The Care Act & Adult
Safeguarding – Implications for
Age UK & Partners
Richard Powley
Head of Safeguarding
Age UK
Charity Commission
‘Strategy for dealing with safeguarding
vulnerable groups including children issues in charities’
(2012)
Charity Commission Expectations
• Trustees have primary responsibility for
safeguarding in their charity
• They have a duty of care to safeguard
beneficiaries.
• They must always act in their best interests
• They must take all reasonable steps to prevent
harm
• They have duties to manage risk and protect the
reputation and assets of the charity
Charity Commission
1.
Awareness and Prevention
•
Preventing problems from arising in the first place!
•
Prevention - primarily trustees’ responsibility. They
must understand their safeguarding
responsibilities.
Charity Commission
2. Oversight and Supervision
• Serious Incident Reporting (more later)
• Trustee checks – other charities? Relevant checks
carried out?
• Assessing required improvements
• Analysis of trends and responses to trends
Charity Commission
3. Co-operation
• Co-operation & liaison to stop those who seek to
exploit charities to abuse children and vulnerable
adults (with due regard to sensitive data)
• Regulators (CQC, DBS)
• Law enforcement
• Local authorities.
Charity Commission
4. Intervention
• The Commission will intervene:
•
In serious cases
• Where there has been non compliance or abuse
• Based on assessment against the Risk Framework
• They will not intervene if it is more effective for other
agencies to intervene
Charity Commission
In 2012-13 - safeguarding issues in:
• 11% of pre investigation assessment cases
• 7% of investigations
• 49% of serious incident reports
• 11% of whistle blowing cases
Straightforward?
We’ve come a long way – great that the importance of adult safeguarding is
recognised, but;
Age UK and Partners may be operating in accordance with:
•
Charity Commission expectations
•
Their own safeguarding policy & procedures
•
Local Safeguarding Adult Board policy & procedure
•
CQC regulation
•
Contractual/commissioning clauses
•
CCG policy
•
Any others..?
The good news
• They all say pretty much the same thing
The bad news
• They may not have the answers that we
need…
Our big adult safeguarding issues?
• Variable response from local authorities
• Variable local arrangements
• Confidentiality
• Onward disclosure without consent – mental capacity/vital
or public interest risks
• Local training offer/arrangements
• Advocacy
• Board Chairing/Inclusion
What might the Care Act mean for us?
Further information
Making Safeguarding Personal
http://www.local.gov.uk/publications//journal_content/56/10180/3961573/PUBLICATION
Social Care Institute for Excellence resources:
http://www.scie.org.uk/adults/safeguarding/policies/
Care Act factsheets (factsheet 7 – safeguarding)
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/care-act-2014-part-1-factsheets