Warwickshire
Safeguarding Adults
Board
Strategic Plan
2015 - 18
CONTENTS
Page
Foreword from the Independent Chair
3
What is Safeguarding?
4
Categories of Abuse
4
Why a Local Strategy
5
Background
5
The Care Act 2014
6
Role of the Safeguarding Adults Board
7
The Vision for Warwickshire
8
Making Safeguarding personal
8
Knowledge and Performance Management
9
Public Involvement
9
Promotion
10
Engagement with Strategic Partnerships
10
Board Membership
11
WSAB Budget 2015-16
12
Governance Arrangements
13
WSAB Business Plan 2015-16
14
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Foreword from the Independent Chair
The Care Act and related Guidance came into force on April 1 st 2015. These give
definition to the status, role and function of our Safeguarding Adults Board and we
have done a great deal of work to understand the changes required of us and have
the important elements in place. We started from a good point; the Board is well
established and has an independent Chair. It has strong commitment from its
members and is effectively supported by its dedicated staff and others.
We face new challenges ranging through the inclusion of self-neglect as a category
of abuse through to the requirement for public involvement in the production of this
Strategic Plan, to changes in Board membership and accountabilities. Some of
these we can address and deliver. Others will need commitment and more work
during the first year of this strategy and will form a definitive element in years 2 and
3.
The prime focus of the work of the Board is to ensure that safeguarding is
consistently understood by anyone engaging with adults who may be at risk of or
experiencing abuse or neglect and that there is common commitment to improving
outcomes for them. This means understanding how to support and empower people
at risk of harm and anti-social behaviour to resolve the circumstances which put them
at risk. We want to develop and facilitate practice which puts the person in control
and generates a more person-centred set of responses and outcomes. This includes
being confident that effective advocacy services are in place for anyone who may
need them at any point during a safeguarding episode.
When things go seriously wrong, we have a responsibility to look into this thoroughly
with a Safeguarding Adults Review reporting the findings and learning so that
practice will improve. Equally important, is our role in promoting good practice and
giving our residents proper confidence that concerns can be expressed and will be
responded to effectively.
All working in adult safeguarding have the difficult task of understanding risk,
assessing the level of this for the individual concerned and constructing a plan to
manage this which works for the person and is understood by those around them.
This demands sound grasp of the legal basis for their work along with effective
listening and communication. This often presents a challenge in a society where
there is a pressing tendency to avoid rather than to manage risk. A key task for the
Board is to evaluate the quality of risk management in safeguarding in Warwickshire
and assure all of us that the right balance is being struck.
This Strategy sets our tone and purpose for the coming three years. It is not a fixed
document and will be reviewed and developed annually, but gives definition to what
is important for adult safeguarding in Warwickshire and how your Safeguarding
Adults Board will work, to ensure that everything is being done to prevent abuse and
that a timely and proportionate response is made when it occurs.
Mike Taylor
Independent Chair
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What is Safeguarding?
The Care Act Statutory Guidance published in October 2014 under Section 14.7
describes adult safeguarding as “protecting an adult’s right to live in safety, free from
abuse and neglect. It is about people and organisations working together to prevent
and stop both the risks and experience of abuse or neglect, while at the same time,
making sure that the adult’s wellbeing is promoted including where appropriate,
having regard to their views, wishes, feelings and beliefs in deciding on any action.
This must recognise that adults sometimes have complex interpersonal relationships
and may be ambivalent, unclear or unrealistic about their personal circumstances”.
Categories of Abuse
Section 14.17 of The Care Act Statutory Guidance describes the various categories
of abuse:
Physical abuse – including assault, hitting, slapping, pushing,
medication, restraint or inappropriate physical sanctions.
misuse of
Domestic violence – including psychological, physical, sexual, financial, emotional
abuse; so called ‘honour’ based violence.
Sexual abuse – including rape, indecent exposure, sexual harassment,
inappropriate looking or touching, sexual teasing or innuendo, sexual photography,
subjection to pornography or witnessing sexual acts, indecent exposure and sexual
assault or sexual acts to which the adult has not consented or was pressured into
consenting.
Psychological abuse – including emotional abuse, threats of harm or abandonment,
deprivation of contact, humiliation, blaming, controlling, intimidation, coercion,
harassment, verbal abuse, cyber bullying, isolation or unreasonable and unjustified
withdrawal of services or supportive networks.
Financial or material abuse - including theft, fraud, internet scamming, coercion in
relation to an adult’s financial affairs or arrangements, including in connection with
wills, property, inheritance or financial transactions, or the misuse or
misappropriation of property, possessions or benefits.
Modern slavery - encompasses slavery, human trafficking, forced labour and
domestic servitude. Traffickers and slave masters use whatever means they have at
their disposal to coerce, deceive and force individuals into a life of abuse, servitude
and inhumane treatment.
Discriminatory abuse - including forms of harassment, slurs or similar treatment;
because of race, gender and gender identity, age, disability, sexual orientation or
religion.
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Organisational abuse – including neglect and poor care practice within an institution
or specific care setting such as a hospital or care home for example, or in relation to
care provided in one’s own home. This may range from one off incidents to on-going
ill-treatment. It can be through neglect or poor professional practice as a result of the
structure, policies, processes and practices within an organisation.
Neglect and acts of omission – including ignoring medical, emotional or physical
care needs, failure to provide access to appropriate health, care and support or
educational services, the withholding of the necessities of life, such as medication,
adequate nutrition and heating
Self-neglect – this covers a wide range of behaviour neglecting to care for one’s
personal hygiene, health or surroundings and includes behaviour such as hoarding.
Why a local strategy?
Whilst the production of a strategic plan is a statutory requirement (Care Act 2014 see page 6) a local strategy is also key to supporting our aim to work with
Warwickshire people and with 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;
• Properly supported by agencies when they need protection.
Since the publication of ‘No Secrets’ in 2000, we have worked to promote an
understanding and actions that “safeguarding is everybody’s business”. The
development of this strategy marks a commitment for a shared vision and actions
that will keep adults at risk safe and protected from abuse and neglect.
Leadership by the Local Authority and its partners is fundamental and it is important
to be clear about the place of our Safeguarding Adults Board in supporting delivery of
the wider safeguarding agenda. This strategy provides an overview of local
safeguarding arrangements under the overarching umbrella of the Warwickshire
Safeguarding Adults Board.
Background
Warwickshire Safeguarding Adults Board has now completed the actions identified in
a three year strategic business plan (2012-15) which was published in May 2011.
This will help to provide a strong foundation to shape and inform the refreshed
WSAB Strategic Business Plan for 2015 onwards and adopt the new Care Act
statutory duties relating to safeguarding adults boards.
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The Care Act 2014
The Care Act 2014 provides the legal framework for adult safeguarding, setting out
the responsibilities of local authorities and their partners. It places a duty on Local
Authorities to establish Safeguarding Adults Boards and also stipulates local
authorities’ responsibilities and those with whom they work, to protect adults at risk of
abuse or neglect.
The role of a Safeguarding Adults Board is detailed in Schedule 1 of the Care Act
2014, which states the objective of Safeguarding Adults Boards as being to help and
protect adults in its area by co-ordinating and ensuring the effectiveness of what
each of its members does and each Board may do anything which appears to it, to
be necessary or desirable for the purpose of achieving its objective.
The Act details the statutory requirement to have a Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB)
and that the Board has three primary functions:
1. It must publish a strategic plan for each financial year that sets how it will meet
its main objective, and what the members will do to achieve these objectives.
The plan must be developed with local community involvement and the SAB
must consult the Local Health watch organisation.
2. It must publish an annual report detailing what the SAB has done during the year
to achieve its main objective and implement its strategic plan and what each
member has done to implement the strategy, as well as detailing the findings of
any Safeguarding Adults Reviews or any on-going reviews.
3. It must conduct any Safeguarding Adults Review.
Additionally, the Care Act specifies core membership for the Board and suggests
wider membership. There is clarity about the formal delivery and oversight of the
Boards objectives through strategic and business planning. The Board has
responsibility for setting the vision for safeguarding locally and ensuring delivery of
this Strategic Plan along with its annual update.
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Role of the Safeguarding Adults Board
The Care Act states that Safeguarding Adults Boards should:
• Identify the role, responsibility, authority and accountability with regard to the action
each agency and professional group should take to ensure the protection of adults;
• Establish ways of analysing and interrogating data on safeguarding notifications
that increase the SAB’s understanding of prevalence of abuse and neglect locally
that builds up a picture over time;
• Establish how it will hold partners to account and gain assurance of the
effectiveness of its arrangements;
• Determine its arrangements for peer review and self-audit;
• Establish mechanisms for developing policies and strategies for protecting adults
which should be formulated, not only in collaboration and consultation with all
relevant agencies, but also take account of the views of adults who have needs for
care and support, their families, advocates and carer representatives;
• Develop preventative strategies that aim to reduce instances of abuse and neglect
in its area;
• Identify types of circumstances giving grounds for concern and when they should
be considered as a referral to the local authority as an enquiry;
• Formulate guidance about the arrangements for managing adult safeguarding, and
dealing with complaints, grievances and professional and administrative malpractice
in relation to safeguarding adults;
• Develop strategies to deal with the impact of issues of race, ethnicity, religion,
gender and gender orientation, sexual orientation, age, disadvantage and disability
on abuse and neglect;
• Balance the requirements of confidentiality with the consideration that, to protect
adults, it may be necessary to share information on a ‘need-to-know basis’;
• Identify mechanisms for monitoring and reviewing the implementation and impact of
policy and training; 8 Safeguarding Adults | Three-Year Strategy 2014 – 2017;
• Carry out safeguarding adult reviews;
• Produce a Strategic Plan and an Annual Report;
• Evidence how SAB members have challenged one another and held other boards
to ‘account; and’
• Promote multi-agency training and consider any specialist training that may be
required. Consider any scope to jointly commission some training with other
partnerships, such as the Community Safety Partnership.
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The Vision for Warwickshire
We will all work together to enable people in Warwickshire to live a life free from fear,
harm and abuse.
Warwickshire recognises that safeguarding adults is not just about reacting when
abuse has been identified, but is a continuum of activity and development of a culture
that promotes good practice within services, raises public awareness, responds
effectively and swiftly when abuse or neglect has been alleged or occurs, is sensitive
to the issues of cultural diversity and puts the person at the centre of planning to
ensure they are safe in their homes and communities.
The Warwickshire Safeguarding Adults Board [WSAB] aims to achieve its objectives
whilst supporting individuals in maintaining control over their lives and in making
informed choices without coercion. In achieving this, the following 6 key principles
must be followed:
 Empowerment:
Presumption of person led decisions and informed consent
 Prevention:
It is better to take action before harm occurs
 Proportionality:
The least intrusive response appropriate to the risk presented
 Protection:
Support and representation for those in greatest need
 Partnership:
Local Solutions through services working with communities
 Accountability:
Accountability and transparency in delivering safeguarding
Making Safeguarding Personal
This is a radical shift in our approach to safeguarding and implementation of this way
of working and will be a key priority for the Board moving forwards. Essentially it
requires engagement with people at an early stage to establish the outcomes they
want throughout the process and at the conclusion of the safeguarding intervention.
Unless people's lives are improved, then all the safeguarding work, systems,
procedures and partnerships are purposeless.
An outcomes approach to
safeguarding will:
• Enable and empower individuals to express what they want to happen;
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• Enable practitioners to support people to make the difference they want in their
lives as well as increasing their safety and well-being;
• Make the process of safeguarding personal.
Making safeguarding personal is a shift from a process supported by conversations
to a series of conversations supported by a process. Ensuring there is an emphasis
in those conversations about what would improve an individual’s quality of life as well
as their safety.
Making safeguarding personal approaches will become a ‘golden thread’ that will run
through strategic and operational adult safeguarding work in Warwickshire, and will
be reflected within the work programme for 2015-18.
Knowledge and Performance Management
The Board continues to receive a dashboard report, which provides good information
about safeguarding activity in Warwickshire. This report will always be under
continuous development and does provide high quality information. As part of
implementing ‘Making Safeguarding Personal’ the Board will want to see evidence of
increasing engagement and involvement of those individuals who experience
safeguarding services and improved knowledge of the following become more
evident:
• Evaluation of not only the outcome of investigations but also the experience of
those who use safeguarding services. Also, how those experiences have been used
to improve services;
• Is there effective involvement from those requiring safeguarding support? Does
their sense of being in control increase and do they sufficiently influence and
determine the outcome?
• An understanding of how effective support is provided for carers;
• Is there effective application of the Mental Capacity Act and appropriate use of
advocacy?
• An understanding of how commissioners are developing and procuring services
with contracting arrangements that ensure the provision of personalised services. Do
contracts respect people’s dignity and contain safeguards for their human rights?
• An increased understanding of emerging trends and how this information can
inform practice development across WSAB agencies.
Public Involvement
For the Warwickshire Safeguarding Adults Board to comply fully with its new
statutory function it must not become disengaged from the public it serves. It is
chaired independently and at arm’s length from the main statutory partners and to
that extent, is able to be independent and challenge constructively. The Board has
consistently strived to establish ways of fulfilling this by developing more effective
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ways of engaging with citizens. It recognises that this must continue to be a priority
over the next period and to do so:
• Individual Board Members will actively engage with both the workforce they
manage and the public to raise awareness and understanding;
• The Chair and Board members will seek opportunities to meet with representative
groups to consult and to raise the profile of safeguarding. The responsibility of being
a Board Member will not be restricted to simply attending Board meetings;
• Public engagement/involvement will be included within the WSAB Governance
Group programme of work for 2015-18.
Promotion
Considerable progress has been made over recent years raising awareness of
safeguarding. Evidence of this locally has been the increase in referrals and alerts. It
is important that there continues to be an emphasis on producing good quality and
up to date information and publicity materials. Keeping the public informed and
effective use of the media are important in raising awareness.
It is therefore important that alongside the continued process of information provision
to raise awareness, that the website for Warwickshire Safeguarding Adults Board is
reviewed and updated to realise these aspirations.
Engagement with Strategic Partnerships
The Care Act states that Strategic Partnerships include:
•
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CCG Board (s)
Children’s Safeguarding Board
Community Safety Partnership
Overview and Scrutiny Committee
Health and Wellbeing Board
Quality Surveillance Groups
The Board is dependent on the performance of other agencies with a safeguarding
remit for meeting its objectives. It will need to identify agreed responsibilities and
reporting relationships with these to ensure collaborative action.
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Board Membership
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Warwickshire County Council
Director of Adult Social Services
Head of Social Care and Support
Head of Safeguarding
Head of Strategic Commissioning
Head of Service for Localities and Community Safety
Director of Public Health
Warwickshire Police
National Probation Service
Warwickshire and West Mercia Community Rehabilitation Company
Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service
Warwickshire District and Borough Councils
Clinical Commissioning Groups (Commissioning)
The Care Quality Commission
NHS England (Commissioning)
Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Partnership Trust (Provider)
South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust (Provider)
University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust (Provider)
George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust (Provider)
Age UK Warwickshire
West Midlands Ambulance Service
Healthwatch
The Lead Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care
The Board is chaired by an Independent Chair appointed by the local authority. The Director
of Adult Social Services (DASS) will act as Vice Chair.
The WSAB Business Manager will attend all meetings to provide professional advice
to the Board
Unless present as a member representative, the Chairs of the WSAB SubCommittees will be members of the SAB.
The Lead Nurse, Safeguarding Adults Warwickshire will receive agenda and papers
and attend as required to provide professional advice to the Board
The Legal Advisor to the Board - designated by WCC (will consider agenda papers
and attend as required to provide professional advice to the Board).
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WSAB Budget 2015-16
The core budget of WSAB is constituted from contributions by Warwickshire County
Council, Police, Clinical Commissioning Groups (3) and District and Borough
Councils:
Warwickshire County Council
Police
Clinical Commissioning Groups
District and Borough Councils
£63,640
£17,858
£33,611
£10,465
Total
£125,574
There is in addition, a sum of £40,000 that is currently ring fenced to the WCC
Workforce Development budget to deliver the adult safeguarding training
programme.
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Governance Arrangements
The Governance Group will comprise the Chairs of the Sub-Committees and senior
managers from the statutory agencies. It will oversee the work programmes of the
Sub-Committees of the SAB and monitor the delivery and review of this strategy.
WSAB
Mike Taylor
Governance Group
Mike Taylor
Mike Taylor
Performance
Performance
Monitoring
Monitoring
& and
Evaluation
Policy,
Policy,
Procedures
Procedure
and
&
Guidance
(Jenny ButlinMoran)
(Mike Wood)
Workforce
Workforce
Development
Development
(Rachel Faulkner)
(Rachel Faulkner)
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District and
District
Borough
(Jenny
Butlin-Moran)
Councils Seato
Safeguarding
Adults Review
(Nick Cadd)
(Marie Seaton)
Introduction
The formulation of the WSAB Business Plan 2015-16 has been informed by a
combination of local agency consultation and Care Act statutory requirements. It is to
be recognised that this is a starting point for much of the work that lies ahead, and
some of the priorities will need to be developed further as additional statutory
guidance is issued and reviews of the Business Plan are completed. There will be an
increasing requirement going forwards to scrutinise individual agency performance,
which will then be reported upon in WSAB Annual Reports.
WSAB Business Plan 2015-16
No.
Priority
Action owner
Timescales
Success Measure
1
Updated Adult
Safeguarding Policies
and Procedures are
in place to enable
staff in all agencies to
work to an
appropriate and
consistent policy
context
Produce a Workforce
Development
Strategy and
associated multiagency training
programmes
Policies,
Procedures and
Guidance Sub
Committee
April 2015
Policies and Procedures
are approved and
adopted by WSAB
Workforce
Development
Sub Committee
April – July
2015
Workforce Development
Strategy and training
and development
programmes approved
by WSAB and
implemented
3
Produce a
Communications
Strategy
Governance
Group
April – July
2015
Communications
Strategy approved by
WSAB
4
Review and update
the WSAB website
Governance
Group
2015
WSAB website is
delivered and
operational during 2015
5
Review the audit and
performance
programme
Performance,
Monitoring and
Evaluation Sub
Committee
April – July
2015
Refined audit and
performance
programme adopted by
WSAB
2
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6
Improve community
involvement in
reviewing the WSAB
Strategic Plan for
2016 and beyond
WSAB to oversee the
implementation of the
principles embedded
in ‘Making
Safeguarding’
Personal
Governance
Group
2015-16
Evidenced engagement
with the community
informing future WSAB
strategic plans
Governance
Group
2015-16
Partners submit action
plans and progress
reports to WSAB that
reflect how agencies are
embedding the
principles of Making
Safeguarding Personal
within their organisation
8
Develop a WSAB
Prevention Strategy
Governance
Group
2015
People at risk are
identified at an early
stage and offered
appropriate advice and
support before a crisis
develops
9
Further develop
reporting systems to
increase WSAB
understanding of the
statistical data
collected
Review national
published
Safeguarding Adult
reviews (SAR’s) and
emerging case law
and implications for
practice, and advise
WSAB
Performance,
Monitoring and
Evaluation Sub
Committee
2015
More refined and
targeted statistical data
reported at WSAB
Safeguarding
Adults Review
Sub Committee
2015-16
Lessons learned from
SAR’s shared at WSAB
and used to inform
developing practice and
workforce development
training programmes
7
10
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