Agenda item

7.1

The Committee received a report providing an overview of the safeguarding work being undertaken by the Sheffield Adult Safeguarding Partnership who wish to encourage and develop further links with adults who were most at risk of abuse and neglect in order to understand what their priorities are.

7.2

Present for this item were Simon Richards (Head of Service, Quality and Safeguarding) and Tina Gilbert (Safeguarding Partnership Manager).

7.3

Simon Richards gave a brief outline of the core functions of the Partnership and the key principles for safeguarding adults.  He said that work was continuing around developing a Strategic Plan for the Partnership over the next three years and acknowledged that there was still a lot of work to be done.  He made reference to the report which gave background information and set out the key principles for safeguarding adults which were determined nationally.  Simon Richards summarised the priorities of the Partnership and referred to the positive results from the three initiatives which are funded by the Partnership, these being “Safe in Sheffield”, the Adult Sexual Exploitation Service and the Trading Standards service’s initiative “Not Born Yesterday”.  He referred to the current challenges facing the Partnership and the pressure on the mental health service to identify gaps where people don’t meet the threshold to access services but were still at risk and it was felt that these gaps could be helped by collaborative working by the City Council, NHS Sheffield, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, Health and Social Care, South Yorkshire Police, the Probation Service, the Yorkshire Ambulance Service and voluntary, community and faith sector representatives.

7.4

Members made various comments and asked a number of questions, to which responses were provided as follows:-

·                     With regard to pressures on the mental health services, it was acknowledged that there was inadequate provision to support those people who didn’t meet the threshold, but this was a national issue and Sheffield was working hard to address this, maybe by identifying which services need commissioning with the funding available. It was thought that there should be joined up working to better utilise the resources currently available to offer some level of support to those people who haven’t been diagnosed with mental health problems.

·                     The multi-agency Vulnerable Adults Panel was working to develop pathways between agencies and those at risk to improve their wellbeing and eliminate pressures on emergency and crisis points.  However, it was not always easy to get agencies to step outside their roles and responsibilities and interact with each other. There was a need to look at the value of prevention and to have collaborative discussions early enough to prevent matters escalating and get the team around the person in the first stages.  The Partnership was aware that it faces a big challenge.

·                     There was a culture in services to “do it this way because we always have” and this was being addressed. The Partnership was looking to make realistic changes, identifying what is achievable and looking to retrain people to use safeguarding principles and work differently.

·                     The Partnership places great emphasis on collaborative training, open to all local authority staff, health care professionals, the police and other organisations and believes that if it can get people together to hear the same message they might be more likely to link in with each other.  There was an understanding about the impact of training but the test will be six months after first contact when feedback was received from those who have been through safeguarding.  Although training was not mandatory, the Partnership does try and encourage people to attend, but there was a capacity issue and independent providers of training would be welcome.

·                     Work with the voluntary sector was being developed in an attempt to work more collaboratively with them.

·                     The Care Trust doesn’t collate the same level of data but the Partnership are holding discussions with them with the aim of producing an amalgamated report on how the City Council  and mental health services manage safeguarding within the city.

7.5

RESOLVED: That the Committee:-

(a)       thanks Simon Richards and Tina Gilbert for their contribution to the meeting; and

(b)       notes the contents of the report and the responses to the questions raised.