Safeguarding Adults Board6th Annual ConferenceImplications of changes in the Care Bill

Bill Hodson – Independent Chair

What I will cover

• The general provisions of the Care Bill and how

these link into safeguarding

• The specific provisions for adult safeguarding and

the role of boards

• Topics for you to discuss on tables – implications

arising from the Care Bill

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• Promote people’s wellbeing

• Enable people to prevent and postpone the need for care and support

• Put people in control of their lives so they can pursue opportunities to realise their potential

If adult care and support in England is going to respond to challenges it must help people to stay well and independent

Caring for our Future

Main areas covered in the Bill

• Advice and Information

• Carer identification and support

• Assessment of need and eligibility for support

• Personalised support plans and personal budgets

• Financial assessment and a cap on care costs

• Safeguarding

• Market overview and provider failure

• Transition from child to adult

• Single failure scheme (NHS and Foundation Trusts)

• Health and social care ratings

Structure of the Care Bill

• Part 1 – Care and Support  

• Part 2 – Care Standards

• Part 3 – Health

• Part 4 – Integration Fund

• Part 5 – General  

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Implementing the reformsPrimary legislation – the Care BillThe legal duties and powers

Secondary legislation – the regulationsMore detail on critical requirements, often related to processes. The scope of regulations will depend on the powers specified in the Bill.

Statutory guidanceGuidance on how to meet legal obligations in the Bill. Will set out at a high-level the expectations of local authorities when exercising their functions. These are not mandated requirements, but the LA must have “cogent” reasons that it can legally justify if it wants to take another course.

Practice guidanceBest practice guidance, toolkits and other products which help support implementation. These do not have any legal status, so may be used by LAs, or not. They will vary from one area to another, and should be agreed/co-produced with stakeholders to ensure buy-in.

Progress of safeguarding reviews

• Review of No Secrets in 2008

• Report on the Consultation: The Review of No Secrets Guidance July 2009

• Law Commission Consultation on Adult Social Care Law 2010

• Consultation on the Care and Support Bill and Powers of Entry 2012

Safeguarding Sections and Schedule 2• Clause 42 Enquiry by local authority

• Clause 43 and Schedule 2 Safeguarding Adults Boards

• Clause 44 Safeguarding Adults Reviews

• Clause 45 Supply of information

• Clause 46 Abolition of local authority’s power to remove persons in need of care

• Clause 47 Protecting property of adults being cared for away from home

Clause 42 - Enquiries

When a local authority has “reasonable cause” to suspect that an adult at risk

•is experiencing abuse or neglect, or

•is at risk of, abuse or neglect

It must

•make enquiries, or

•cause enquiries to be made

Clause 42 – Enquiries (2)

This includes any enquiries necessary to enable it:

•to decide whether any action should be taken, and, if so,

•what action should be taken, and

•by whom.

Clause 42 – Enquiries (3)

No clarity is given about whether:

•the enquiry is itself the full investigation, or

•an investigation would be an action taken as a result of (initial) enquiries

No mention is made about:

•interim protection arrangements whilst enquiries are made or an investigation undertaken

•long term protection plans

Clause 43 – Safeguarding Adults Boards Each local authority must establish a Safeguarding Adults Board (a “SAB”) for its area.

•The objective of a SAB is to “help and protect” adults at risk in its area

•The SAB is expected to co-ordinate and ensure the effectiveness of what each Board member does.

•The SAB may do anything necessary or desirable to achieve its objective.

Schedule 2 – Safeguarding Adults Boards

The members of SAB must include

•the local authority

•the clinical commissioning group(s)

•the police

These members:

•may make payments towards expenditure incurred by the SAB and

•may provide staff, goods, services, accommodation or other resources

Schedule 2 – Safeguarding Adults Boards (2)

• The SAB can also include other members, as required.

• The local authority must appoint the chair of the SAB

• Each member of the SAB must appoint a person to represent it

• Specific statutory guidance will be published for the local authority as a member of the SAB.

• Other members of the SAB must have regard to guidance as issued.

• The SAB may regulate its own procedure.

Schedule 2 – Safeguarding Adults Boards (3)

The SAB must publish, for each financial year, a plan (its “strategic plan”) which sets out:•its strategy for helping and protecting adults at risk•what each member is to do to implement that strategy.In preparing its strategic plan, the SAB must:•consult the Healthwatch organisation for its area•involve the community in its area.

Schedule 2 – Safeguarding Adults Boards (4)

The SAB must publish an annual report, and send a copy to:

•the chief executive and the leader of the local authority

•the local policing body

•Healthwatch

•the chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board

Schedule 2 – Safeguarding Adults Boards (5)

The annual report must include:•what the SAB has done during that year to achieve its objective•what the SAB has done during that year to implement its strategy•what each member has done during that year to implement the strategy•the findings of any safeguarding adults reviews that have concluded in that year•the safeguarding adults reviews that are ongoing at the end of that year •what it has done during that year to implement the findings of safeguarding adults reviews•if the SAB has decided during that year not to implement a finding of a safeguarding adults review, the reasons for its decision.

Clause 44 – Safeguarding Adults ReviewsThe SAB must do a review, if

•An adult has died, and the SAB knows or suspects that the death resulted from abuse or neglect

or

•the adult is still alive, but the SAB knows or suspects that the adult has experienced serious abuse or neglect.

and

•there is reasonable cause for concern about how the SAB, its members or others worked together to safeguard the adult

Clause 44 – Safeguarding Adults Reviews (2)

The SAB may do a review of any other case

Each SAB member must co-operate in and contribute to the carrying out of a review under this section with a view to:

•identifying the lessons to be learnt from the adult’s case,

and

•applying those lessons to future cases.

Clause 45 – Supply of Information

Information must be supplied, if the SAB requests a person to supply it, to:

•help or protect an adult at risk, or

•undertake a review

and the information relates to one of the following:

•the person to whom the request is made

•a function or activity of that person

•a person in respect of whom that person exercises a function or engages in an activity

Other Relevant Sections

• Prevention

• Multi-agency working

• Assessment

• Involvement

• Desired Outcomes

• Advocacy

• Information and Advice

• Local Authority Leadership

Prevention, Multi-agency Working and Assessment

• Clause 1, para 2 c) and 3 g) re promoting wellbeing

• Clause 6, para 6 d) and e), and other paras that describe relevant partners, etc., re duty to cooperate

• Clause 11, para 2 b), which needs to be read in the context of the rest of clause 11 and clause 9, refusal of assessment overridden by risk of abuse or neglect

• Clause 58 especially para 4 and clause 63, especially para 4 (c.f. clause 11), relating to transitions and young carers and refusal of assessment overridden by risk of abuse

Involvement, Outcomes, Advocacy

• Clause 1 para 3 a) and b) re the duty to have regard to the fact that the individual is best-placed to judge their own well-being, and the duty to have regard to the individual’s views, wishes, feelings and beliefs

• Clause 9 para 4 b) importance in assessment of the outcomes the person wishes to achieve

• Clause 68, re advocacy support for safeguarding and SARs.

Information and Advice, Local Authority LeadershipAdvice

•Clause 75 re prisons, SAB may provide advice or assistance to any person for the purpose of helping and protecting adults experiencing or at risk of abuse or neglect

Local Authority lead on Safeguarding Adults

•Clause 78 re not permitted to delegate Local Authority functions under sections 42 to 47.

What does this mean for us ?

• Changes to the way safeguarding adults boards work – leadership issues

• Culture change – placing wellbeing and outcomes for people at the heart of what we do

• New processes for sharing information, partnership working and reviews

• Training, learning and development for staff

• Other issues you have thought of