5.1 Adult Safeguarding Policy

Audio & Quick Read Summary

1. Introduction

This policy sets out Lancashire County Council’s response to its duty, under Section 42 of The Care Act 2014, to safeguard adults with care and support needs to:

“make enquiries, or cause others to do so, when a concern has been raised about an adult in its area (whether or not they are ordinarily resident in it) to establish whether an action should be taken to prevent or stop abuse or neglect”.

2. Policy Aim

This policy aims to:

• Prevent harm and reduce the risk of abuse or neglect to adults with care and support needs.
• Stop abuse or neglect wherever possible.
• Address what has caused the abuse or neglect.
• Safeguard adults in a way that supports them in making choices and having control about how they want to live.
• Provide information and support in accessible ways to help people understand the different types of abuse, how to stay safe and what to do to raise an alert about the safety or well-being of an adult.
• Raise public awareness so that communities, alongside professionals, play their part in preventing, identifying, and responding to abuse and neglect.

3. Principles

Everyone has the right to live their lives free from abuse and neglect.

Safeguarding means protecting an adult’s right to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect. It means people and organisations working together to prevent and stop both the risks and experience of abuse or neglect while, at the same time, making sure that the adult’s views, wishes, feelings and beliefs are considered.

People have complex lives and being safe is only one of the things they want for themselves. Professionals should work with the adult to establish what being safe means to them and how that can be best achieved. Professionals and other staff should not be advocating “safety” measures that do not take account of individual well-being, as defined in Section 1 of the Care Act 2014.

3.1 Principles of Good Practice

Safeguarding under the Care Act 2014 is based on the following principles:

• Empowerment – Presumption of person-led decisions and consent.
• Protection – Support and representation for those in greatest need.
• Prevention – Prevention of neglect, harm and abuse is a primary objective.
• Proportionality – Proportionate and least intrusive response to the risk presented.
• Partnerships – Local solutions through services working with their communities.
• Accountability – Accountability and transparency in delivering safeguarding.

All safeguarding work should enable adults who experience abuse to retain as much control as possible over their own lives. The person who may be experiencing abuse should be given information, properly accessible to them, about the adult safeguarding process.

Those who have experienced abuse should be offered the choice and support to participate or otherwise have their views included in all forums that are making decisions about their lives, such as support from advocacy services if appropriate. Where communication aids, interpretation or personal assistance are necessary for a person to participate, these should be provided where possible.

All decisions taken by professionals about a person’s life must be reasonable and proportionate. Where organisations have a duty to intervene to reduce risk, then that intervention should be proportionate to the risk facing the person.

Any intervention in a person’s life, including for immediate safeguarding, and the result of that intervention, should match the wishes, where known, of that person as closely as possible. However, an individual’s wishes cannot undermine an organisation’s legal duty to act.

Information can only be shared with the person’s consent or where there is an overriding justification (for example, legal reasons to protect a person without capacity from harm) and should be on a “need-to-know” basis. See Information Sharing, Recording Keeping and Confidentiality policy.

4. The Legal Framework

Lancashire County Council’s duty is to take lead responsibility for ensuring that the obligations set out in the Care Act to safeguard adults with care and support needs (whether Lancashire County Council is meeting any of those needs or not), are carried out in partnership with all agencies and organisations who may encounter those people.

The Care Act 2014 also requires Lancashire County Council to set up a Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB), including Lancashire County Council, the NHS, and Police which will develop, share and implement a joint safeguarding strategy.

Lancashire County Council is also required to develop and implement its own internal Policies, Procedures, and Guidance (PPG) detailing specific aspects of safeguarding activity that are undertaken by Lancashire County Council. These will operate in line with the Lancashire Safeguarding Adults Board (LSAB) policies and procedures to form a wider framework for safeguarding practice. As appropriate Policy and procedures documents are subject to consultation with agency partners or representatives from the LSAB.

The Care Act requires Lancashire County Council must:

• Set up a Safeguarding Adults Board.
• Make enquiries, or cause others to do so, if it believes an adult is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect.
• Co-operate with each of its relevant partners (as set out in Section 6 of the Care Act) to protect the adult. Each relevant partner must also co-operate with the local authority.
• 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 (SAR) where the adult has ‘substantial difficulty’ in being involved in the process and where there is no other suitable person to represent and support them. The person must be informed of their rights to an independent advocate. Please see the Independent Care Act Advocacy Policy for more information.

These procedures apply to all adults who are resident or temporarily resident in the Lancashire County Council area who may have care and support needs, whose independence and well-being would be at risk, permanently or periodically, if they did not receive appropriate support and who may be at risk of abuse or neglect. This includes adults with physical, sensory, and mental impairments and learning disabilities however those impairments have arisen i.e., whether present from birth or due to advancing age, chronic illness or injury. It also includes those who may or may not be eligible for community care services and who are unable to protect themselves. The procedures also apply to people who purchase (or are assessed as being able to purchase) all or part of their community care services.

The decision to carry out a safeguarding enquiry is not dependent on the person’s eligibility but should be taken wherever there is reasonable cause to think that the person is experiencing, or at risk of, abuse and neglect

5. Recognising Abuse and Safeguarding Concerns

Abuse can take many forms. It can include certain behaviours, acts or failures to act which can cause or increase the risk of harm to a person. The critical issue is establishing the behaviours that are happening, the situation in which they happened and the person’s views of those behaviours.

The Care Act 2014 sets out as a guide, (not a prescriptive or exhaustive list) the following list of types of abuse or neglect that could give rise to a safeguarding concern:

• Physical abuse
• Domestic abuse, including so-called ‘honour’ based violence
• Sexual abuse
• Psychological abuse
• Financial or material abuse
• Modern slavery
• Discriminatory abuse
• Organisational abuse
• Neglect and acts of omission
• Self-neglect

Statutory guidance states that: “Local authorities should not limit their view of what constitutes abuse or neglect, as they can take many forms and the circumstances of the individual case should always be considered“.

Chapter 14 of the Care Act Statutory Guidance provides further details of different types of abuse and patterns of abusive behaviour.

6. Roles and responsibilities of Social Workers and Social Care Support Officers

Safeguarding adults from abuse and or neglect is everyone’s responsibility and a system wide approach to safeguarding is preferable. Individuals should take responsibility for their own safety and wider wellbeing and, if necessary, they should be supported by family and friends and the wider community. We also recognise that some adults are more vulnerable than others and, sometimes, additional help and support may be necessary.

Lancashire County Council Social Care staff must always adopt a personalised approach to care and support. This means that we ensure that the outcome the person wants to achieve in response to any harm or risk of harm will drive our practice.

6.1 Social worker

The social worker is responsible for leading an enquiry into any action that is taken, or instigated, by Lancashire County Council under Section 42 of the Care Act 2014 in response to indications of abuse or neglect. Keeping the person at the centre of the enquiry, the social worker works closely with them, their family, representatives, and relevant partner agencies in identifying interim and long-term safeguarding plans and achieving personal outcomes.

6.2 Social care support officer

The role of the social care support officer is to offer a service in helping providers access Lancashire County Council’s Safeguarding Adults Portal to raise a safeguarding alert and upload documents where these are required. Social care support officers offer support in relation to LSAB guidance which aims to ensure issues and concerns are reported and responded to appropriately. For guidance in sharing concerns, see Lancashire Safeguarding Adults Board Procedures.

The social care support officer role includes support to the Safeguarding Service Triage Function under the direction of the Triage Manager.  Where safeguarding alerts do not to meet the eligibility criteria for a statutory safeguarding enquiry as per Care Act 2014 these concerns are referred to the Safeguarding Support Team to refer to an alternative care pathway or close with no further action required.

In respect of safeguarding alerts where the theme of abuse is organisational safeguarding concerns the social care support officer role includes a review function upon completion of the enquiry.  This review ensures that the recommendations made in the safeguarding plan developed by the Safeguarding Social Workers are implemented and supports continuous improvement in the quality and safety of provider services.

The Support Team may undertake visits with social workers where a second person is required but are not involved in undertaking  Section 42 enquiries or decision making.

7. Responsibilities of Other Agencies

The Care Act 2014 states that Lancashire County Council must cooperate with each of their relevant partners, as described in Section 6.54 of the Act:

(“[Where] there is reasonable cause to think that the person is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect … a local authority must carry out (or request others to carry out) whatever inquiries it thinks are necessary in order to decide whether any further action is necessary“).

8. Making Safeguarding Personal

The underpinning philosophy for safeguarding under the Care Act is provided by Making Safeguarding Personal which is a sector-led initiative developed by the Local Government Association (LGA).

Making safeguarding personal means safeguarding should be led by the person and focused on the outcomes they want (“No decision about me without me“).

This requires engagement with people throughout the safeguarding process and talking with them about the outcomes they want to achieve. People should have an opportunity to discuss the outcomes they want at the start of the safeguarding process and, at the conclusion of the process, be able to tell to what extent their desired outcomes have been met.

A person cannot make decisions about their life unless they know what the options are and what the implications of those options might be. When safeguarding concerns are raised about people who have care and support needs who are at risk of, or experiencing, abuse or neglect and are unable to protect themselves, the county council will work with them or their representative or advocate to develop a real understanding of what they wish to achieve.

Social care staff must demonstrate that these principles have been followed by asking the person (or their representative or advocate) about the outcomes they wish to achieve and record the conversation.

9. Achieving Personal Outcomes

Making Safeguarding Personal describes some outcomes people wish to achieve:

• safe from continuing harm and/or abuse.
• feel that they have recovered from abuse or neglect.
• are empowered and able to manage their situations.
• are aware of services and options to meet their needs.
• have their stated objectives and desired results met.
• have access to independent advice and support.
• believes that their views, worries, and wishes are taken seriously.
• reports that they haven’t had to compromise their safety and wellbeing at the cost of having relationships with other people.
• develops stronger networks that are also protective.
• knows how to take precautions against harm and how to stay safe.
• knows who to contact to find out information.
• feels in control and not driven or controlled by the adult safeguarding process.

This is not an exhaustive list. Wherever possible it is better to capture a person’s outcomes in their own words: “I want to feel safe in my own home again”.

10. Related Duties

Safeguarding is linked to other duties to protect individuals from abuse or neglect.

10.1 Modern Slavery

Modern slavery is the recruitment, movement, harbouring or receiving of children, women or men through the use of force, coercion, abuse of vulnerability, deception or other means for the purpose of exploitation. This is a safeguarding issue and services should work with police and other partners.

10.2 Prevent

The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 places a duty on Lancashire County Council to have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”.

The Prevent duty guidance  aims to ensure Lancashire County Council employees understand and recognize how vulnerable people can be drawn into terrorism. It also details how to refer appropriate concerns to the local Channel Programme.

In Lancashire, the Police receive all Counter Terrorism Concern Referrals for assessment and forward cases into the Multi-agency Safeguarding Channel Programme. Please email: [email protected]

11. Mental Capacity

The Mental Capacity Act (MCA) protects and empowers vulnerable people who may lack the mental capacity to make their own decisions about their care and treatment. It applies to people aged 16 and over. Its defining principles are:

• You must always assume a person has capacity unless it is proved otherwise.
• You must take all practicable step to enable people to make their own decisions.
• You must not assume incapacity simply because someone makes an unwise decision.
• Always act, or decide, for a person without capacity in their best interests.
• Carefully consider actions to ensure the least restrictive option is taken.

The Mental Capacity Act plays a crucial role in safeguarding and ensures that a person’s capacity to consent to decisions is considered throughout the safeguarding process. Detailed guidance on the Act and how its principles work in practice, is available from SCIE.

If a person has been assessed as lacking mental capacity, then any action taken, or any decision made on behalf of that person, must be made in their best interests. People should also be provided with an independent advocate, who will support them to make decisions in certain situations (see Independent Care Act Advocacy policy).

12. Advocacy

Advocacy means supporting a person to understand information, express their needs and wishes, secure their rights, represent their interests and obtain the care and support they need. Lancashire County Council will always consider an individual’s capacity to consent to important decisions about their care and support, including any safeguarding issues.

Lancashire County Council’s Advocacy Provider, Advocacy Focus can be contacted by telephone on 0300 323 0965 or by email [email protected]

Further information about advocacy under the Care Act, including funded support for safeguarding enquiries, can be found in the Independent Care Act Advocacy policy.

13. Appeals

If an individual is not satisfied with the conclusion of a safeguarding enquiry, they should contact the Team Manager involved in that enquiry and provide any additional information so a judgement can be made regarding the level and appropriateness of the enquiry.

If the issue remains unresolved, the individual should be referred to Lancashire County Council Complaints Procedure.

14. Complaints

When a safeguarding enquiry is taking place and a complaint is raised, the person should be informed that their complaint will be put on hold until the safeguarding enquiry has concluded. This is to protect the integrity of the safeguarding process and ensures that distinct processes are kept separate and do not influence the outcome of the safeguarding enquiry.

If the person remains unsatisfied at the end of the safeguarding enquiry they will have the opportunity to instigate a complaint in line with Complaints Procedure.

15. RADAR

Radar is a confidential, multi-agency, collaborative information sharing group under the auspices of the Lancashire Safeguarding Adults Board. There are four groups across Lancashire (three for care homes covering North, Central and East and a County Wide group for Community Providers).

Each group meets on a regular basis (monthly, subject to capacity) and receives information from a variety of sources where concerns have been identified regarding residential, nursing and community care providers.  The information received will inform decisions about how best to support providers who have been identified as requiring improvements and escalate as appropriate.

16. Quality Performance Improvement Planning

Lancashire County Council’s Quality Performance Improvement Planning (QPIP) process is a confidential, planned and coordinated multi-agency response designed to ensure that, when significant issues are raised regarding a shortfall in the quality of care delivered by a registered care provider, the issues are addressed.

The QPIP process is not a replacement for individual safeguarding alerts, referrals, and enquiries, and is not an emergency response.