Agenda item

The Annual Report is enclosed.

The chair welcomed Anna Berry, Independent Chair of the Southwark Adult Safeguarding Board, and Pauline O’Hare, Director of Adult Social Care.

Independent Chair of the Southwark Adult Safeguarding Board presented the report and the chair then invited members to ask questions. The following points were made.

·  In response to a question on the impact of the Covid pandemic on the workforce the Director of Adult Social Care said that all operational workers come into office. There is also a process for requests for flexible work, and this has been in existence from before the pandemic. There are vacancies within adult social care and a rolling programme of recruitment with a micro site. Covid did mean the council lost a cohort of older experienced staff who took early retirement because of underlying health conditions or caring responsibilities.

·  A member asked about the Safeguarding stats, trends and meaning. The Independent Chair said that Southwark’s are broadly reflective of national position.  The board is looking for an enhanced data set from a wider range of partners. The Director of Adult Social Care added that the reduced number on concerns which may well be because of a new complex pathway so she is less concerned about this, they would however expect more expect more referrals.  A member requested a breakdown of categories of abuse and place. 

·  The Director of Social Care said that they are looking at innovation to the front door to older peoples’ services.  They have changed how the telephone system works to make it more digitally friendly and more regular phone calls. They are also looking at team locations.  A Project Manager has been appointed today looking at bottle necks and good practice in other boroughs.

·  Member asked about progress in replicating the Persons In a Position of Trust (PIPOT) work of children’s in adult service. The Independent Safeguarding Chair said that for children’s services there is a LADO - local authority designation officer. This person pulls together information around allegations. There is an emerging London PIPOT framework. This is a framework to manage allegations and how Safeguarding process intersect with HR disciplinary processes. It will help coordinate different processes, which is helpful. Currently it is a being looked at by a sub group of the board, with a view to adopting. One of the issues is the governance arrangement for holding the data. There are also training requirements. It is a good framework and no objections have been raised and as such the board is addressing the logistics. A couple of examples were given about when it could come into play:

a)  Someone is accused of abusing their mother and works in care home of with people with Learning Difficulties

b) Someone has used social media to contact a client and overstepped a line with someone who is vulnerable

·  Members asked if there are there protections against vexatious complaint. The board chair said not specifically but would help generate a proportionate response.

·  Members asked how the lived experience can feed into training of social workers. The Director of Adult Social Care said often social workers will have older relations, or family or personal experience of Learning Difficulties and Mental Health. There is also an apprenticeship scheme for care leavers. She added that often people do front line work for experience.  The Independent Chair added that there is a sub-group that is focused on learning, and referred to the Cuckoo package that pulls through the lived experience.

·  There was a discussion on definition of abuse and that this includes neglect.

RESOLVED

Members requested a breakdown of both the “concerns” and the “enquiries” in terms of:

-  Who are the people being investigated around safeguarding issues – care homes / home care agencies / family members

-  What types of abuse – financial / physical / emotional / neglect  e.t.c