulnerable claimants

The reform agenda, combined with economic circumstances, has seen the rise in the number of referrals to food banks and has made many people who are on low-pay or reliant on benefits more vulnerable to debt.


Local Achievements and Developments

Abuse of people who have or may be in need of care and support services is prevented wherever possible.

This year, the Board have developed their links with Rochdale Safer Communities Partnership (RSCP) to ensure that there is improved practice in recognising the links between hate crime and safeguarding. RSCP are leading on a work plan to raise awareness about reporting hate crime, including disability and mate crime and are reinvigorating the role of third party reporting centres to encourage more individuals to report hate crime. RSCP have also trained around 700 frontline workers in the identification of door step crime and loan sharks. This work will continue on an annual basis. Work has also been undertaken to better understand the different groups of adults at risk and the type of responses that will best meet their needs with two specific projects completed for older people and men.

The board have also improved their links with the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children’s Board and a task and finish group has been set up to look at transition pathways for young people in need of support to ensure these are in place to meet the needs of all young people.

The Board is in the process of ensuring that robust Information Sharing Protocols are in place between all partners to ensure that information is shared in a timely and helpful fashion.

People in Rochdale understand what Adult Safeguarding is all about:

a. Communicationb. Awareness-raisingc. How to make alerts

RBSAB have developed a comprehensive communications strategy to improve safeguarding awareness and promote the work of the Board, which can be found in Appendix 1.

The first edition of the RBSAB newsletter “Safeguarding Matters” was launched in Spring 2014 and will be published quarterly. It is already circulated to over 700 individuals and organisations, many of whom distribute it more widely to their colleagues. The newsletter carries news of the Board’s activities, keeps readers up-to-date with legislation and national initiatives and developments. Each issue features a member or an advisor to the Board to help people understand roles and responsibilities and how the Board operates.

For 2013 -14, the Board agreed six outcomes it wished to achieve:

• Abuse of people who have or may be in need of care and support services is prevented wherever possible.

• People in Rochdale understand what Adult Safeguarding is all about:

a. Communication

b. Awareness-raising

c. How to make alerts

• Adults at risk are protected from harm in a way that respects their individual circumstances

• Staff and volunteers have a good understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities and put them into practice.

• Partnerships work together and are held to account.

• We will listen to others to improve continually

Developments on each of these outcomes are as follows:

1

Safeguarding Matters

Welcome to the fi rst edition of the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board newsletter.

In this issue:

As a person involved with adults at risk, in a working or caring capacity, you may fi nd this newsletter useful as a regular resource of updates in legislation and training offered to enhance your knowledge and confi dence in this area.

As this is a new publication we welcome your feedback, views and any suggested ideas for content.

Feel free to share this newsletter with your colleagues and anyone else you think would fi nd this informative.

We hope you fi nd this newsletter useful and that it helps you understand some of the local and national issues in relation to adult safeguarding.

This quarterly newsletter has been created as a way of disseminating news and learning on behalf of the Adult Safeguarding Board and aims to raise awareness for everyone who has an interest in safeguarding and wishes to develop their knowledge and understanding of this issue.

Spring 2O14, issue 1

RBSAB news 2

Who’s who – Andy Searle 3

New Code of Conduct and 4National Minimum Training Standards

Dignity action day 5

Draft modern slavery bill 5

Introducing Silverline 6

Recruiting ex-offenders 6

Training courses 7

Voice of the child DVD 8

Inquiry into unsafe discharge 8

Prevent update 9

Care Bill update 9

Red tape challenges 10

Statement on 10adult safeguarding

Report a concern 11



The Board continues to raise awareness of adult safeguarding by publicising and encouraging participation in national events such as Dignity Action Day and World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, as well as having representation at local events such as ‘Day of Action’, which took place at St Joseph’s Church, Heywood on 7th March 2014 and provided the RBSAB an opportunity to work in partnership with Greater Manchester Police and other local agencies to enable local communities to have a say about their local environment, as well as promoting what is being done to tackle anti-social behaviour and promoting how people can keep themselves safe.

A logo has been created for the Board. This helps establish the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board as an independent body and will be used on all published literature and on multi-agency policy and procedures.

Work also started on the RBSAB website, which is aimed at members of the public as well as professionals and will be launched in 2014.

Adults at risk are protected from harm in a way that respects their individual circumstances

A comprehensive review of the RBSAB Safeguarding Adults at Risk Multi-Agency Policy and Procedures is currently underway which will reflect the new Care Act guidance and will have an outcome focus. Safeguarding processes are being changed to ‘Make Safeguarding Personal’, to ensure that the individual

is at the centre of any safeguarding intervention and is supported to achieve their stated outcomes.

A multi-agency threshold guidance protocol for professionals has been developed and rolled out, to ensure that responses to safeguarding alerts are consistent and are proportionate to the level of risk identified.

Staff and volunteers have a good understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities and put them into practice

February 2014 saw the first of a series of training sessions for Elected Members, ensuring that Councillors are fully briefed on Adult Safeguarding and their responsibilities. In total around 30 Councillors attended the training and more training is planned later in the year following the local elections, to brief newly Elected Members.

In 2013-14, Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council’s Organisational Development team have run 67 Adult Safeguarding related courses, attracting nearly 950 attendees from with Rochdale Adult Care and the private, voluntary and independent sector, as shown below.

Safeguarding Adult 2013-14 Figures

Training 1 April 2013 - 31st March 2014

Rochdale MBC

Day of Action – Adult Safeguarding social worker Stephen Watson joins other organisations in helping make a safer community.

Course Name No of No of courses attendees

Safeguarding Adults Alerter training 14 200

Safeguarding Adults Independent Chair 1 12

Safeguarding Adults

Investigation training 0 0

Safeguarding Adults Train the Trainer 3 31

Dignity & Principles of Care 3 31

MCA/DOLS 8 149

MCA 8 124

Duty of Care & Mental Capacity 1 13

Totals 38 560


Course Name No of No of courses attendees

Safeguarding Adults Training 14 183

Safeguarding Adults for Managers 1 12

MCA 8 106

DOLS 6 81

Totals 29 382

A Quality Assurance Framework is now in place and will focus on the following:

• Develop effective training and development strategy

• Receive and review performance reports which include response times and outcomes.

• Ensure staff involved in adult safeguarding are legally literate

• Board to receive and consider regular analysis of usage of the Mental Capacity Act

• Board to seek assurance that partner agencies have audited staff training needs and delivered against those audits.

• Board to use agreed competency based frameworks to support leaders and managers in ensuring workforce is appropriately developed

• Safeguarding training at all levels to include positive risk taking

Partnerships work together and are held to account

In late 2013 the Adult Safeguarding Business Unit was established in Rochdale to support the work of the Board. This comprises a part time Quality Assurance Officer, a Development Worker and an Administrative Assistant. The business unit helps to ensure the work of the Board and its four sub-groups is carried out effectively and in full. The Quality Assurance Officer is responsible for establishing and implementing a Quality Assurance framework for Adult Safeguarding. The Development Officer is involved in event planning, website development and forming ways to engage with hard to reach groups and service user involvement. The Admin Officer provides administrative support to all aspects of the Adult Safeguarding Board.

This year RBSAB has forged strong links with the newly created NHS Heywood Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group and with Rochdale Healthwatch.

To strengthen the Board’s relationship with the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children’s Board, the Children’s Service Manager with responsibility for the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children’s Board Safeguarding Unit joined the Board in 2013. Reciprocally the Interim Assistant Director for Adult Care represents the Adult Board at the RBSCB Strong links have been maintained with the Rochdale Safer Communities Partnership and again there is a reciprocal membership arrangement for the two boards.

The RBSAB Annual Report was presented to the Health and Well Being Board (HWBB) in September 2013 and two HWBB members are also members of RBSAB. The Annual Report was also presented to the Audit and Safeguarding Committee and Formal Cabinet of the Council.

This year, RBSAB published its strategy which will be refreshed with an annual action plan, which can be found at www.safeguarding4rochdale.com

This year, each RBSAB partner organisation completed a detailed Safeguarding Self Assessment to ensure all organisations were fulfilling their safeguarding responsibilities. This will be followed up with a ‘Challenge Event’ in the near future to enable partners to question each other’s assessments. The self assessment is the first stage of the implementation of RBSAB’s Quality Assurance Framework that will introduce multi agency case audits and develop multi agency performance indicators for the Board, which will help all partners to hold each other to account.

The Safeguarding Adult Review and Practice Excellence (SARPE) sub group of the Board have coordinated 5 Safeguarding Adult Review screening panels this year and have monitored the progress of a Learning the Lessons Review, details of which can be found later in this report in the SARPE sub-group report.

We will listen to others to improve continually

Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board Partnership Forum is for all professionals, providers, service users and carers who have an interest in Adult Safeguarding to get together and have a voice about adult safeguarding matters in the Borough.


Private, Voluntary & Independent Sector


The Forum is crucial for the Board to help circulate information about its work, and about new developments in Adult Safeguarding. It is also an important way of consulting with all interested parties about the direction, strategy and operations of the Board, to ensure this work meets local needs.

Anyone with an interest in Adult Safeguarding is welcome to attend the Partnership Forum meetings – membership is not fixed and people are free to only attend the meeting they think will be of most benefit to them if they wish. The meetings are held three times a year, and are attended by around 50 – 60 people from a variety of organisations and agencies. The meeting in February focused on a proportional response to safeguarding alerts and future meetings will look at the Board’s communications strategy and at hate crime. Each meeting generates a lot of ideas and we are committed to feeding back to subsequent meetings how those ideas have been put into practice.

Work has begun on a Safeguarding Adult Review framework to determine how and when to commission a Safeguarding Adult Review, and to ensure that the type of review is proportionate to the individual case.

We have changed the way that we collect feedback from people who have been through the safeguarding process to improve the response received. This is now done, where possible, by personal contact, to ensure that the person has the opportunity to explore if the safeguarding process has improved the situation for them and whether the outcomes they had identified for themselves at the start of the process have been achieved.

The Board continues to strive to gain service user representation on the Board and its sub-groups and to involve people in the development of safeguarding policy and practice.


Reports of Sub-Groups

Training and Workforce Development

The group has reconvened after an absence of almost a year. Representatives have been identified at a strategic level from a range of organisations including: Rochdale Council Adult Care, Rochdale Council Corporate Services, NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group, Greater Manchester Police, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue, Age UK and Rochdale Boroughwide Housing.

Across the public sector there has been a reduction in staffing levels and this makes attendance at this type of forum difficult. It is appreciated that organisations are committed to supporting the work of the Board in this way. Other organisations have found the demand too onerous, but have elected to send information through to the sub-group instead of attending. This is the case with a number of organisations who have to report across a footprint to a number of Boards, such as Pennine Care and Pennine Acute Trust. This is also appreciated.

The group meets bi-monthly. The Bournemouth University framework has been adopted as the benchmark for training provision across the organisations. There is a general shift towards e-learning for some sectors of the workforce due to advantages of reduced costs. The group will monitor the impact of this shift in terms of staff understanding of the issues and their ability to deal effectively with their respective client groups.

Issues arising from Mental Capacity

Two levels of recording around mental capacity have been devised across Adult Care – these were discussed and consideration of adopting these across some Partner organisations is underway.

There have been issues raised with some Partners about confidence that professional staff have in dealing with the impact of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA). This is to be investigated further regarding training input.

Deprivation of Liberty (DoLS) Issues

In general DoLS applications have increased showing increased awareness and a response to training across the Care sector. This is also under scrutiny from the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Since the Supreme Court ruling in March 2014, there has been a significant increase in DoLS applications. Moving forward, there continues to be a need for greater awareness-raising across the hospital teams regarding both MCA and DoLS. Health establishments also have

no trained Best Interest Assessors. The implications of the Supreme Court Judgement against Cheshire West and Surrey will impact on training requirements across Partners and the Board will need to measure and monitor DoLS awareness and training provision.

The Safeguarding Adult Review and Practice Excellence Group

As a sub group of Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board, the Safeguarding Adult Review group works to support the development of safeguarding practice across the Rochdale Borough partnership. The membership of the group continued to be strong in 2013/14, with six meetings held and 13 different partner organisations represented on the group.

Group members shared a wide range of issues from practice, including learning from local, regional and national safeguarding cases and initiatives, including the Winterbourne review, CIPOLD report, Frances report and the national CSE report.

This year, the group received and considered five Serious Case Review (SCR) referrals. One SCR has been commissioned and will take place in early 2014/15. A Learning the Lesson review has been completed and recommendations for multi-agency improvements in relation to improving Mental Capacity Act compliance across the partnership have been made, which will be monitored by the group. In another case, a Learning the Lessons review has been commissioned, and will take place in early 2014/15. The remaining two referrals did not meet the criteria for a SCR.

Alternative proportionate options to holding a serious case review have been considered and a protocol has been developed to offer an alternative system to the traditional request for an ‘Individual Management Review’. This protocol has been incorporated into a revised and updated policy and procedure for the commissioning of Serious Case Reviews.

Work has taken place to develop a Threshold Guidance protocol for professionals to use to help provide a consistent approach to decision making as to when safeguarding concerns should be progressed through to a safeguarding investigation.

There was also work this year on the development of a ‘Refusal of Medical Treatment’ protocol, which was disseminated to professionals and care providers across the partnership. This protocol was developed following a recommendation from a ‘Learning the Lessons’ review held last year, that recognised the


Reports of Sub-Groups

need to understand an individual’s capacity to refuse medication and the importance of recording such decisions.

Work has recently commenced to look at mapping referral pathways for services for young people that are transitioning from Children’s Services and are likely to need support as an adult. This work will continue in 2014/15.

Communication and Publicity Sub-Group

The new Communication and Publicity Sub-Group for the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board (RBSAB) met for the first time in July 2013. Meetings have been held every two months. The purpose of the sub-group is to develop a Communication and Publicity Strategy for safeguarding for the Rochdale Borough, and to agree, implement and monitor an action plan.

The primary objective for all activity is to increase awareness and understanding of Adult Safeguarding. An aim of the communications activity will be to raise awareness of the concept of adult safeguarding within Rochdale Borough to increase understanding, awareness and reporting. In addition the establishment of a Partnership Forum of community and industry organisations aims to increase the understanding of safeguarding and good practice in protecting adults at risk amongst professionals and partners.

It was felt important to get broad representation on the group and have secured regular attendance from RMBC communications and safeguarding teams, Rochdale and District Mind, Rochdale Boroughwide User Forum, HMR CCG communications, and some representation from Healthwatch Rochdale, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing and Carers Resource.

The strategy includes promotional messages such as making sure vulnerable adults in the Rochdale Borough live free from fear and harm and making Safeguarding everyone’s business, how to report concerns and identifies a number of audiences which will be targeted through communications activity. These include Rochdale residents, Carers, partner organisations in the community, voluntary and health sectors, Faith and BME groups, RBSAB partners and statutory agencies and Rochdale Council staff.

The group initially researched other local Safeguarding Adults strategies from across the country and in November 2013 a small task and finish group met to write the draft strategy. This draft was taken to the January Communication and Publicity Sub-group

meeting and was ratified by the RBSAB in April 2014. Work is now being finalised on the Communications and Publicity Action Plan and some activity has already started.

Safeguarding Adults newsletters are in production and Partnership Forums are being held three times a year. A directory providing information about the role of each agency represented at the forum has been created to help improve multi agency networking. The group has organised a ‘Start a conversation’ awareness raising event to mark World Elder Abuse Awareness Day in June.

Work will continue on achieving the objectives in the action plan and progress will be monitored through the sub-group.

Quality Assurance and Performance sub group

The Quality Assurance and Performance sub group has been established and is now fully operational and there is multi-agency sign up to the group. A QA Framework has been developed which was identified as a priority for the Board last year and work from this framework will continue to develop through the coming year. Two identified priorities for the Board include the development of suite of performance indicators to be reported to the Board on a quarterly basis and the completion of an Adult Safeguarding Self-Assessment to benchmark individual agencies position against key Safeguarding requirements.

This performance report is much wider than the current national Safeguarding Adult return and will incorporate key partner’s data. This will provide the Board with qualitative and quantitative safeguarding information in addition to areas of concern and areas to celebrate where practice and outcomes are recorded as good.

Rochdale Adult Care services volunteered to be part of a national pilot for Making Safeguarding Personal. This builds on the work that had already commenced and is informing service development, particularly ICT, to ensure individual outcomes are captured and can be reported. Analysis of this information will assist in identifying areas we need to focus on and consider for multi-agency case file audit.

National data collections are changing with effect from 1st April 2014 to a more outcome focused return. This change will help us to further understand the information behind the data we report in relation to safeguarding adults and will be another source of evidence to inform the QA audit programme.


The initial Adult Safeguarding Self-Assessment will be collated, analysed and reported to the Board with a plan for this to be updated annually. This return will give assurance to the Board that agencies are complying with key standards for safeguarding adults and will identify areas for further improvement which can be monitored by the Board.

A number of new initiatives are underway and preparation work is well advanced to establish a Board Risk Register and an Escalation Policy that will provide a framework for partners to escalate issues to the Board where necessary.

In addition to the above a tool to measure the Effectiveness of Board Members is also being developed which will assist us in ensuring the Board is as effective as it can be.

Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty Advisory Group

The Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty (MCA DOLS) Advisory Group has been established to help RBSAB monitor and improve Mental Capacity Act awareness in the Borough. This multi-agency group meets quarterly. The Supreme Court judgment handed down in March 2014 has set an “ acid test” for determining whether a person is being deprived of their liberty , that they lack the capacity to make decisions about their care or residence and are subject to continuous supervision and control and not free to leave. This means that many more people in care homes and hospitals now meet the criteria for a DOLS authorisation. The House of Lords committee report issued in March 2014 was critical that social workers, health care professionals and others involved in the care of vulnerable adults were not sufficiently aware of the Mental Capacity Act. In order to ensure that all professionals are aware of their responsibilities under MCA, the MCA DoLS Advisory Group has in place a robust action plan to increase awareness in Managing Authorities, improve best interest decision making within borough and to quality assure MCA training arrangements in Borough as well as ensuring compliance with any amendments to the MCA and changes in legislation. Action is also being taken to identify and respond to deprivations that arise in community settings. More detail is provided elsewhere in this report.

The Dignity Champions Group

A series of meetings have taken place during the course of the year with an event taking place on 15th October 2013 the “Age UK Safeguarding Event”. The event brought together a number of statutory and non-statutory organisations to discuss the issues around safeguarding and how together we can tackle this important issue.

Representation at meetings include Adult Care, McMillan Nurses, District Nurses, Pennine Acute, Pennine Care, MIND, Age UK Rochdale, User/Carer Forum, Residential and Care Home, Health Watch Rochdale, Independent Carer, Activities & Wellbeing- Sheltered Housing, Carers Association etc.

The work of the group has included the following:

• Campaigning for Free Phone (0800) telephone number to report suspected abuse.

• Produced a Dignity Audit Tool.

• Produced a Work Plan for the group linking to the strategic objectives of RBSAB.

• Looked at Housing Issues (incl. extra care housing) Hare Hill Court (RBH).

• Personal Alarms – Residential Homes etc. (safeguarding residents).

• Dignity Equipment: e.g. Bed Calendar – Dementia.

• End of Life Care.

• Promoting the work through organisations to promote a greater number of Dignity Champions.


Safeguarding Activity Data 2013-2014

Alerts and Referrals

The number of alerts received has seen a 17% reduction in the figures reported in 2012/2013. We need to continue to monitor this however, a programme of safeguarding awareness is underway and we will be able to review this over the current data collection year.

The conversion rate of alerts to referrals is higher this year than in 2012/2013 at 64% and 59% respectively and is more in line with the data reported for 2010/2011 & 2011/2012 and suggests that the alerts received are appropriate.

The graph below shows the number of alerts received each year, as well as the proportion which go on to become a referral for investigation. The remaining alerts were dealt with by giving information or advice and guidance.

Alerts are received from a wide variety of sources. The top three sources making alerts in 2013/2014 are from Residential Care Staff, Health partners and family members. Residential Care Staff remains the highest source of alert for the third consecutive year. Alerts from family members have seen a slight increase for the third successive year which suggests improved awareness of safeguarding within the community. A systemic change in recording safeguarding activity has enabled improved categorisation and reporting of safeguarding activity which has had an impact on the ability to refine and capture more detailed data. The transfer to a bespoke electronic system this collection year has facilitated this detailed breakdown of sources, the impact of which has seen a reduction from previous years in the number of source alerts classified as ‘other’.

For the first time this year data collected identifies whether a person has been previously known to the service and those who are unknown at the point the referral was made. 87% of referrals in 2013/2014 were from service users where a previous contact, for any type of service, has been made to Adult Care Services. This is a high proportion of cases and will be able to be compared to neighbours once the data is analysed and published by HSCIC later this year.

EthnicityThe majority (84%) of alerts were for people who were White British which is a 1% reduction from the previous year. The next highest proportions of ethnicities remain the same as last year at Pakistani (6%) and Any Other White Background (4%).

Repeat referrals

A proportion of repeat referrals are received each year, and in 2013-2014, 35 repeat referrals were received which were in relation to 30 individuals. These 35 repeat referrals represent 7% of the overall total of referrals and is a significant reduction from the previous year which reported 62 repeat referrals received from 52 individuals. This is a positive outcome and may indicate that individual sustainable outcomes are being achieved which is avoiding referrals back to the service.

Gender and age groupAlerts have been broken down into gender and age group for 2013-2014 in the below chart. Females again received the highest number of alerts overall with a marked difference within the 75+ age groups.

65% of alerts received in 2013-2014 were for older adults aged 65+ and is a 1% increase on the figure reported last year.

Rochdale Safeguarding Adults Board continues to demonstrate that they aim to improve people’s lives through safeguarding activity. The collection of data this current collection year has been changed and is now more focussed on outcomes which are reflected in the activity reported.


Alerts and Referrals by year

Referrals Alerts

0

200

400

600

2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14

139

270 263

418

297

464

340

572

302

474

100

80

60

40

20

0

80

33 3037

84

48

69

93

18-64 65-74 75-84 85+

Male Female

Client Category of Persons subject to referral (2013-2014)

The majority of the referrals in 13/14 (78%) were for those with the client category of Physical Disability, Frailty and/or temporary illness. This is a significant increase in the 12/13 reported figure of 46.2%. When considering this in relation to other client categories this may be, in part, be as a result of changing the reporting and recording mechanisms within social care.

87% of clients indicate previous contact with Adult Social Care. Previous contact could be for a range of services and is not necessarily for safeguarding concerns.

Source of Risk

Reporting abuse by type and location changed in 2013/2014 and the new Safeguarding Adults return framework is recorded below.

Data collected indicates that financial abuse, physical abuse and neglect are the three highest reported categories overall. Financial abuse represents 35% of the overall referrals in 2013/2014 and is believed to be undertaken by an individual known to the adult in the majority of these cases. Physical abuse represents 21.17% of cases closely followed by neglect at 21%. The two highest sources of risk from individuals known or unknown to the adult are the same - financial abuse (26.27%) and physical abuse (13.98%). This changes when the source is social care support to neglect (14.83%) followed by financial abuse (8.47%).

Source of Risk by Location

The graph below shows the locations of the alleged abuse by the individual or organisation believed to be the source. Care Homes have continued on the downward trend from a reported 49.5% in 2010/2011 to 27% in 2013/2014.

This year, 61% of events took place in the clients own home, a continued rise on last year’s 48.6% and 43.5% the previous year.


Referrals by Primary Client Group

235

22

15

28

2

Learning Disabilities

Other Vulnerable People

Substance Misuse (including Alcohol Misuse)

Mental Health

Physical Disability, Frailty and Sensory Impairment

Individual or organisation believed to be source of risk

Individual or organisation believed to be source of risk by location

50

40

30

20

10

0

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Physica

l

Sexual

Emoti

onally

/Psych

Finan

cial/M

ateria

l

Neglec

t & ac

ts

Care Hom

e

Hospita

l

Own Hom

e

Service

within

commun

ity Other

Discrim

inator

y

Institu

tiona

l

Social care support or service paid, contracted or commissioned

Social care support or service paid, contracted or commissioned

Other - known to individual


Other - unknown/stranger

Other - unknown/stranger

Outcome of completed investigations

Of the 193 cases where the investigation has completed the outcome for 42.49% of cases were inconclusive with an equal number not substantiated. These two outcomes represent 85% of the overall investigation outcomes. For those investigations that were substantiated at case conference, 9.33% were partly substantiated, and 5.7% were fully substantiated.


Safeguarding Activity Data 2013-2014

OUTCOMES

Where enquiries have concluded information suggests that a high proportion do not progress any further under safeguarding. However where they do progress the risks identified in the vast proportion of cases are reduced. Where the risk remains this will continue to be monitored via protection plans.

SG003(c) Social Care Support or Other - known Other – unknown service paid, contracted to individual / stranger or commissioned

Where no further action 33 34 34 under safeguarding

Where Action under Safeguarding

Risk remains 2 6 3

Risk reduced 19 32 16

Risk removed 4 6 4

Source of risk

Conclusion of investigations

Substantiated - fully Inconclusive

Substantiated - partially Not substantiated

42.5%

42.5%

9.33%

5.7%

Rochdale’s distribution of case conclusion does not mirror the national profile for 2012/13 as identified in the figures above. The outcomes indicate a low number of cases where the alleged abuse was substantiated. This should be reviewed in line with national figures for 2013/14 available and monitored over the next year.

Distribution of Case Conclusion

Not determined/ inconclusive

Not Substantiated

Partly Substantiated

Substantiated

42%

42%

9%

6%

27%

30%

11%

32%

% 13/14

National % 12/13


Capacity

The table below identifies the number of concluded referrals in 2013-2014 where an individual was assessed as lacking capacity to make informed choices and decisions about their safety and how many were supported by an advocate, family member or friend.

Of those individuals assessed as lacking capacity 38 were supported by an advocate, family member or friend with 53% of these supporting individuals in the 85 – 94 year age group.

Number of Serious Case Reviews

In the period 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014 Adult there has not been any serious case reviews reported.

% of concluded referrals where individuals were assessed as lacking capacity

Individual or Organisation believed to be source of risk, by conclusion

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0Assessed and lacks capacity

Does not lack capacity

Don’t know

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

0Substantiated

- FullySubstantiated

- PartiallyInconclusive Not Substantiated Investigation ceased

at individuals request

Other - Unknown/stranger


Social Care support or service paid, contracted or commissioned

Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (MCA DoLS)

They protect those who lack capacity to consent to arrangements made for their care and/or treatment but who need to be deprived of their liberty in their own best interest to protect them from harm. They also offer the person concerned the right to challenge the decision to deprive them of their liberty, he right for a representative to act for them and protect their interests and the right to have their status reviewed and monitored on a regular basis. From 1 April 2013, the responsibility for authorising hospital deprivations passed to Local Authorities, resulting in the Council having overall responsibility for authorising deprivations of liberty in both care homes and hospital environments.

For the period April 2013 to March 2014, there were a total of 53 requests, of which 22 were authorised, which equates to a 42% authorisation rate. This was a significant increase in applications compared to the previous year, where a total of 25 requests had been received; however the authorisation rate was lower at 42% compared to 56% the previous year.

While Rochdale saw an above average performance for numbers of applications received per 100,000 adult populations (33.1) in comparison to England (28.3) and the North West (24.6), information collated by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) indicated that the rate of authorisation was below both the England average (55%) and the North West average (50.4%) and was also inconsistent with the year on year England-wide trends1. The improvement in the number of applications received can in part be attributed to work having been undertaken to raise awareness of DoLS amongst assessment staff and managing authorities and an increase in the numbers of qualified best interest assessor staff. The drop in the approval rate from the previous year had been noted and has influenced the work plan for 2014 -15.

The majority of applications (85%) were completed on behalf of people with mental health conditions, with dementia accounting for about two thirds (66%) of all applications made. A further 7.5% were made on behalf of people with learning disabilities and 3.7% of applications were made on behalf of people with a physical disability. This compares to information provided by the HSCIC which indicates that in England 71% of applications were made on behalf of

people with a mental health condition, of which over half (53%) were for dementia. More than one in ten (11%) of applications were made on behalf of people with learning disabilities2. The local picture in general continues to reflect national trends, however the slightly lower numbers received for people with learning disabilities has been noted and will inform the work plan for 2014-15. In Rochdale the use of supported living models and intensive packages of care to support people with a learning disability appears to be much higher than the national picture and this will be a contributing factor in the lower number of applications for this client group.

Key Achievements in 2013-14During this past year regular Best Interest Assessor (BIA) forums have continued to support both qualified and trainee BIA’s to enhance specialist knowledge and professional development. A further four workers from Adult Care teams have qualified this year and the current Best Interest Assessors have been able to access refresher training at Manchester University. In addition a set of practice standards have been devised against which professional competencies can be measured.

The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) provide additional protection for the most vulnerable people living in residential homes, nursing homes or hospital environments through the use of a rigorous, standardised assessment and authorisation process.


0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Number of standard DoLS authorisation requests received 2013/14

2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14

Applications received


The MCA/DoLS Advisory group has been formed; meeting at regular intervals and comprising of rep-resentatives from health and social care services, advocacy services and residential and nursing care homes. Its purpose is to oversee compliance in relation to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and DoLS, identify on-going support and training needs for all staff and ensure that programmes are devised and delivered. The group also monitors compliance with all relevant aspects of legislation.

During this past year a revised mental capacity and best interest assessment form has been introduced to assessment staff and a programme of bespoke in-house training on mental capacity and best interest decision making has been rolled out. In addition all staff are up-to-date with their mandatory MCA/DoLS training. Policies and procedures relating to the Mental Capacity Act and DoLS have been revised and are available on the Council website. Improvements have also been made in how to contact the Council regarding deprivations of liberty, with dedicated MCA/DoLS contact details being published and also distributed to managing authorities. Guidance has also been devised and distributed to managing authorities in how to complete the standard forms required to trigger the DoLS process.

Moving Forward and Key Priorities for 2014-2015Following the lower than average numbers of standard authorisations having been granted, we aim to promote consistency in the application of the DoLS criteria amongst managing authorities and BIA’s. In addition awareness raising within learning disability services and a more considered approach to the recording of disability amongst managing authorities, may help to raise the profile of adults with learning disabilities.

The MCA/DoLS Advisory group is to introduce a work-plan identifying key goals for implementation. The broad themes will be to increase awareness of MCA DoLS within managing authorities, to improve best interest decision making within the Borough, to quality assure MCA training arrangements in Borough and to ensure compliance with any amendments to the MCA and changes in legislation.

It is anticipated that as a result of the Supreme Court ruling made in March 2014; clarifying the test for deprivation of liberty, there will be a significant rise in the numbers of DoLS applications received in the year ahead and that this may pose challenges to service delivery. In response, a robust action-plan will be implemented to address the expected increase and to help maintain continuity of service. Work will also be undertaken to identify and respond to deprivations of liberty that arise within community settings.1 Data source: HSCIC Mental Capacity Act 2005, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Assessments (England) Annual Report 2012/13, published 20 August 2013.

2 Data source: HSCIC Mental Capacity Act 2005, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Assessments (England) Annual Report 2012/13, published 20 August 2013.

Case Study – Mental Capacity and Derivation of Liberty Safeguards

She was admitted to the Trauma Assessment Unit at Salford Royal Hospital in January 2014, having fallen down a set of stairs and hitting a table at the bottom resulting in a severe head injury. Anne was admitted to hospital in an altered state of consciousness and required emergency surgery.

Ward staff have advised that Anne has a severe injury to her brain, is not medically fit for discharge and that there are clinical observations and tests that still need to be undertaken. Anne is diagnosed as experiencing “Post Traumatic Amnesia” (PTA) as a result of her having a brain injury. Anne is having difficulties with her short-term memory and cognitive function, which is affecting her ability to make reasoned decisions.

Anne is currently of the view that she is well enough to return home and is not accepting that she is experiencing any deficit in normal brain function. She makes frequent plans to return home, phoning for taxis to collect her from the Ward several times each day, her bags are packed and she has absconded on one occasion having followed people who were leaving the Ward. Several staff were required to persuade her to return.

Anne is also not consistently engaging with all aspects of her care and treatment and is also regularly refusing to take her medication. Anne presented as being angry at not being allowed to return home.

The restrictions experienced by Anne are that one-to-one nursing support is being provided 24 hours per day to in order to deter her from absconding from the Ward. The Trauma Assessment Unit is a locked environment and freedom of movement off the Ward is controlled by the Ward staff. Anne is not at present allowed supervised time away from the Ward to have a cigarette and is being kept in hospital against her wishes.

The Hospital granted an Urgent authorisation so that the Ward could deprive Anne of her liberty for a period of up to 7 days. The Hospital also submitted a request to the Local Authority for a Standard authorisation in order to continue to deprive her of her liberty beyond this point.

A Best Interest Assessor is allocated the case, to complete a range of assessments in order to determine what is in her best interests. A Psychiatrist is also commissioned to complete assessments relating to Anne’s mental health and mental capacity. The Best Interest Assessor consults with Anne, the staff involved in her care and treatment and also family members in order to canvass their opinions. The Best Interest Assessor also reads Anne’s hospital file to gain further information.

The Best Interest Assessor gives consideration to the types of restriction Anne is experiencing, their frequency, duration and the effect they have upon her, to determine whether her liberty is being deprived. Attention is given as to whether they restrictions are necessary and proportionate given the risks, or whether there were less restrictive alternatives.

In order to decide what is in Anne’s best interests, a “balance chart” is completed which weighs the factors both for and against Anne remaining in hospital with the restrictions that are being placed upon her against the option of returning home.

The Psychiatrist determined that Anne lacked capacity to make a decision about her care and treatment. In addition the Psychiatrist determined that she did not require treatment under the Mental Health Act.

The Best Interest Assessor felt that Anne’s liberty was being deprived and that it was necessary to do so in order to provide her with care and treatment. A recommendation was made for the Local Authority to grant a standard authorisation, depriving her of her liberty. Conditions were attached to the authorisation which required the Ward to undertake risk assessments with a view to facilitating supervised time off the Ward to allow Anne to smoke. A family member was appointed to represent Anne’s interests. Anne, her representative and the Ward were provided with copies of the assessments and the authorisation, along with information on how to request for a review should the deprivation no longer be required.

Anne Davies is a 23 year old woman who currently lives alone.

(All case studies are anonymised)


Partner Organisation Reports

Key Achievements 2013-2014

There is a commitment from the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to the work of the RBSAB. This is demonstrated by representation on the sub-groups by the CCG. Safeguarding adult training of GP’s and Primary Care staff in the Borough has been delivered and there has been further development of shared policy and procedures.

The Group provides safeguarding assurance and has participated in serious case reviews and lessons learnt reviews of vulnerable adults. A safeguarding and quality network has been developed for all health providers, including the third sector organisations and the Group has participated in a Greater Manchester Vulnerable Adult Network to ensure best practice is shared across Greater Manchester.

Moving forward and key priorities for 2014-2015

The Clinical Commissioning Group will build on all the work achieved in 2013-2014. It will implement a Joint Safeguarding and Quality Framework for residential and nursing homes. The Group will also further develop the Quality Monitoring Agenda regarding care homes and nursing homes within the borough.

The Group will work with the Caldicott Guardians to develop clarity regarding information sharing when Serious Case Reviews / Domestic Homicide Reviews have been commissioned.

The completion of health plans will be monitored and the joint transition agenda will be supported and clear pathways implemented. Safeguarding will be reflected in all contracts and the Group will provide assurance that Health Care has fulfilled its responsibility in its commissioner role. The Group will ensure it is Winterbourne compliant.

The Clinical Commissioning Group will improve awareness of the Mental Capacity Act and embed it in primary care.

The Group will support the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board following the implementation of the Care Act, and support the Learning Disability Agenda in response to the CIPOLD enquiry into premature avoidable deaths of people with learning disabilities. The structure to support GP’s and other independent health providers to carry out their safeguarding role will be identified.

Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group



Walkround activity

A total of 26 visits undertaken throughout the year key actions arising include:

• Production of a video to enhance awareness of Mental Capacity Act 2005 (video now available on Trust Intranet).

• Improved uptake of safeguarding training.

• Promote domestic violence training, awareness of Victim Support referral service and the link with alcohol abuse.

• Promotion of alcohol awareness as part of the alcohol strategy.

The safeguarding walkrounds that happen on every site each quarter include questions that address staff response, challenge and escalation to issues such as poor care and dignity, inappropriate behaviour of staff and visitors and whistleblowing.

Serious Case Review / Domestic Homicide Review / Lessons Learned Review : activity specific to Rochdale

It is of note that the number of commissioned reports for Safeguarding Adult has increased throughout the Trust. All actions arising from the SCRs are on trajectory to be completed within timescale.

Findings are disseminated via the Trust Lessons Learned framework including the production of a bulletin.

Information sharing and referral activity.

In March 2013 an online referral form was developed. This has seen an increase in referrals and better accuracy.

Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards. (DoLS)

Only 2 authorisations were sought in the Rochdale however due to a recent Supreme Court ruling an increase in numbers is expected within the next 12 months.

Training activity

Pleased to report that adult safeguarding training level 2 has reached 93% uptake and level 3 - 79% and continues on an upward trajectory. Specific “Masterclass” training during the year has included training by GMP on the Prevent Strategy, and Human Trafficking /Sexual Crime.

Alcohol Liaison Services

PAHT agreed with commissioners targets for specific groups of staff. Quarterly audit of case records shows that the targets have been reached in terms of numbers of patients screened and appropriately offered IBA. (Identification Brief Advice) With the introduction of a new online referral system there has been a small increase in the numbers of referrals to the alcohol team and a larger increase in the number of patients screened and offered IBA.

The Trust negotiated additional funding from commissioners resulting in the appointment of a Trust-wide Alcohol Liaison team, working closely with the Alcohol Practitioner in post at Rochdale UCC. The team will be central to achieving the objectives in the Trust Alcohol Strategy which focuses on the reduction of hospital re-admissions through alcohol use, increasing screening and delivery of IBA, ensuring compliance with the Trust Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome policy as well as increasing training and awareness among staff.

Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust


Serious Case Reviews /Learning Lessons review activity specific to Rochdale 2013/14

Date Commissioned commissioned by

June 2013 RBSAB Completed. Learning Lessons Final report Review received 7 April 2014

March 2014 RBSAB First meeting of SCR panel May 2014

March 2014 RBSAB Awaiting Terms Learning Lessons of Reference Review

The Lead Nurse: Alcohol Liaison has developed a suite of performance indicators to be used by all the alcohol liaison personnel throughout the Trust. In 2014/15 a summary of that information will be presented on a monthly basis to the Head of Safeguarding and reported to Trust Board in the quarterly update report.

Learning Disability Services.

The Head of Safeguarding chairs the Trust Learning Disability Steering Group which has agreed a comprehensive quality assurance framework including a suite of change and improvement plans designed to impact on:

• Leadership, Management and strategy

• Care standards, reasonable adjustments and service delivery

• Pathways

• Involvement and representation of people with learning disability and their carers.

• Information for people with learning disability and their carers.

• Keeping people safe (Organisational learning)

The work of the Learning Disability Steering Group has resulted in:

• a commissioner agreed care pathway that includes maternity services

• Increased accessible information to enhance the opportunity for people with learning disabilities to express their views about the services they have received in hospital.

• Involvement of people with learning disabilities in the production of accessible materials.

• Improved mechanism to highlight where patients with a learning disability require reasonable adjustments prior to admission to hospital.

• Improved awareness of the ‘Traffic Light Passport’ and introduction of a ‘flag’ on PAS to show that a patient has a learning disability.

• Enhanced emphasis on patients with a learning disability in mandatory safeguarding training and equality and diversity training.

The Trust Learning Disability Steering Group approved the Care Pathway for People with Learning Disabilities: Patient Journey Good Practice Guidance in February 2014. As a result of systematic use of reasonable adjustments as directed by the care pathways there is an expectation that the length of hospital stay for patients with a learning disability will be reduced and better care pathways including planned and emergency admissions and discharge.

Domestic Abuse

The Safeguarding Team receives notification of domestic abuse incidents in pregnancy reported to Greater Manchester Police. These are sent to community midwives to enhance awareness of domestic abuse among our patients attending maternity services. There have been a total of 251 referrals received.

In November 2013 the Safeguarding Team and GMP working collaboratively launched a new initiative providing improved support and intervention in cases of domestic abuse when they attend PAHT Emergency Departments. The initiative involves Victim Support workers working with ED staff, including the provision of training and support, and providing a 24 hour phone line for staff to make referrals with patient consent. The scheme builds on a successful pilot that took place at Fairfield General Hospital and resulted in women being afforded protection and relocation in the majority of cases referred at a much earlier stage than might otherwise have been the case. Emerging evidence from the scheme is that it is being well used by ED staff. Since the start of the Victim Support in A/E scheme at PAHT there has been an increase in the number of referrals to MARAC of PAHT patients.

PREVENT

The national Prevent strategy is a Home Office initiative that aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. The DH (2011) document ‘Building Partnerships: Staying Safe’ provides the framework for all health trusts to adopt to ensure compliance with the PREVENT strategy. In PAHT the training is led by the Emergency Planning team with the Named Nurse Safeguarding Adults. Any referrals come through the Safeguarding Team PREVENT is highlighted in Level 2 and Level 3 Safeguarding training. In addition, the DH requires all health trusts to deliver a particular form of training called the ‘HealthWRAP’. Details of training uptake are submitted in a monthly return to Home Office Regional PREVENT Coordinators.

Conclusion

The Trust continues to ensure representation on all LSCBs and LSABs within its footprint. The Safeguarding Team continues to develop systems and processes and works with staff and patients and other agencies to ensure the potential to protect adults at risk is maximised.


Case Study – Learning Disabilities

Tom is an independent person, has a paid job and is an active participant in his community, going to the local pub and shopping in the area. Unfortunately Tom has always been targeted by people taunting him about his speech and appearance.

In 2008 Tom began a relationship, and he and his partner moved into a bungalow with a reduced level of support.

The abuse directed at Tom increased. He was going out late at night which made him more vulnerable. Systems and risk assessments were put in place to ensure that Tom notified his staff team if he was going out or if there were any conflict from others.

Over time Tom’s relationship ended and his partner moved out. Tom was supported to maintain his tenancy alone. In 2013 the taunting had increased and a number of incidents had been reported. There was a concern that Tom may retaliate and be liable for prosecution.

On one occasion a staff member was driving past Tom’s bungalow and saw an altercation between Tom and a group of about 20 youths. The youths were laughing at Tom and goading him while Tom was reacting to the taunts and shouting and screaming back at the youths. The staff member stopped their car and drove Tom to a place of safety.

The member of staff who witnessed the confrontation recognised some of the youths involved and knew the school they went to and spoke to the Head Teacher.

A meeting was called at the school between the Head Teacher, social work staff, the police, and the youths and their parents. A decision had been agreed upon to use restorative justice, to find out the motivation for the youths to target and taunt Tom. The youths said they had done it because others had done it and they did not know why. On the whole the parents were very upset and apologetic. The police informed the youths they were of an age where they could be prosecuted.

The youths and other children from the school are now involved in a community project providing a drop-in service for people with learning disabilities.

The abuse to Tom has abated.

Tom Carson is a 49 year old man with a learning disability. He has had substantial contact with Adult Care and with Children’s Services prior to that. Tom moved in to an independent living scheme in the 1980’s, sharing a property with four other adults with learning disabilities.




Key Achievements 2013-2014:

The Trust commenced a review of its assurance framework for its safeguarding form and function. This is an ongoing process in which the Trust is mindful to:

1. Use the safeguarding principles to shape strategic and operational safeguarding arrangements.

2. Set safeguarding adults within the services’ strategic objectives.

3. Use integrated governance systems and processes to prevent abuse occurring and respond effectively where harm does occur.

4. Work with the local Safeguarding Adults Board, patients and community partners to create safeguards for patients.

5. Provide leadership to safeguard adults.

6. Ensure accountability and use learning within the service and the partnership to bring about improvement.

The Trust has undertaken a review of the Pennine Care Foundation Trust Adult Safeguarding Policy which was completed in June 2013. A KPMG internal audit was also completed in 2013 and reported to the Pennine Care Foundation Trust Board.

A Safeguarding Adults staff leaflet has been reviewed and distributed to ALL staff across the organisation

PREVENT training has been implemented and continues to be delivered on a rolling programme.

The Trust has ensured compliance with the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board and the Clinical Commissioning Group’s assurance audits.

Moving Forward and Key Priorities for 2014-2015:

Pennine Care Foundation Trust will continue the review of Adult Safeguarding form and function as described above.

The Trust will work with Commissioners to review Adult Safeguarding leadership and prepare business cases to secure permanent funding and deliver new ways of working.

PREVENT training will continue to be delivered on a rolling programme.

The Trust will continue to work in a multi-agency/ multi-disciplinary manner to ensure that Serious Case Review recommendations are actioned.

Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust




In Rochdale, we continue to engage with our “partner” agencies to develop and deliver more collaborative working arrangements by seeking to forge further “partnership agreements” under the auspices of the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service “Partnership Model and Referral Pathway for People at Increased Risk of Fire” which include reciprocal training, well defined referral pathways and the development of bespoke inventions to maximise opportunities to both identify and provide support for vulnerable adults within the communities we serve within the Borough.

In addition, via our local Community Safety Manager, we continue to make key contributions to the work of the Rochdale Adult Safeguarding Board sub-groups particularly as they seek to enhance Performance and Quality Assurance and Workforce Development as well as developing and communicating the emerging Prevention agenda within the Borough.

Moving forward and key priorities for 2014-2015:

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service continues to seek to safeguard vulnerable adults especially those at increased risk of fire through the implementation of the recently reviewed and up-dated Safeguarding Policy to provide and enhance support for our local staff delivering our services within the Borough.

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service




In Greater Manchester Police (GMP) our Neighbourhood Policing teams are key to our work with vulnerable people within our community. Adults at risk are identified through our NPI (Neighbourhood Policing Investigation), system, risk assessed and managed via problem solving processes including our partner agencies. NPIs are discussed at daily meetings within the teams; however we further assure the quality of work through our Monthly Vulnerability Meetings. It was previously identified that GMP’s IT systems could not always link with PPI, (Public Protection Investigations), Neighbourhood Policing Investigations etc. Enhancements to the system are now in place to allow this and clearly and quickly identify and manage cross system issues. Locally the division has engaged in a number of Safeguarding Adults Board awareness training days, included in this is with regards to suicide prevention and vulnerability awareness training. We have further run a number of training inputs in relation to Domestic Abuse; this has included presentations from our Public Protection specialists around initial contact, risk assessments, primary investigations, secondary investigations and the use of other enforcement tools such as Domestic Violence Protection Orders. During this period we have fully engaged with the RBSAB principles providing 100% attendance and support at all meetings. All actions have been completed in a timely manner and returned.


GMP and Rochdale are actively working towards the desired outcomes in the RBSAB strategic action plan, examples of our current work are: Rochdale already has the Multi-Agency Screening Service (MASS), centrally located within the police station. We have recently moved the police Public Protection Investigation Unit from Middleton to co locate them with the MASS. We are working towards enhancements to the MASS with a vision to incorporate Adult Safeguarding within a MASS environment, thus allowing for the benefits of more timely and effect sharing of information between agencies and better decision making thus improving the outcomes for our vulnerable adults. We have improved communication by RBSAB Newsletters circulated and displayed within a policing environment and activities supported. Rochdale police are actively working with our Public Protection Division in identifying Key Performance Indicators, audit tools, which once devised will be rolled out. Additionally we are looking at processes to reach our hard to reach adults at risk. We are sending our staff on partnership courses such as Mental Illness and other courses made available through the RBSAB. GMP and Rochdale police are going through a strategic overview to improve our response around Domestic Abuse. This includes Information gathering at first contact, Dealing with the Incident, Managing Risk, Dealing with Victims and Offenders and engagement with others to seek better intervention processes that would reduce further risk. Ensuring we have a more victim focused approach throughout our Domestic Abuse processes. We aim to utilise the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) process daily within the MASS.

We aim to improve the way we listen to our customers; we are actively looking to identify further groups similar to the ‘World Café’, with the intention of setting up engagement groups.

Greater Manchester Police




Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) has continued to support tenants of who could be potentially at risk. 1800 applicants with a variety of housing needs have been housed into RBH homes, and support provided where necessary.

RBH has continued to link with Rochdale Borough Council and refer cases where safeguarding is a concern. A review has been undertaken of safeguarding activity and an action plan has been established for service improvement

RBH has worked closely with RMBC on key safeguarding issues, and established an escalation process for safeguarding issues. A case conference process with RMBC Adult Social Care has also been established.

RBH has actively participated in the Adult Safeguarding Board and sub groups throughout the year. Key staff have undertook training on the Common Assessment Framework process and attended safeguarding train the trainer courses

RBH have signed up to the Armed Forces Corporate Covenant and actively participated in the Rochdale Borough Council Community Covenant Group.

It has also joined the North West Safeguarding Good Practice Group for housing Providers, and actively participated in the Partnership Forum.


RBH will review current safeguarding policies and procedures in light of revised

Rochdale Council policy and the forthcoming Care Bill. A training programme will be developed for key staff based on the revised policy and procedures, to be rolled out across the organisation. An RBH Board member will be given strategic responsibility for safeguarding.

Actions will be implemented following the self assessment audit of Adult Safeguarding. Hare Hill Court Extra Care scheme will be built and ready to let by March 2015.

An RBH Strategy for Older People will be developed.

Rochdale Boroughwide Housing




This year, Adult Care has introduced an electronic case management system for recording safeguarding episodes, which has improved our record keeping. We have introduced a new duty system in the Safeguarding team to improve our response to people making an alert or who are seeking advice.

We have introduced Safeguarding Threshold practice guidance for professionals so that we can be sure we are working in a consistent way when we receive a safeguarding concern and ensures that each safeguarding concern received by Adult Care is given a proportionate response to the risk being indicated.

The Safeguarding Team have been involved in a national pilot called ‘Making Safeguarding Personal’. Our Safeguarding Social Workers now establish what an individual wants to achieve at the start of a safeguarding enquiry and then revisits the individual when the enquiry has been completed to help us ensure we have made a difference and improved the situation for an individual.

We have provided training to all Adult Care workers to increase their understanding and role regarding the Mental Capacity Act and have provided training to professionally qualified staff to increase their understanding on best interest decision making. We have also trained a number of professionals to become Best Interest Assessors, to increase the number of people we have who can undertake assessments under the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards arrangements. Staff have also undertaken mandatory training on Safeguarding Children’s awareness raising and Child Sexual exploitation awareness training as well as training on ‘Prevent’, a multi-agency approach to identify individuals who may be in danger of radicalisation.


Priorities for the coming year are to further improve safeguarding arrangements including practise in individual cases. We will do this by extending the work on ‘Making Safeguarding Personal’. We also want to improve safeguarding timescales.

We want to continue to learn from local experience and regional national practice by holding events to improve practitioner practice.

We also want to implement and monitor practice standards and procedures/guidance in line with the College of Social Work. We also plan to improve our links with Children’s Services by assessing families holistically to make sure all need in a family is identified and addressed.

In relation to the Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty safeguards, we are reviewing the arrangements for every service user in light of Supreme Court judgement which has defined more clearly our understanding of when a deprivation is occurring.

We will therefore train more social workers this year to become Best Interest Assessors.

Adult Care, Rochdale Borough Council


Case Study – Adult Care

There were high levels of stress and emotional distress within the family. Another family member reported concerns to the Safeguarding Team about emotional and physical abuse, domestic abuse and financial abuse. The family member felt that Bert was also being neglected at times.

Following a planning meeting, a visit took place to Bert and his family by his support worker, the police and a worker from the Safeguarding team. This enabled the support worker and the worker from the safeguarding team to have confidential separate discussions with Bert, his mother and his father. This enabled the professionals to establish what the situation was and discuss the concerns raised and enabled Bert to state what outcome he wanted to achieve through the safeguarding enquiry. Bert was clear, that whilst things were not good at home, he wanted to stay at home with his parents and wanted his parents to get support to improve the situation at home.

A risk assessment was completed with Bert. Bert and his family were able to agree to a set of actions that made up the protection plan aimed at minimising the risk and maximising the safety for Bert and his family members.

The outcome from the safeguarding enquiry was that, whilst emotional abuse and neglect were partially substantiated, Bert was able to remain living with his parents, through the support that was arranged for him and his family. A care package was provided to alleviate his parent’s caring role and both parents received support from the Carer Resource Centre. Bert’s father was put in touch with Renaissance, to receive support with his substance misuse. The family also received counselling to help them cope.

Bert was pleased that support was provided for family, which did minimise the risks he faced and he feels his situation has improved and has reported that all his family are working together to support each other through this difficult time in their lives.

Bert is In his mid-40’s and lives at home with his parents. Bert is terminally ill and requires support for all his daily living activities. His family were initially supporting Bert well. However, his parents found the situation emotionally draining. The extensive caring role that both parents provided for Bert started to take its toll and his father became unwell and unstable through substance misuse.


Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board34




Age UK Rochdale has undertaken work in relation to loneliness and isolation of older people under the ‘prevention agenda’.

The Dignity and Safeguarding Champions Group has been developed with the formation of a work plan for the group which reports to the Safeguarding Adults Board.

A ‘safeguarding event’ has been hosted with key stakeholders from health and social care sectors, community groups and the third sector.

Age UK has worked with Adult Care in raising issues regarding dignity in care homes, and campaigned for fewer barriers to report suspected abuse.


Age UK will continue to develop good practice and challenge where it is considers the RBSAB is not considered effective.

Develop more effective communication strategies for all members of the RBSAB.

Age UK




New objectives regarding Safeguarding will be included in Mind’s new Strategy 2014-17. Safeguarding policies have been reviewed, as has the Risk Management Policy which includes safeguarding.

The RBSAB safeguarding self assessment has been completed, and safeguarding has been included in supervision agendas.

97% of staff and volunteers have been trained in Safeguarding Adults and Children including training for managers. New casework training forum has been developed to discuss issues including safeguarding concerns or issues. A new reporting format for Safeguarding has been introduced.

The Chief Executive Officer has chaired the RBSAB Communications and Publicity sub-group, and Rochdale and District Mind has remained a Hate Crime reporting centre.


Safeguarding training sessions are planned every quarter for new staff and volunteers.

Rochdale and District Mind’s staff will take part in the ‘Start a conversation’ about Elder Abuse event, and the organisation will continue to make a contribution to the RBSAB and its sub-groups.

Performance reporting on safeguarding will be made to the Mind Board on a quarterly basis.

Rochdale Mind will provide an Independent Mental Capacity Advocate service to clients regarding Safeguarding issues.

Rochdale and District Mind


Case Study – Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (IMCA)

At the point of referral Lydia had been living in a residential home for approximately six months. Her husband, who had been her main carer, died and since then there had been deterioration in her mental state due to dementia which led to her admission to care.

The referral to the Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (IMCA) regarded a move to long term care.

Lydia had no family locally and her only relatives (a niece and two nephews) were living out of the country. A request had been made by them for Lydia to move to be nearer to them and they had identified a suitable home which could meet her needs.

Lydia was deemed not to have capacity to make decisions around her long term accommodation and also around her finances. The social worker stated that the lady was “very anxious and had on occasion been verbally and physically aggressive”, which was the main reason why she had been moved from a residential home to a home with a higher level of care.

The IMCA role in this case was to look at what would be in her best interests with regard to her long term accommodation. The IMCA does not normally get involved with finances unless there are safeguarding issues.

On the first visit Lydia refused to meet the advocate. On the second visit she agreed to meet the advocate but there were problems with her hearing aid. It did not have a battery in and whilst staff were away looking for one she asked the advocate to write it down. The advocate complied and was able to have a very logical and meaningful conversation with her even though the original referral stated that the lady does not readily respond to conversation and is unable to formulate constructive answers to questions and appears to be confused and disorientated. She appeared to recognise her niece’s name but said she had not seen her for a long time.

The case was re-allocated to a new social worker and the advocate and the social worker suggested they prepare a list of written questions to ask Lydia about whether she would want to return to live near her niece and whether she even remembered her relatives there.

This was done and two separate meetings were held with Lydia. She did not remember her niece and was slightly confused about the name of her nephews. She was very clear, however, that she had no wish to move and wished to remain in Rochdale. She asked why her family had been in touch after such a long time and remarked that she did not have any money, implying that this was their main interest. She could remember her previous address and wanted to know if the house was alright. She asked for a photograph of the house which was provided. She recognised the photograph and was happy to have it.

The social worker and advocate visited again to ask if the lady would allow us to go to her home to pick up mail communicating by writing down the questions. She agreed to the visit and some of her clothes and personal possessions as well as a considerable amount of money were recovered and returned to Lydia.

The social worker had communicated with the family to tell them that Lydia was quite clear that she wished to remain here but encouraged them to keep in touch by letter or to visit if they so wished. The financial issues and the property will now be dealt with by a solicitor on behalf of the Local Authority.

The IMCA role in this case was to look at whether it would be in her best interests to remain where she was or possibly move as requested by her family. It was fortunate that we were able to find out that by writing things down she was able to express her wishes and was clear and consistent in her wish to remain where she was. However, her capacity to make decisions around her finances was impaired and her level of understanding was such that in her best interests these would need to be managed by a third party i.e. a solicitor. The solicitor will make an application to the Court of Protection to become a court appointed deputy. This will then allow him/her to deal with the finances and the property.

If further issues arise around accommodation, safeguarding, care reviews or serious medical treatment then the IMCA would get involved again as this lady’s family are at present deemed inappropriate to consult under the Mental Capacity Act because they are living out of the country and not in regular touch with their relative.

This case study relates to Lydia, a 78 year old lady with a diagnosis of dementia.





Healthwatch Rochdale has maintained it commitment to the RBSAB, including representation on its sub groups.

Safeguarding Adults Training was provided to Healthwatch Shadow Board members and all staff. Safeguarding Adults Policy and Procedures have been developed.

Healthwatch have participated in Safeguarding Events that took place across the Borough.


Healthwatch Rochdale will continue to build on all work achieved in 2013/2014 and continue to make a contribution to RBSAB and its sub groups.

Organisational reporting on safeguarding/issues/alerts will be developed. The Board will feed any matters of concern to the Adults Safeguarding Board. Up to date Safeguarding Adults training will be provided for new staff and Shadow Board members.

Healthwatch will work in partnership with RBSAB towards establishing a lay representative on the RBSAB and engage with the RBSAB to facilitate community consultation and participation with the Board.

An effective training and development strategy will be developed, as will a Safer Recruitment policy and procedure to ensure people are vetted and safe to work with adults at risk. A review of policy and procedures will be undertaken to ensure they are accessible to all.

Healthwatch




The Probation Service has co-ordinated and facilitated the multi–agency Mentally Disordered Offenders Panel. Vouchers have been provided to vulnerable adults to access the local Food Bank.

The Service has been a key partner in safeguarding adults (and children) through the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference process and more recently the multi-agency Domestic Abuse Disclosure Panel (Claire’s Law).

Involvement has been maintained in Domestic Homicide Reviews / Serious Case Reviews, as has liaison with and referrals to Adult Safeguarding team and police Vulnerable Adults.

The Probation Service has been responsible for the co-ordination and chairing of the Rochdale Multi agency Public Protection Panel.

The Service remains a point of contact for reporting hate crime, acts as liaison with victims of Serious Crime and supports troubled families. The Service supports the transition of young adults from youth offending services into adult probation services.


Following the re-organisation of Probation Services under the government Transforming Rehabilitation Agenda, the RBSAB will be provided with a representative from the new agencies.

The work identified above will be continued and contributions will be made to new initiatives such as a Multi-Agency Safeguarding Adults screening hub.

Appropriate and available agency and local multi-agency training will be accessed.

Key findings / information will be cascaded on behalf of the RBSAB to all staff.

Greater Manchester Probation Service

Outcome 1: Abuse of people who have or may be in need of care and support services is prevented wherever possible.

The RBSAB will develop arrangements to ensure that the sharing of information between agencies is well managed and clear. We will also explore the advantages of establishing a Multi-Agency Safeguarding Screening Service for Adults.

A joint Children’s and Adults Safeguarding event is being planned for June 2014. The event will be for senior practitioners in Health, social care, education and other statutory, voluntary and faith groups who may come into contact with families regarding safeguarding. The event will aim to help improve knowledge of vulnerability across different age groups, help aid understanding of family focused assessments, and create a better understanding of the pathways and frameworks across the spectrum of need to support families. The event will be the first joint children’s/ adults safeguarding event in Rochdale and demonstrates the way in which the two Boards wish to work more closely in the future. The Adult and Children’s Safeguarding Board will also work together to improve links to ensure transition arrangements of young people in need of support are in place.

We will work with the Rochdale Safety Community Safety Partnership to raise awareness of hate crime/mate crime, help people recognise it and know how to report it.

Outcome 2: People in Rochdale understand what Safeguarding is all about.

A Board website is due to be launched in June 2014. The address is www.safeguarding4rochdale.com and will be shared with the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children’s Board. The website will contain information for the public such as how to identify and report abuse and information for professionals such as multi-agency policy and procedures, guidance, training and support. There will also be considerable information on the working of the Board, including its composition and constitution, minutes of meetings, business plans and details of the work of the four sub-groups.

New publicity material will be produced in the coming year. This includes posters, leaflets, banners and business cards. The material will be circulated widely to all partner agencies, care homes, day services and public areas such as libraries, hospitals and doctor’s surgeries.

The Board will continue to support national awareness days such as Dignity Action Day and World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, and encourage partner organisations and individuals to work with us to publicise these events and raise awareness.

The Quality Assurance and Performance sub-group will be responsible for developing an audit tool to measure safeguarding awareness to establish a baseline for future work to be measured against.

Outcome 3: Adults are protected from harm in a way that respects their individual circumstances.

We will measure the number of alerts that we receive that subsequently go on to be an investigation. We will also measure the outcomes for people with care and support needs following a Safeguarding investigation, and measure the numbers who say they agreed with the outcome, and those who say they were listened to and in control. This will help us determine how well we are working and help us improve in the future, making sure people’s wishes are taken into consideration at all times.


Priorities for 2014 - 15

Report it.

AdultAbuse?

Together, let’s fi ght adult abuse

AdultAbuse?

Some adults are more at risk of abuse than others.

If you suspect a vulnerable adult is being manipulated, abused or mistreatedcall 999 or contact Rochdale Borough Council on 0844 264 0867

An example of one of the Board’s new posters


The RBSAB will review its policy and procedures to ensure they are easily understandable by everyone to ensure that everyone involved in Adult safeguarding has a person-centred focus. The policy and procedures will also be publicly available at www.safeguarding4rochdale.com

We will ensure compliance with the expectations of the Care Act (2014) including involving service users in the work of the Board.

Outcome 4: Staff and volunteers have a good understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities and put them into practice.

An effective training and development plan will be developed to ensure staff and volunteers are clear about their roles and responsibilities in relation to Adult Safeguarding, and a Safer Recruitment policy will ensure that people are vetted and safe to work with vulnerable adults.

Partner agencies of the Board will audit their staff training needs and make sure that appropriate training is delivered to their staff and volunteers. This will include the training needs of managers and those in positions of responsibility.

The RBSAB will work to ensure that young adults who are at risk have a smooth transition from Children’s to Adult Services. We will also make sure that all agencies are clear about alternative services and available support so people can be directed to them appropriately.

Outcome 5: Partnerships work together and are held to account.

From 1st June 2014 the Greater Manchester Probation Trust (GMPT) will be split into two organisations, the National Probation Service (NPS) and the Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) which will be an independent organisation.

The NPS will be responsible for the initial assessment of all offenders, for the management of high risk offenders, for the allocation of work to the CRC and for the enforcement of Community Sentences and Licences. The Board will work to develop robust and positive relationships with each of these new partners.

Partners of the Board will undertake an annual self-assessment to benchmark their organisation’s understanding of their roles and safeguarding practice, and we will work create a better understanding or roles and responsibilities.

The RBSAB Annual Report will be published in the early autumn 2014 and will be presented to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, the Formal Cabinet and the Health and Wellbeing Board for scrutiny.

Training sessions for Councillors will continue in the autumn to brief Elected Members on Adult Safeguarding and their responsibilities in this area.

An audit will be undertaken to measure board members’ effectiveness and establish measures to ensure effectiveness in maintained.

A work-plan will be developed to improve the involvement of service users and carers in the work of the Board and its sub-groups and we will further develop the joint-working relationships between RBSAB, the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children’s Board, the Health and Wellbeing Board and the Rochdale Community Safety Partnership.

Outcome 6: We will listen to others to improve continually.

The RBSAB will engage with Healthwatch to help the public engage with the work of the Board. The Partnership Forum will be held three times a year and membership will be improved and developed of the Forum to improve community representation, particularly with hard to reach groups.

Feedback mechanisms from individuals who are being safeguarded will be improved so practice can be developed. The RBSAB will work towards recruiting and establishing a lay representative on the Board.

A full business plan can be found in Appendix 2.


Appendix i Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board Communications sub-groupCommunications Strategy 2014

Appendix i Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board Communications sub-groupCommunications Strategy 2014

Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board (RBSAB) is a partnership of organisations that aims to safeguard vulnerable adults who are aged 18 years and over. It agrees policies and strategies to strengthen partnership working, helping us to increase our capacity to prevent abuse and neglect and it promotes the safeguarding interests of vulnerable adults.

Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board Communications sub-group

Communications Strategy 2014

The Board represents a real commitment from organisations which provide a service to the public to work together to ensure that such people live safe and secure lives in Rochdale borough. The board consists of representatives from the statutory, independent and voluntary sectors, working together to:

• Safeguard and support people

• Raise awareness of harm and how to report concerns

• Ensure people and organisations that cause harm are held accountable for their behaviour

What is safeguarding?

In 2012, the Law Commission published its findings and made specific recommendations about safeguarding adults. Based on that work, the Draft Care Bill states that:

“Adult Safeguarding is the term that describes the function of protecting adults from abuse or neglect. This is an important shared priority of many public services and a key responsibility of local authorities. Safeguarding relates to the need to protect certain people who may be in vulnerable circumstances. These are adults in need of care and support who may be at risk of abuse or neglect, due to actions (or lack of action) of another person. In these cases, it is critical that local services work together to identify people at risk and put in place interventions to help prevent abuse or neglect and to protect people.”

This communication plan has been prepared by the RBSAB communications sub group and is intended to be an editable and changing document which can be amended as required during the lifetime of the safeguarding campaign.

Introduction and ContextThe Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board (RBSAB) has been established as a partnership, working to empower and protect people in the community who may be at greater risk of harm because of their age, health condition or the nature of their disability.

2

“In 2012, the Law Commission published its findings and made specific recommendations about safeguarding adults.”

The ‘Safeguarding Adults Strategy 2013 – 2016’ plus the associated action plans outline the plan and activity that the Board will undertake to manage safeguarding in Rochdale. From this, key objectives have been identified as follows:

Strategic Objectives

• Increase the number of adult safeguarding concerns that are reported to the board. In 2013 the number of reported incidents was 571.

• Raise awareness of the concept of adult safeguarding within Rochdale borough (population circa 206,000) to increase understanding, awareness and reporting

• Establish a Partnership Forum of community and industry organisations and increase the understanding of safeguarding and good practice in protecting adults at risk amongst professionals and partners

• Build the profile of the Safeguarding board as an independent body which is responsible for adult safeguarding in Rochdale borough

• Raise awareness of the concept of adult safeguarding within the organisations that make up the RBSAB (internal audiences) and in particular those people and organisations directly involved in reporting and dealing with safeguarding issues

Ensure that adults who may be at risk are:

• Able to live independently by being supported to manage risk

• Able to protect themselves from abuse and neglect

• Treated with dignity and respect

• Supported by agencies when they need protection

In order to achieve the board’s vision and mission, in line with the Government’s overarching safeguarding principles, the Board has identified 6 strategic outcomes:

• Abuse of people with care and support needs is prevented wherever possible

• People in Rochdale understand what adult safeguarding is about

• Adults are protected from harm in a way that respects their individual circumstances

• Staff and volunteers have a good understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities and put them into practice

• Partnerships work together and are held to account


Major principles of RBSAB

• To align the Communications Strategy with the Board’s objectives, as identified in its Action Plan

• To ensure the Board communicates in an accurate, timely and appropriate way to meet its needs and those of its stakeholders, and that information is accessible and addresses equality and diversity issues

• To ensure that stakeholders have an appropriate mechanism to communicate views and comments back to the Board, ensuring meaningful participation

Communications ObjectivesThe strategic objectives highlight the top level aims of the Adult Safeguarding Board. Communications objectives should support these and provide measurable and targeted aims for activity.

The primary objective for all activity is to increase awareness and understanding of Adult Safeguarding, with a view to reporting incidents to the relevant authority so that vulnerable adults can be protected. As awareness can be difficult to measure, an increase in the number of enquiries can be used as a measurement of the fact that people are more aware of the need to report incidents.

3

Communications Strategy 2014 5

Target AudiencesThere are a number of audiences that will be targeted through communications activity:

Rochdale residents - residents living in the Rochdale borough who may not be aware of the importance of safeguarding vulnerable adults. This is relevant to everyone who lives in the borough but in particular for people who look after or deal with vulnerable adults. The communications activity will ensure that specific groups are considered with tailored approaches and the opportunity to request collateral in different formats/languages.

Residents currently in receipt of health and social care services - appropriate residents across the borough through the various organisations which support adult safeguarding.

Carers - a sector of the general Rochdale population, carers of vulnerable adults are a key consideration and audience for communications activity as these people are in a position to directly influence the level of care and to report issues.

Partner organisations in the community, voluntary and health sectors - The partnership forum will be the main channel used for communicating with the individuals and organisations concerned with vulnerable adults in the community.

Faith groups - It is important to recognise that Rochdale is made up of a mix of faiths groups. The communications plan aims to increase awareness of safeguarding across all Rochdale residents and, as such, provisions will be made to target all audiences.

BME - The communications plan aims to engage with target BME communities across the borough to increase awareness of adult safeguarding.

RBSAB internal audiences - Staff of the organisations that make up RBSAB and which are directly involved with safeguarding adults.

Board partners and statutory agencies - there is an obligation to report to statutory bodies and this will be addressed as part of the communications action plan.

MessagesThe key messages that will form the basis of communications activity are:

• The Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board exists to prevent harm happening to adults at risk of abuse, or other types of exploitation

• Adults in Rochdale are free to live safe from harm and fear

• Professionals, volunteers or organisations that deal with vulnerable adults are responsible for safeguarding adults in Rochdale – and work together to do this effectively

• Adult abuse is a violation of a person’s civil rights that has a negative impact on quality of life

• There are a number of services available to support vulnerable adults

• How to report a safeguarding issue

The agreed strapline for a safeguarding campaign is ‘Together let’s fight adult abuse’. Other promotional messages will include:

• Making sure vulnerable adults in the Rochdale borough live free from fear and harm

• Safeguarding is everyone’s business

• RBSAB is here to help prevent abuse and protect adults

• Always report suspected abuse –

Rochdale Borough Council Adult Care Access and Enablement Team 0844 264 0867

Emergency Adult Care Duty Team (out of hours) 0845 121 2975

There are a number of audiences that will be targeted through communications activity:

4

5 Communications Strategy 2014 5

Communications ActivityObjective Activity Channel & Detail Dates Responsibility/

LeadRaise awareness of the concept of adult safeguarding with Rochdale residents.

Safeguarding adults campaign across the borough to raise awareness of the concept to all residents.

Various channels will be used to communicate to people in the borough to promote the safeguarding adults campaign:

Leaflets x 7,000 for distribution through council and RBSAB partner organisations

Posters x 500 (A3 and A4) for distribution through council and RBSAB partner organisations (through the partnership pack – see below)

Banner stands x 2 – for use at events and in key locations

Business cards x 2,000 with details of how to report adult safeguarding – for use at events and for distribution through partner channels

Website update – Consider rebranding the RBSAB website with adult safeguarding information (safeguarding4rochdale.com

Social media – Twitter and Facebook to reinforce campaign messaging

Partner communications/newsletters – Information will be provided for all RBSAB to include in their own communication channels (newsletters etc). Including:

• CCG quarterly Newsletter • RBH newsletter • Carers news (Council) • Health watch newsletter • Police

All collateral March/April 2014

RBSAB and comms sub group

Objective Activity Channel & Detail Dates Responsibility/Lead

Radio – consider the use of local radio station Crescent radio - through presenter slots rather than advertising

Soft launch - consider an event to communicate the success of board once activity has started and once there is positive news to report on

Partnership forum events – The forum will run regular events aimed at engaging with key organisations and individuals in Rochdale who are concerned with adult safeguarding

Supporting national awareness days in line with safeguarding adults, for example ‘Dignity day’, ‘Elder abuse day’. Primarily media support and events that are no cost.

Raise awareness of the concept of adult safeguarding within the organisations that make up the RBSAB

Safeguarding is everyone’s business.

All partner staff need to know how to report a safeguarding issue.

Staff and volunteers need to have a good understanding of their responsibilities

Briefing events – for staff directly involved in the provision of safeguarding

Ongoing in 2014 RBSAB and comms sub group

6


Radio – consider the use of local radio station Crescent radio - through presenter slots rather than advertising

Soft launch - consider an event to communicate the success of board once activity has started and once there is positive news to report on

Partnership forum events – The forum will run regular events aimed at engaging with key organisations and individuals in Rochdale who are concerned with adult safeguarding

Supporting national awareness days in line with safeguarding adults, for example ‘Dignity day’, ‘Elder abuse day’. Primarily media support and events that are no cost.

Raise awareness of the concept of adult safeguarding within the organisations that make up the RBSAB

Safeguarding is everyone’s business.

All partner staff need to know how to report a safeguarding issue.

Staff and volunteers need to have a good understanding of their responsibilities

Briefing events – for staff directly involved in the provision of safeguarding

Ongoing in 2014 RBSAB and comms sub group



Establish the Board as an independent body which is responsible for adult safeguarding in Rochdale

Councillor communications Councillor briefing note about the board and adult safeguarding campaign

Elected members safeguarding training sessions

Elected councillor training re scrutiny at Adult safeguarding committees

Newsletter - regular communications to partners across the borough

March 2014

Feb/March 2014 and ongoing if successful

2 Newsletters in 2014 (Summer/Winter)


Enhance understanding of safeguarding and good practice in protecting adults at risk amongst professionals and partners

Communication to partners and community groups which deal with adult safeguarding/ vulnerable adults?

Events Partnership forum – 24th February 2014

Safeguarding Adults event – June 2014

Ensure partners are promoting consistent messages through their own internal and external channels.

Partnership forum pack - Provide relevant communications collateral to members of the partnership forum for distribution and use with their audiences.

Elearning and signposting - to be available through the website for partners

Professional guidance – Policies and procedures to be available via the website

Note that any safeguarding training to be provided to employees will need to be provided by member organisations and not through RBSAB.

Dates of ongoing events to be decided


DistributionCommunications materials will be distributed to all RBSAB partner organisations.

A full distribution spreadsheet has been established for all collateral to be distributed borough wide, and includes:

• Service users and their families/carers

• Hospitals

• Pharmacies

• Opticians

• Health centres

• GP Practices

• Housing Associations

• Mental health bodies

• Police/Fire and Rescue

• Councillors/elected members

• Libraries

• Sure start centres

• Community groups

• Faith groups

• Community Centres

• Adult care providers (via commissioning managers in Adult care Services, Rochdale Council)

Hard to reach audiences – to be noted that all of the above communications materials will make reference to translation services available and some materials may be produced in other languages (Urdu, Bengali). Additionally we will consider versions that are ‘easy read’ where appropriate.

Media

In addition to the above a media schedule will be devised to support the Safeguarding campaign and to get the key messages into the media. Some ideas for media activity include:

• Launch of the campaign to be promoted in local media.

• Key activity undertaken by the board to be promoted in the local media.

• Potential to promote any key milestones in terms of the number of incidents being reported, but this has to be balanced against the reputational risk of people believing that adult abuse is prevalent.

• Separate briefing to be organised with the Asian Leader and Crescent Radio around the time of the launch.

• All of the above releases to include information about how to spot and report a safeguarding issue.

The spokesperson for RBSAB should always be the chair of the Board.

8


Delivering the Communications StrategyThe Strategy will be delivered by the RBSAB’s communications and publicity sub-group.

The funding available to support the programme will be made available through a small Adult Care Safeguarding publicity budget. Partners will assist with the provision of appropriate resources to help deliver this communications strategy.

EvaluationThe Board Communications and Publicity Group will monitor the implementation of the communications strategy workplan, reporting to the Board any areas which require addressing.

Evaluation of the Communications Strategy will be monitored by:

• Campaign codes to capture which channels work

• Monitoring the number and source of safeguarding concerns and alerts received (tracked by the Adult Care team)

• Feedback from events and training relating to adult safeguarding via evaluation forms

• Feedback from newsletter surveys on the usefulness of this medium

• Feedback from the Safeguarding Partnership Forum

• Media publicity and audience reach

• Quality Assurance Survey to measure the awareness of public and professionals around safeguarding – through a quarterly survey (similar to the one that is produced for Children’s safeguarding)

Our strategy and resultant annual business plans will continue to evolve as we respond to the national as well as the local agenda.

SummaryWe recognise the success of the delivery of the Safeguarding Adult framework is reliant on partners working together well.

Our strategy and resultant annual business plans will continue to evolve as we respond to the national as well as the local agenda. We will need to continually review how we deliver this business and ensure our approach is fit for purpose. It is believed that this strategy will facilitate this opportunity. The principles and outcomes outlined in this strategy are a focus for this safeguarding partnership. All partners are pro-active in this approach which is evidenced by the assigned responsibilities for the key actions.


Appendix ii Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board Strategic Action Plan 2013/14

Outcomes Actions Required RAG Who owns Delivery Partners Progress Completion


RBSAB Strategic Action Plan 2013/14

Outcome 1: Abuse of people with care and support needs is prevented wherever possible.

Reduce the opportunity for financial abuse of adults at risk of doorstep crime.

Develop a strategic response to hate crime.

Improve practice in recognizing the links between hate crime and safeguarding.

Ensure that the role of family carers in safeguarding is embedded.

Improve links between children and adult safeguarding to ensure transition arrangements of young people in need of support are in place.

Skills and Employment Manager, Economic Affairs, RBC

Head of Community Services

Head of Community Services

Head of Safeguarding and Practice Assurance, Rochdale Adult Care

Head of Safeguarding and Practice Assurance and Head of Learning Disabilities and Vulnerable Adults, Rochdale Adult Care

RSCP

RSCP

RSCP/ Safeguarding Team

All

RMBC

Around 700 frontline workers have been trained in the identification of doorstep crime / loan sharks. This work is on-going annually. In addition, segmentation work has been undertaken to understand the different groups of adults at risk and the types of responses which will best meet their needs. Two specific projects have been completed in 2013-14 to address these different groups; older people and men.

Strategic draft action plan drawn up

Strategic draft action plan drawn up

Policy and procedures updated to recognise role of carers. Need to audit to ensure this is embedded in practice

Vulnerable Adult team now in place. Adult care worker in place with links to Sunrise Team

Transitions team in Adult Care strengthened

All training provided has had family focus to improve carer support

Completed

Strategic action plan in place

Plan is in place for 2014/15 for a publicity campaign to raise disability hate crime reporting

Completed

Completed





Outcome 3: Adults are protected from harm in a way that respects their individual circumstances.

Establish proactive communications strategy.

The Board Website will be maintained with up to date information that is suitable for service users, professionals and practitioners.

To identify and promote safeguarding to groups which are hard to reach and to people who are isolated.

Review performance information data set and move towards an outcome focus.

Review policies and procedures to ensure an outcome focus.

Safeguarding training at all levels to include positive risk.

Establish multi agency threshold protocol to ensure a proportionate response to safeguarding concerns.

Chief Executive, Rochdale and District Mind


Head of Safeguarding and Practice Assurance, Rochdale Adult Care and Chief Executive, Rochdale and District Mind

Quality Assurance Officer, RBSAB Business Unit


Work force Development Sub group of RBSAB


RMBC PAHT PM NHS FT

RMBC Communications Team

RBSAB

Safeguarding Business Unit

All partners

All partners

All partners

RMBC

Strategy published following consultation and ratification by RBSAB

Board website has been maintained and hosted by RMBC for 2013/14

List of groups to be collated

Links made with Hard to reach groups to provide awareness training

Work started in 2013/14 to collate a RBSAB information data set and a framework is now in place

Work started this year in reviewing policy and procedures

All safeguarding training includes an understanding of positive risk taking

Professional Decision Making tool in place

Completed, Implementation of strategy will take place in 2014/15

RBSAB will have its own independent website in 2014/15

Promotion and on-going work to occur in 2014-15

The RBSAB Quality Assurance framework to be further developed in 2014/15

Work continues on this, as reviewing now needs to include Care Act guidance

Completed

Completed




Outcome 3: Continued


Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) to be undertaken on any new or substantially revised policy documents to ensure the board is both implementing and demonstrating their commitment to equality.

Develop effective training and development strategy.

Receive and review performance reports which include response times and outcomes.

Proactively ensure that all providers, Health, Care and police address standards to ensure dignity is respected.

Review the impact of personalisation on safeguarding alerts and referrals. 12/13

Review advocacy services in Borough and monitor that people are able to access advocacy when needed.

Ensure all partner organisations have whistleblowing policies in place.

All

Work force Development Sub group

Head of Safeguarding and Practice Assurance and Performance Manager, Rochdale Adult Care

Quality Assurance Officer, RBSAB Business Officer

QA Officer. RBSAB Business Unit

Head of Safeguarding and Practice Assurance, Rochdale Adult Care and Assistant Director, LD and Vulnerable Adults, Adult Care

GMP Superintendent

All

RMBC

All

Adult Care RMBC

RMBC, Pennine Care, HMR CCG

QAP group/ CCG and Adult Care commissioning teams

Considered as part of all policy and procedures revision/creations

Not yet achieved

Safeguarding response time performance reports created and issued monthly

The RBSAB QAP Partner self- assessment included this question

Data analysed – at this time no link between increase in the number of Adult Care Cash budgets and safeguarding concerns

Advocacy Contracts reviewed.

The RBSAB QAF partner self-assess-ment included this question

Ongoing

Carried forward for 2014/15

Completed

Completed

Completed

Advocacy provision to be reviewed again in 2014/15 to ensure compliance with Care Act expectations

Completed






Ensure staff involved in adult safeguarding are legally literate.

Benchmark current safeguarding practices through each agency and council department by undertaking safeguarding self -assessment.

Ensure strong links to Health and Wellbeing Board.

Ensure Annual report is published and presented to Health and Well Being Board and Council Audit and Safeguarding Committee.

Board to receive and consider regular analysis of usage of Mental Capacity Act (MCA DOLS Advisory Group).

Board to seek assurance that partner agencies have audited staff training needs and delivered against those audits.

Board to use agreed competency based frameworks to support leaders and managers in ensuring workforce is appropriately developed.

WFD Group

Head of Safeguarding and Practice Assurance, Rochdale Adult Care and Quality Assurance Officer, RBSAB Business Officer

Executive Director, Adult Care and Director of Public Health



WFD Group

WFD Group

All

All

RBSAB Safeguarding Business unit

RMBC All

All

Regular updates on changes provided to Board members. All Adult Care management and safeguarding staff attended legal training

Self-assessment sent out to all agencies.

2 RBSAB Board members also sit on Health and Well Being Board

2012/13 RBSAB Annual report presented to Formal Cabinet, Audit and Safeguarding Committee and Health and Well Being Board

MCA DOLS Advisory group in place with action plan. Reports received by Board.

RBSAB self assessment included this question to all Board partners

Not yet achieved

Completed

Benchmark in place

On-going

Completed

In place

On-going monitoring expected

Carried forward for 2014/15





Continue to establish working relationships with new merging health partners.

Ensure decisions made by board are cascaded through member agencies and members groups take responsibility for implementing safeguarding actions.

Establish measures to ensure the effectiveness of Board members.

Monitor and review membership of board and sub groups to reflect changing landscape.

Ensure a Council wide approach to keeping people safe.



Head of Safeguarding and Practice Assurance, Rochdale Adult Care and Quality Assurance Officer, RBSAB Business Officer

Chair of RBSAB

Head of Safeguarding and Practice Assurance, Adult Care and Head of Community Services, Rochdale Borough Council

RMBC Adult Care HMR CCG PAHT PCFHT

All Partners

All Board members

Chairs of Sub groups

RMBC

All Health partners represented on RBSAB. Close working links between NHS HMR CCG, PAHT, Pennine Care and Adult Care safeguarding leads.

Briefing notes from Board disseminated to all partners.

Audit of effectiveness of Board members completed and shared with RBSAB

Membership of Board and subgroup reviewed at every meeting

Much better links and info sharing developed between Adult Care and RSCP in relation to DV (MARAC), ASBRAC, Licencing and regarding Managing Allegations against employees of RMBC.

Ongoing

Measurements to be put in place in 2014/15

Completed

On-going

On-going





Engage with and develop Councillors understanding of Adult Safeguarding.

Establish working relationship and information sharing protocol with Health and wellbeing board.

Establish working relationship and information sharing protocol with Health and wellbeing board.

Ensure that members of the public are represented and have a voice.

Board to ensure that Council, Police, and Health are working together to make best use of existing powers.

Board is able to work effectively by having a jointly financed safeguarding unit to support the work of the Board.







RBSAB Safeguarding Business Unit





All

Training program put in place and delivery started in 2013/14

Info sharing protocol developed bet RBSCB and HWB. HWB agreed that protocol can be adapted to include RBSAB

Info sharing protocol developed bet RBSCB and HWB. HWB agreed that protocol can be adapted to include RBSAB

RBSAB Partnership Forum established

Safeguarding Adult Review sub group examined and reported to Board

RBSAB Safeguarding Unit now in place. Funding contributions so far received from RMBC, NHS HMR CCG, RBH

Annual report taken to HWB.

On-going

Completed

Completed

Partnership Forum now meeting 3-4 times a year. Further work being developed for 2014/15 to improve public engagement with RBSAB

Multi Agency Escalation policy to be developed in 2014/15

Funding by partners to further explored in 2014/15






Ensure the right information sharing processes across health and care are in place to identify and deal with safeguarding alerts.

Develop a protocol for how and when to commission a Safeguarding Adult Review.

Develop a proportionate response to types of review.

To identify and develop methods to receive feedback from services users on their experience of safeguarding.

To identify methods of service user representation and involvement in the development of safeguarding policy and practice.

Develop systems to ensure Board receives Safeguarding Adult Reviews, both Rochdale and national, and develops action plans for the recommendations.

Strategic Dignity work plan is held accountable by the Board.







Director, Rochdale Metro, Age UK




RMBC Adult Care

RBSAB Safeguarding Business unit


Dignity Champion Group

Protocol in place but needs reviewing.

Draft protocol written- awaiting RBSAB ratification

Still in development but progressing well

Rochdale Adult Care took part in the LGA Making Safeguarding Personal pilot

Partnership Forum established - now need to improve SU representation

Safeguarding Adult Review sub group proactive in monitoring and disseminating recommendations from local and national reviews

Term of reference changed for group so it now reports to RBSAB. Draft Action plan in place

Information sharing protocol to be reviewed in 2014/15

Work to continue in 2014/15

Part of RBSAB Strategic work plan for 2014/15

On-going

Ongoing


Appendix iii Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board Strategic Action Plan 2014/15


Outcomes Actions Required Timescale RAG Who owns Delivery Partners



Outcome 1: Abuse of people who have or may be in need of care and support services are prevented wherever possible.


Commissioners monitor quality of care provision.

Implement the Communications Strategy.

Develop Board website and improve content for service users, professionals and practitioners.

Introduce Safeguarding newsletter to be published regularly and dissemination to all workers and volunteers in partner organisations.

Develop audit tool to measure safeguarding awareness to establish baseline.

Providers take pro-active measures to prevent abuse of adults at risk.

Information sharing protocols between parties are robust.

Explore advantages of a Multi-Agency Safeguarding Screening Hub for Adults.

Robust transition pathways in place for young adults in need of support.

Professionals incorporate a whole family/holistic view when undertaking reviews.

March 2015

March 2015

July 2015

April 2014

April 2014

March 2015

Sept 2014

Sept 2014

June 2014

March 2015

Quality Assurance & Performance Group (QAPG)

Communications and Publicity Group

Communications and Publicity Group/ Safeguarding Unit

Communications and Publicity Group/ Safeguarding Unit


Quality Assurance & Performance Group (QAPG)

Chair

Director of Adult Care/RMBC

Head of Safeguarding

Director of Adult Care/RMBC

All partners that commission services and service providers

All partners

RMBC

All partners

To be identified

All service providers

All partners/Safeguarding Unit

RMBC/GMP/Probation/ RSCP/Health

RMBC Adult and Children Services/ Pennine Care MH Services

Children Services/Adult Care/Health




Outcome 3: Adults at risk are protected from harm in a way that respects their individual circumstances.

Establish a baseline of the number of alerts that convert into investigations (to be stable or increase in the future).

Establish a framework to measure outcomes for people who have undergone a safeguarding investigation.

Following a safeguarding investigation establish a baseline of the number of people with care and support needs who say they were listened to and in control.

Following a safeguarding investigation establish a baseline of the number of people with care and support needs who say they agreed with the outcome or understood why it was decided upon.

Establish a baseline of safeguarding investigations that are progressed in a timely and consistent way.

Review policy and procedures to ensure they are accessible to all.

Ensure safeguarding processes are person-centred and take into account individuals stated outcomes.

A strategic plan is in place to support victims of sexual exploitation.

Implement the joint RSCP & RBSAB hate crime action plan.

June 2014

Sept 2014

March 2015

March 2015

March 2015

July 2015

March 2015

March 2015

March 2015


Head of Safeguarding, Adult Care/QAPG

Head of Safeguarding, Adult Care



Head of Safeguarding, Adult Care/Safeguarding Unit

Head of Safeguarding, Adult Care/ QAPG

Director of Adult Care

Jeanette Staley

Adult Care/RMBC

Adult Care/RMBC

Adult Care/RMBC

Adult Care/RMBC

Adult Care/RMBC

All partners

All partners

All partners

All partners






Develop an effective training and development strategy.

Partners to undertake an annual self-assess-ment to benchmark their organisation’s understanding of roles, and progress against agreed safeguarding standards.

Annual Report to be published early Autumn and presented to Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Formal Cabinet and Health and Wellbeing Board.

Agree and undertake an audit to measure board members’ effectiveness.

Create a better multi-agency understanding of professional safeguarding roles and responsibilities

Safer Recruitment policy and procedures to ensure people are vetted and safe to work with vulnerable adults is in place across all agencies and providers.

Partner agencies to audit staff training needs and delivered against audits.

Competency based framework is in place to support leaders and managers to ensure workforce is appropriately developed.

Map pathways for safeguarding concerns between Health and Social care.

Managing Allegations policy is in place for the Board.

Sept 2014

April 2014

Sept 2014

Sept 2014

Sept 2014

Sept 2014

March 2015

March 2015

Nov 2014

March 2015

Workforce Development Group (WFDG)


Head of Safeguarding, Adult Care/ RBSAB Safeguarding Unit


Kaleel Khan

QAPG

WFDG

WFDG

Kaleel Khan

Head of Safeguarding, Adult Care/ RBSAB Safeguarding Unit

All partners

All partners

All partners

Board members

All partners

All partners

All partners/QAPG

All partners/QAPG

Adult Care/PAHT/Pennine Care Foundations Trust/NHS HMR CCG






Provide joint Adults and Children’s safeguarding event.

Develop work-plan on how to involve service users and carers in the work of the Board and its sub-groups.

Further develop joint-working relationships between RBSAB, RBSCB, HWB and RSCP.

Engage with Healthwatch to facilitate community consultation and participation with the Board.

To hold a regular Partnership Forum and improve membership of the Forum to include better community representation.

Improve feedback mechanisms from individuals who are being safeguarded.

Work towards establishing lay representative on RBSAB.

July 2014

Sept 2014

March 2015

Nov 2014

Ongoing

Jan 2015

Nov 2014

Safeguarding Unit

Safeguarding Unit/Communications and Publicity Group

Chair of the RBSAB

Chair/ Head of Safeguarding

Safeguarding Unit



All partners including RBSCB

Healthwatch/RBSAB

All partners

Safeguarding Unit/ SAR group/RMBC/ Other partners

Safeguarding Unit/Healthwatch


Appendix iv Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board Strategy and Action Plan 2013-2016

Appendix iv Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board Strategy and Action Plan 2013-2016

Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board Strategy and Action Plan 2013-2016

ContentsIntroduction 3

Leadership 4

National Developments 5

New Legislation 5

RBSAB 6

The Vision, the Mission, 8 the Purpose

Outcomes 9

Summary 12

“It is critical that local services work together to identify people at risk and put in place interventions to help prevent abuse or neglect and to protect people”

“Adult Safeguarding is the term that describes the function of protecting adults from abuse or neglect. This is an important shared priority of many public services and a key responsibility of local authorities. Safeguarding relates to the need to protect certain people who may be in vulnerable circumstances. It is critical that local services work together to identify people at risk and put in place interventions to help prevent abuse or neglect and to protect people.”

An Adult at Risk is defined as someone who is 18 years of age or over and:

“Who is or may be in need of community care services by reason of mental or other disability, age or illness; and who is or may be unable to take care of him or herself, or unable to protect him or herself against significant harm or exploitation”

(No Secrets 2000)

This local strategy is key to support our aim to work with local people and partners to ensure that adults who may be at risk are:

• Able to live independently by being supported to manage risk

• Able to protect themselves from abuse and neglect

• Treated with dignity and respect

• Supported by agencies when they need protection.

RBSAB has worked to promote an understanding that ‘safeguarding is everybody’s business’ since the publication of ‘No Secrets’ in 2001. The development of this strategy marks the commitment of the Board to realise its vision:

• In Rochdale people are able to live a life free from harm and communities:

Have a culture that does not tolerate abuse

Work together to prevent abuse

Know what to do when abuse happens

IntroductionLast year, the Law Commission published its findings and made specific recommendations about Safeguarding Adults. Based on that work, the Draft Care Bill states that:

www.rochdale.gov.uk 3

Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board Strategy and Action Plan 2013-2016

Leadership by the Local Authority and its partners is fundamental and it is important to be clear about the role of RBSAB in supporting the delivery of the wider safeguarding agenda and how it links strategically with wider partnerships and links with local communities, as illustrated below:

ADASS Safeguarding Advice Note April 2013

Leadership

www.rochdale.gov.uk

Safeguarding is personalised. There are effective specialist

services to safeguard “vulnerable” people, work with abuse and

support other staff.

Care and justice service standards safeguard people’s dignity and rights and enable them to manage risks and benefits.

Community safety and other services include “vulnerable” people

People look out for each other in our communities

Strategy and Action Plan 2013-2016 5

• No Secrets 2000

• Safeguarding adults (ADASS) 2005: a national framework of standards for good practice in adult protection work.

• Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005, which created a new offence (Section 44: wilful neglect or deliberate ill-treatment of a person who lacks capacity) and implemented Deprivation of Liberty (DOLS) in 2009

• Dignity in Care campaign, launched November 2006

• Fraud Act 2006

• Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act (2006)

• ADASS Carers and Safeguarding Adult Working together to improve outcomes 2011

• Government Policy on Adult Safeguarding (D of H) May 2011

• Protection of Freedoms Act 2012

• Draft Care Bill 2012

• ADASS Safeguarding Adults Guidance 2013

• To place Safeguarding Adults Boards on a statutory basis with Local Authority, NHS and Police being statutory members, with other membership to be decided at a local level

• There is a duty on partners to cooperate

• That Boards will have to report to local communities

• Strategic plan to be agreed by the local community

• The Strategic plan and annual report to be published.

National DevelopmentsThis strategy is influenced by the following documents, legislation and initiatives that reflect the National Safeguarding Agenda:

New LegislationThe draft Care Bill hopefully will set out the first statutory framework for safeguarding adults of which the key elements are:

The draft Care Bill sets out the first statutory framework for safeguarding adults

Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board (RBSAB)RBSAB has a wide membership:

www.rochdale.gov.uk

Rochdale Borough Council has a wide membership:

• Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council - Adult Care, Legal, Strategic Housing

• Rochdale Safer Communities Partnership

• Elected Member

• Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group

• Pennine Acute Hospital Trust

• Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust

• Greater Manchester Police

• Greater Manchester Probation Service

• HM Prison Service

• Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service

• Rochdale Boroughwide Housing

• Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children’s Board

• Healthwatch

• Rochdale and District MindAndy Searle, Chair of the Safeguarding Adults Board

• Age UK

• Carer User Forum

• Rochdale Care Homes Association

• NHS England

Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board

Strategic Board Chair: Andy Searle

Partnership Forum

MCA/DOLS Advisory Group

Rochdale Borough Children’s

Safeguarding Board

Quality Assurance & Performance

Group

Training & Workforce Development

Group

Safeguarding Adults Review

Group

Community & Publicity

Group

(Chair: Allistair Mallen) (Chair: Fiona Nuttall) (Chair: Jane Timson) (Chair: Tricia Hornby)

Health and Wellbeing

Board

Cabinet: Audit & Safeguarding

Committee

Rochdale Safer Communities Partnership

• To set and own the strategic direction for multi-agency developments, improvements in practice and local safeguarding arrangements.

• To ensure common policies for safeguarding exist between agencies and that these are consistently applied.

• To share and disseminate information on national, regional and local developments and to share learning from Safeguarding Adults reviews and national enquiries.

• To work together to deliver shared objectives, agree standards and safeguarding arrangements, address poor standards of care and protect Rochdale residents from harm which threatens safety, independence and well-being.

• Governance and Partnership

• Awareness Raising and Publicity

• Prevention

• Protection

• Quality Assurance and Performance.

This progress is evidenced in the Board’s Annual Report 2011-12 and will be further evidenced in the report for 2012-13, which demonstrates that people’s lives have been improved as a result of safeguarding and also demonstrates a true partnership approach is in place for this work. It is however recognised that there is further work to complete in response and develop of the Safeguarding Adult Framework in Rochdale.

RBSAB has four main functions

They are satisfied with the progress in most of the areas of the Business Plan against the previous five strategic objectives of:

Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Adults Board (RBSAB) has reviewed the Safeguarding Adults Business Plan 2012-13.


“People’s lives have been improved as a result of safeguarding and the Annual Report demonstrates a true partnership approach is in place for this work”

www.rochdale.gov.uk

The overarching principles set out in the statement of Government Policy on Adult Safeguarding Department of Health May 2011 are fully supported by RBSAB:

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 risk presented

Partnership

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

Accountability

Accountability and transparency in delivering safeguarding

In order to achieve the Board’s vision and mission, in line with the Government’s overarching safeguarding principles, the Board is working towards aligning its strategy with the Health and Wellbeing Board, Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Chidren’s Board and the Rochdale Safer Communities Partnership.

The Board has identified 6 strategic outcomes they wish to achieve:

• Abuse of people with care and support needs is prevented wherever possible.

• People in Rochdale understand what Adult Safeguarding is all about.

• Adults are protected from harm in a way that respects their individual circumstances

• Staff and volunteers have a good understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities and put them into practice.

• Partnerships work together and are held to account.


Each of these outcomes will have an annual action plan which will be agreed and implemented by all agencies within the Board which the organisations that make up the Board. are committed to supporting. Progress on the actions will be reviewed by the Board on a regular basis and reported in the Annual Report at the end of the year, which will highlight priorities.

The Vision, the Mission, the PurposeOur vision is that agencies that support people at risk of harm have a culture that promotes good practice within services, raises public awareness to prevent abuse happening, act swiftly when it does and puts the person at the centre of planning to help them achieve good outcomes to ensure that people feel safe in their homes and communities.

The overarching principles are empowerment, protection, prevention, proportionality, partnership and accountability.


Outcome 1:Abuse of people who have or may be in need of care and support services is prevented wherever possible.

What this means

• Improve the multi-agency partnership approach to sharing information to keep people safe from harm.

• A multi-agency approach to raise awareness of the risks of financial crime and exploitation of property, including doorstep crime.

• A strategic action plan is in place to increase awareness of hate crime in the Borough

• Improve links between adult and children’s safeguarding to ensure there are robust transition arrangements for young people in need of support into adulthood.

• Commissioned services are of a high standard, reflect the Dignity agenda and have clear links to Safeguarding.

How will we know?

• Robust Information Sharing Protocols are in place between partners.

• Crime reports demonstrate increased public awareness regarding doorstep crime and loan sharks.

• Partners’self-Assessment will confirm staff are trained in adult safeguarding appropriately.

• Increased reporting of hate crime and a reduction of repeat victims.

• The Quality Assurance Framework will ensure services are of a high quality.

• There is evidence of a multi-agency safeguarding approach.

• Multi Agency Case File Audits will evidence that workers encompass a whole family approach and refer to other agencies appropriately.

Outcome 2:People in Rochdale understand what Adult Safeguarding is all about:

a. Communication

b. Awareness raising

c. How to make alerts

What this means

• RBSAB will devise and implement a communications strategy.

• A Safeguarding Partnership Forum will be in place to engage local communities and stakeholders.

• RBSAB will have fit-for-purpose policies and procedures so everyone knows how to raise an alert.

• Individuals have access to information, advice and advocacy that enables them to take direct action to share concerns and change harmful circumstances.

How will we know?

• Publicity and events regarding adult safeguarding will take place.

• A Safeguarding newsletter is issued quarterly for professionals, providers and interested voluntary organisations.

• Regular audits demonstrate an increase in public awareness of adult safeguarding.

www.rochdale.gov.uk

Outcome 3:Adults at risk are protected from harm in a way that respects their individual circumstances

What this means

• We will ensure our response to alerts is proportionate to the level of risk.

• Adults at Risk say they have a real say in their safeguarding investigation and comment positively on outcomes.

• Local safeguarding policies and procedures are clear, accessible, up-to-date, known and followed consistently.

• We will develop a strategic plan to support victims of sexual exploitation.

• Policies and procedures demonstrate a commitment to outcome focused safeguarding.

• A review of advocacy services will be carried out.

How will we know?

• The number of alerts responded to within timescales is stable or increases.

• The number of investigations completed within agreed timescales is stable or increases.

• A review of policies and procedures is carried out.

• Threshold guidance is available for professionals.

• Once a baseline is established, the number of people with care and support needs say they were listened to and felt in control, and they agreed with the outcome, or understood why it was decided upon.

Outcome 4:Staff and volunteers have a good understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities and put them into practice.

What this means

• All partners have learning and development programmes in place for all staff and volunteers and use the agreed national safeguarding adults’ competency framework.

• A safer recruitment policy and procedure to ensure people are vetted and safe to work with Adults at Risk is in place across all agencies and providers.

• An effective training and development strategy

is in place.

• Staff involved in adult safeguarding are legally literate.

• All those leading and managing safeguarding investigations can evidence that they have appropriate and accredited skills and competencies, and they can take timely, proportionate and personalised action to protect people from harm and risk of further harm.

• There is improved awareness of the Mental Capacity Act.

How will we know?

• Clear pathways exist and are understood for all safeguarding concerns.

• Case audits demonstrate compliance with the Mental Capacity Act.

• Partners’ self-assessment will provide reasonable assurance on safe recruitment policy and practice.

• The Quality Assurance Framework will measure staff and volunteers’ understanding and compliance of their safeguarding responsibilities.


Outcome 5:Partnerships work together and are held to account.

What this means

• Each partner organisation is clear about its role and responsibility in safeguarding adults and meets agreed national and local standards.

• Service users and carers are involved in the work of the Board and subgroups.

• Safeguarding Adult Reviews are held when there are concerns about the way partners have worked together.

• The RBSAB works collaboratively with the Health and Wellbeing Board, the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children’s Board and the Rochdale Safer Communities Partnership.

• There is evidence that all partners work together and share information appropriately and in a timely way.

How will we know?

• Timely publication of an Annual Report with contributions from all partners.

• A Quality Assurance Framework is in place with a plan to introduce Multi Agency Case File Audits.

• Voluntary scrutiny arrangements can be evidenced.

• An annual business plan is in place that reflects partners’ contribution to the Board’s objectives.

• There is evidence that Board members are effectively challenging each other.

Outcome 6:We will listen to others to improve continually

What this means

• Feedback from service users and carers is used to improve safeguarding processes.

• Service users and carers are involved in the work of the board.

• Feedback from workers and carers is used to improve safeguarding processes.

• We will undertake Safeguarding Adults Reviews and Lesssons Learned Reviews to ensure that lessons are learned when things go wrong.

• We will take account of the lessons that have been learned in other areas.

How will we know?

• Improved safeguarding arrangements evidenced by satisfaction surveys

• There is evidence that feedback and suggestions influence positive local change in practices.

• Improvements are made as a result of recommendations from Safeguarding Adults Reviews and Lessons Learned Reviews, nationally and locally.

• Feedback and learning from Comments, Compliments and Complaints.

Summary:We recognise the success of the delivery of the Safeguarding Adult framework is reliant on partners working together well. Our strategy and resultant annual business plans will continue to evolve as we respond to the national as well as the local agenda. We will need to continually review how we deliver this business and ensure our approach is fit for purpose. It is believed that this strategy will facilitate this opportunity. The principles and outcomes outlined in this strategy are a focus for this safeguarding partnership. All partners are pro-active in this approach which is evidenced by the assigned responsibilities for the key actions.

RBSAB is committed to Safeguarding Adults and will continue to establish a society where there is zero tolerance of adult abuse.

www.rochdale.gov.uk

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