Agenda item

Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB) Annual Report 2017-18

A report presenting the Committee with the West of Berkshire Safeguarding Adults Board Annual Report 2017-18.

Minutes:

The Director of Adult Care and Health Services submitted for information a copy of the West of Berkshire Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB) Annual Report 2017-18.  The following appendices were attached to the report:

Appendix A

Membership of the Board

Appendix B

Achievements by Partner Agencies

Appendix C

Completed Business Plan 2017-18

Appendix D

Business Plan 2018-21 as at 18 December 2018

Appendix E

Safeguarding Performance Annual Reports for:

·       Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust

·       Reading Borough Council

·       Royal Berkshire Foundation Trust

·       West Berkshire Council

·       Wokingham Borough Council

The report explained that the SAB had to lead adult safeguarding arrangements across its locality and oversee and coordinate the effectiveness of the safeguarding work of its member and partner agencies.  The overarching purpose of a SAB was to help and safeguard adults with care and support needs and it did this by assuring that local safeguarding arrangements were in place as defined by the Care Act 2014 and statutory guidance.  The Annual Report 2017-18 presented what the SAB had aimed to achieve on behalf of the residents of Reading, West Berkshire and Wokingham during 2017-18.  This was both as a partnership and through the work of its participating partners.  It provided a picture of who was safeguarded across the area and why and it outlined the role and values of the SAB, its ongoing work and future priorities.

The Annual report noted that:

·       There had been a 22% reduction in the number of safeguarding concerns from the previous year;

·       As in previous years, 62% of concerns reported had related to older people over 65 years of age;

·       More women were the subject of a safeguarding enquiry than men;

·       81% of referrals were for individuals whose ethnicity was White;

·       As in previous years the most common type of abuse for concluded enquiries were for neglect and acts of omission;

·       For the majority of cases, the primary support reason was physical support;

·       As in previous years the most common locations where the alleged abuse had taken place were a person’s own home and a care home.

In response to the SAB report the Council had:

·       Ensured consistency raising awareness of Domestic Abuse in Reading;

·       Promoted tools and training for staff;

·       Delivered Safeguarding Adults “Train the Trainer” programme;

·       Council staff had attended a Berkshire joint Children’s and Adults Safeguarding Conference;

·       The importance of involving advocates and independent Mental Capacity Advocate’s to ensure person centred responses had been promoted within Safeguarding;

·       A workshop was delivered at the Joint Conference to raise awareness of the issues and improve practice for working with those who self-neglected;

·       Information on self-neglect had been added to the Board’s website;

·       Safeguarding training had included the importance of recording a person’s ethnicity to ensure the most appropriate response.

In response to the SAB report the Council had, as part of its improvement plan, delivered the following:

·       A “Time to Change” champion group had been established to promote the understanding of mental health and prevent discrimination;

·       The Council’s website was to be re-launched and would include a user friendly referral form to enable an improved way to raise a referral;

·       The council would take part in a self-neglect project that had been commissioned with the SAB;

·       A core set of questions had been agreed at the SAB to collect feedback to ascertain the extent to which service users felt that they had been involved, supported, consulted and empowered during the safeguarding process;

·       Endorsed safeguarding training that had been provided by the Council to Train the Trainer sessions for providers and voluntary agencies was to continue in 2019/20.

Resolved –    That the report be noted.

Supporting documents: