1. Presentation to Housing and Safeguarding Adults Conference re the implications of the Care Act th September 2014
Pete Morgan
Interim Independent Chair

2. Safeguarding Adults under the Care Act
The statutory role of Safeguarding Adults Boards (SABs)
Who are the SAB?
What can and can’t SABs do?
Who are they accountable to?
What powers do they have?
How is HSAB responding to the Care Act?

3. The Safeguarding Vision
To promote and protect individual human rights, independence and well-being and
secure assurance that adults at risk stay safe, are effectively safeguarded against abuse, neglect, discrimination, embarrassment or poor treatment,
are treated with dignity and respect and enjoy a high quality of life”
Birmingham SAB 2007

4. The Safeguarding Adults Vision
Citizenship Empowerment Protection m

5. What is ‘Safeguarding Adults?’
I’m not sure, but …..
whatever it is, it has to fulfil the Safeguarding Vision and assist or enable the individual to move along the continuum from Protection towards Citizenship and
I would suggest that the term itself may cause confusion as it can conflate quality assurance with protection from abuse and neglect.

6. What is ‘Safeguarding Adults’?
Whatever it is and whatever we call it:
it must be timely
It must be proportionate
It must be outcome focused
Practice not procedure based
And remember LJ Munby – what is the point of making someone safe if you make them miserable?

7. The position pre-Care Act
No Secrets (2000)
Issued under Local Authority Circular
Guidance only
Role of Local Authorities
Develop multi-agency Vulnerable Adult Protection P&P
Multi-agency Committees (VAPCs)
No Duty to Cooperate

8. VAPC evolved ….. Variable: governance processes membership & chairs
accountabilities
structures
infrastructures
policies and procedures
budgets
data bases

9. What does the Care Act say?
Local authority must make or cause to be made whatever enquiries it thinks necessary where an adult in its area:
has need for care and support,
is experiencing, or is at risk of abuse or neglect
and as a result of those needs is unable to protect himself or herself against the abuse or neglect or risk of it
to enable it to decide whether any action should be taken and, if so, what and by whom.
(Section 41)

10. ‘Enquiry’ or ‘Investigation’?
What is the difference?
The Act doesn’t define what an ‘enquiry’ is and doesn’t refer to a ‘safeguarding investigation’

11. What is an ‘Enquiry’ within the Act?
Presumably it is that which enables the local authority to decide:
‘…whether any action should be taken in the adult’s case’
‘and, if so, what’
‘and by whom’

12. What is an ‘Enquiry’ within the Act?
In other words:
It covers the entire process of the implementation of safeguarding adult procedures to the point where the safeguarding plan is in place

13. Types of possible ‘Enquiry’ (I think they mean Investigation!)
Criminal
Regulatory
Health & Safety
Service Commissioners
Serious Incident
Social Care
Disciplinary
Court of Protection
etc

14. Function of the multi-agency safeguarding adults procedures
to provide the multi-agency forum to coordinate the above, to manage the response/s to an allegation or concern of adult abuse

15. Enquiry = total process from Alert to Assessment
Investigation = gathering information on a single agency basis
Assessment = analysing the findings of the different investigations to inform decision- making

16. In addition ….. Safeguarding must also include
Intervention = implementing and monitoring the decision/s
There is a final stage – the closure of the safeguarding procedure or process

17. What are the Duties of SABs under the Care Act?
The SAB’s Objective is to help and protect adults in its area in cases of the kind described in section 41
The SAB must seek its objective by coordinating and ensuring the effectiveness of what each of its members does
(Section 42)

18. What are the Duties of SABs under the Care Act?
The SAB must commission a Safeguarding Adult Review if there is reasonable cause for concern about how the SAB, members or other persons with relevant functions worked together to safeguard an adult the SAB knows or suspects has died as a result of or experienced serious abuse or neglect
(Section 43)

19. What are the Duties of SABs under the Care Act?
The SAB must publish:
a Strategic Plan annually setting out its strategy for achieving its objectives and what each member is to do
(Schedule 2; 3)
an Annual Report which details what it has done to achieve its objective and implement its strategy, any SARs commissioned during the year and the findings of any SARs concluded during the year
(Schedule 2; 4)

20. Who are the SAB? The LA that established it
Any CCG which covers part of the LA area
The chief officer/s of police for the LA area
Such persons as specified in regulations
Plus anybody the LA thinks appropriate*
The LA appoints a chair it considers* to have the required skills and experience
* After consultation with the other statutory
members
(Schedule 2; 1)

21. What can and can’t SABs do?
An SAB may do anything which appears to it to be necessary or desirable for the purpose of achieving its objective
(Section 42 (4))
An SAB may regulate its own procedure
(Schedule 2; 1 (7))
Require persons to provide information to enable or assist the SAB to exercise its functions
(Section 44)

22. Who are they accountable to?
The Act doesn’t say, but the LA is charged with establishing the SAB, not the DASS
The Strategic Plan has to be ‘published’(?)
(Schedule 2; 3)
A copy of the Annual Report must be sent to the chief executive and leader of the LA; any police body in the LA’s area; the local Healthwatch and the chair of the Health & Wellbeing Board for the area
Note – no mention of CCGs
(Schedule 2; 4)

23. What powers do they have?
A local authority must co-operate with each of its relevant partners, and each relevant partner must co-operate with the authority in the exercise of their respective functions relating to adults with needs for care and support
(Section 6 (1) a)
They must comply unless it considers that doing so would be incompatible with its own duties or have an adverse effect on the exercise of its functions
(Section 7 (1))

24. What resources do SABs have?
A statutory member of an SAB may:
make payments directly or by contributing to a fund towards the expenditure incurred by or for purposes connected with the SAB and
provide staff, goods, services, accommodation or other resources for purposes connected with the SAB
(Schedule 2; 2)
There is no formula to calculate the above

25. An opportunity missed? Membership: Service users Carers
Providers – health and social care
Voluntary sector
Minority Groups (including BME)

26. An opportunity missed? Independent Chairs:
Not required nor recommended
How can a member agency hold itself to account for the effectiveness of its actions?
(Think Police; think MPs; think the Press; think Bankers.)

27. An opportunity missed? Resource base:
Requires distinction between work of the SAB and the safeguarding activity of individual agencies
No base level
Section 7 provides a ‘get-out-of-jail’ card

28. An opportunity missed? Links to other partnerships:
Remember the continuum
Safeguarding adults overlaps with safeguarding children
It overlaps with Community Safety
It overlaps with Health & Wellbeing

29. Will Regulations help? They could but ……
Specifically not with regard to membership
The DoH has continually stressed its wish to retain what currently works well locally
The emphasis is therefore on Practice Guidance which is focused on ‘wicked issues’

30. Role of the Safeguarding Board
Policy & Procedure ratification
Communication Strategy
Staff Development Strategy
Commissioning Strategy
Service Development Strategy
Quality Assurance Strategy
Dissemination of Best Practice
‘Horizon-watching’
Informing the National Agenda

31. Conclusions SABs will need: to establish their own structures
to clarify the difference between ‘members’ and ‘partners’ – strategic v operational?
to know what sanctions they can impose/seek to have imposed
Independent Chairs and Independent Chairs need a peer support system
to develop protocols with other LCPs
to recognise issues of non co-terminosity

32. Safeguarding is about ‘empowerment’ How do you achieve ‘empowerment’?
By empowering practitioners to empower service users ……….
by enabling them to exercise their professional judgement

33. But remember ….. Where does most abuse occur?
Who are the most frequent abusers?
What do most ‘victims’ want?

34. How is HSAB responding
to the Care Act?

35. Underlying Principles
Be Care Act 2014 compatible
Separate the Strategic from the Operational
Refocus HSAB on its ‘core business’
Make members accountable
Reduce duplication of effort
Coordinate internal and external activity
Facilitate transparency
Responsibility = Power

36. Proposed Structure Strategic Board – HSSAB Operational Board – HSAB
Sub-Groups
Task-and-Finish Groups

37. HSSAB
Meets quarterly
Membership as required by the Care Act – LA, CCGs x 2 & Police + Independent Chair
Sets and allocates HSSAB budget
Agrees Strategic Objectives
Agrees Business Plan
Establishes Sub-Groups
Reports back as required by the Care Act and to members’ internal governance structures

38. HSAB
Meets quarterly
Membership – as required by Care Act + representatives of Health and Social Care Providers, Service Users, Carers
Implements Business Plan
Populates & Chairs Sub-Groups
Establishes Task-and-Finish groups as necessary
Reports back to HSSAB

39. Proposed Sub-Groups Safeguarding Adults Review Learning & Development
Public Engagement
?Audit
?Policy & Procedures ?

40. Proposed Budget 3 year-rolling budget
Contributions from HCS, CCGs x 2 + Police
2 posts – p/t admin + 1fte ‘Business Manager’
Managed by HSSAB
Allocations to activity areas for HSAB to access
Quarterly reports to HSAB

41. Business Process Maintenance activity
Informs agenda setting for HSSAB & HSAB
Governance processes for both Boards
Drawn from current Business plan

42. Business Plan Set by HSSAB Rolling 3-year plan Developmental in nature
Informed by consultation process required by the Care Act
Informed by SARs and other review/audit processes
Informed by the national agenda
Implemented by HSAB

43. Risk Register Risk Register for HSSAB
NOT a collation of member agencies’ Risk Registers
Informed by a combination of the Business Plan and Process
Managed by HSSAB
Reported quarterly to HSAB