Making Safeguarding Personal
Overview
Cathie Williams, Adi Cooper, Joan McHugh, Mike Briggs
30th October 2014
www.local.gov.uk
Making Safeguarding Personal:
background
A sector led initiative in response to findings from peer
challenges, consultations, regional work and engagement etc.
To develop an outcomes focus to safeguarding work, and a
range of responses to support people to improve or resolve their
circumstances.
2011/12: A Toolkit of Responses developed
2012/13: 4 Councils were ‘test beds’
2013/14: 53 Councils participated
2014/15: Mainstream in all Councils
What we wanted to achieve:
• A change in practice that enables safeguarding to be
done with, not to, people
• A new focus on achieving meaningful improvement to
people’s circumstances, rather than just on
‘investigation’ and ‘conclusion’
• Practices and activities that utilise social work skills
better than just ‘putting people through a process’
• Something that enables practitioners, families, teams
and Safeguarding Adults’ Boards know what difference
has been made through safeguarding work and
interventions
Aims and engagement
Aim: to facilitate person-centred, outcomes focussed responses
to safeguarding that can be measured and aggregated in order
to ascertain the effectiveness of safeguarding adults work.
Councils are invited to work at 3 levels (not a hierachy):
Bronze = working with people (and their advocates or
representatives if they lacked capacity) to identify the
outcomes they want and the extent to which they were
realised (at start and end of safeguarding process)
Silver = above plus developing one or more types of responses
and/or recording and aggregating information about outcomes
Gold = the above, plus independent evaluation of a project by a
research organisation
What 53 councils did in 2013/14
•
All had very different starting points: some undertook small scale
work with selected staff or selected groups of people who
receive safeguarding support; others undertook ambitious staff
training, IT and other development work, and worked with a
greater range or number of people
•
The vast majority worked at the ‘bronze’ level, and that was
challenging; 3 worked at ‘silver’ level; 2 worked at ‘gold’ level
•
Most activity took place between October 2013 (after the
workshops and preparation) and December 2013 (prior to impact
statements being returned at the end of January 2014)
•
22 councils stated that they worked with 546 cases in total: an
average of 24.8 per council. Extrapolating this means that
perhaps 1066 people were worked with in a different way
Key findings 2013/14
• Councils reported that this is a major practice and
organisational change
• Many councils gathered and reported on both qualitative and
quantitative evidence to demonstrate that good outcomes
were achieved (using more than one measure of
effectiveness)
• Every council reported benefits to social work practice
• Many said ‘leadership and champions are key to success’
• Sound practice in applying the Mental Capacity Act and
Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards in safeguarding is needed
• The majority of councils said that assessment and
management of risk is integral: person centred safeguarding
supports risk enablement
Making Safeguarding Personal
Programme - 2014/15
• Department of Health support to mainstream MSP
• Making Safeguarding Personal included in the draft Care Act
guidance and is considered key to implementation
• Recruitment of Councils – started in April 2014
• 2013/14 Report, MSP Guide, Tools etc published April 2014
• Phase 1 - 83 Councils attended 4 workshops in July
• Phase 2 – 60+ Councils attended 4 workshops in September
• Publicising MSP at Conferences, events and meetings
• Support for individual Councils developing
• Regional safeguarding events planned for December-January
• Evaluation commissioned from Ripfa to report in May 2015
Making Safeguarding
Personal
Joan McHugh
Safeguarding Adults Development Manager
joan.mchugh@solihull.gov.uk
On behalf of Solihull Safeguarding Adults Board
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Aim
To Provide an update of the MSP work we
have undertaken so far, what we have learned
so far and what we plan to do next …
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What did we do in Solihull
We asked practitioners between September – December 2013
•to complete a feedback questionnaire – how confident were
they in using an outcome based approach to safeguarding.
•use an aide memoire (designed to act as a prompt) when
discussing outcomes with people.
•To record (3) outcomes wherever appropriate at the beginning
middle and end of an investigation
•Record if outcomes were met, partly met or not met
•Ask service users if they would provide an advocate with
some feedback on their experience at the end of the
investigation.
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What we learned - Strengths
•Practitioners were very positive about this approach and felt
it moved their practice away from being so process driven to
a much more person centred.
•There was greater involvement of service users.
•An increased confidence felt by practitioners.
•An increase in positive risk taking
•Practitioners were keen to use the tools and develop peer
support to promote the approach.
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Some Challenges
•Demands of Time
•The need for recording/IT systems to be responsive to
person centred practice.
•Difficulty in maintaining outcomes at the centre of the whole
process.
•Difficulties in using the approach with those who lack
mental capacity.
•A need to promote the use of advocacy wherever
appropriate.
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What we plan to do next
• Keep the approach alive and active – promote ownership.
• Greater use of advocacy services.
• Increase the participation of service users at case conferences.
• Ensure outcomes are at the heart of adult care learning and
development – not an add on.
• Consider any implications of this approach as the Care Act is
implemented.
• Share our tools, guidance and experience with other Local
Authorities.
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Any Questions?
ANY QUESTIONS OR
COMMENTS?
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Some questions for you….
What are your experiences of MSP so far?
What has been most challenging/ rewarding?
How do you know what difference your
safeguarding work makes?
Care Act 2014
New safeguarding duties for councils
• To make enquiries, or ensure others do so
• Set up a Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB) with
core membership from the local authority, the
Police and the NHS
• Arrange, where appropriate, for an independent
advocate to represent and support an adult who
is the subject of a safeguarding enquiry or
Safeguarding Adult Review
• Core partners to co-operate in order to protect
adults experiencing or at risk of abuse or neglect.
Safeguarding Adults Boards must:
• Publish a strategic plan for each financial year that sets out
how it will meet its main objective.
• Publish an annual report detailing what the SAB has done
during the year to achieve its objective and what it and
each member has done to implement its strategy.
• Decide when a Safeguarding Adults Recview is necessary,
arrange for its conduct and implement the findings.
• (The purpose of an SAR must be to learn lessons and
improve practice and inter-agency working.)
• The SAB can require information from an organisation or
individual relevant to its functions.
Care Act: Draft Statutory Guidance
Informs and informed by MSP
• LA must arrange independent advocate where adult
has ‘substantial difficulty’ in being involved in
contributing
• Aims of adult safeguarding include: ‘to safeguard
individuals in a way that supports them in making
choices and having control in how they choose to
live their lives’; ‘to promote an outcomes approach in
safeguarding that works for people resulting in the
best experience possible’
Care Act: Draft Statutory Guidance
‘avoid safeguarding arrangements that do not
put people in control of their own lives, or that
revert to a paternalistic and interventionist way
of working. People have complex lives and
being safe is only one of the things they want
for themselves’
‘We are all individuals with different preferences,
histories, circumstances…It is...unhelpful to
attempt a prescriptive process that can be
followed in every case for concern’
Key Points
• The Act and guidance signals a major change in practice
• There are greater roles set out in relation to prevention and early
intervention
• Enquiries should be made by the most appropriate professional or
organisation
•
A move away from the process-led, tick box culture to a person centred
social work approach which achieves the outcomes that people want.
•
Practitioners must take a flexible approach and work with the adult all the
way through the enquiry and beyond where necessary.
• The advances in personalisation of social care go hand-in-hand with the
new approach to safeguarding; the two concepts are also inseparable from
quality of life and dignity.
• There must be enough capacity to provide an advocate to individuals
when they are unable to speak for themselves without support.
ANY QUESTIONS OR
COMMENTS?
Contact / Information
Local Government Association KHub – safeguarding adults
community of practice
Cathie.Williams@btinternet.com
Adi.cooper@sutton.gov.uk
mbriggs125@gmail.com
joan.mchugh@solihull.gov.uk