Agenda item

This item contains an exempt appendix. To discuss the contents of the appendix in private the Board will need to pass the following resolution:

Under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, that the public and press be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of an item of business, on the grounds that it contains the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined in paragraph 2 of Schedule 12A of the said Act, and that the public interest in maintaining the exemption currently outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Fiona Bateman (Independent Chair of the Hammersmith & Fulham Safeguarding Adults Board) presented the report. She explained that the Board was a multi-agency partnership between the local authority, health partners, and the police. The annual report focused on the core operation of the Board, the Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SARs) carried out by the Safeguarding Adults Case Review Group (SACRG). The SACRG was a subgroup of the Board and their responsibilities included reviewing referrals where cases may meet criteria for a SAR, as well as monitoring responses to recommendations from previous reviews.

Fiona Bateman said the Board wanted to ensure that decision making was robust and confident and the SARs were populated by appropriate people, who could reflect and implement learning that came from the reviews. She said that was a key focus for the Board – for organisations to evidence what they had done to implement the learning from reviews in operational practice and strategies.

Fiona Bateman explained that the SARs were human stories that provided a solid evidence base for changes in policy and practice. It was important not to lose sight of the reasons for improvements. She said it required everyone to be open and transparent. Her goal was for the reviews to influence strategic decision making and she wanted the board to make progress on that in the coming year.

The Chair thanked Fiona Bateman for the report and presentation and opened the floor to questions.

Sue Spiller highlighted the issues of cultural sensitivity raised in the report and noted that in some communities there was still a mistrust of safeguarding and felt more thought needed to be given to the information that went out to them. She also discussed the importance of building cultural sensitivity for staff and suggested awareness sessions to make safeguarding services feel more accessible and approachable.

Fiona Bateman said cultural competency was a very important area for the Board and one that she hoped to have much greater impact on over next year. The Board were also looking at cultural competency work across London and how it could be adapted locally. She agreed that some of the language used was not very accessible and there was room to simplify and give a clearer message. She said there would be more to report on this next year.

Councillor Natalia Perez welcomed the report and asked for more information on the steps that were being taken to empower vulnerable adults to make decisions about their own care and support needs. Fiona Bateman said there was always a balance to be had between the statutory duty to safeguard and people’s wishes. There were circumstances where people could have a reduced capacity to keep themselves safe – for example in cases of long-term trauma, substance misuse, or domestic abuse. She said the Board was scrutinising the data in this area closely.

Jacqui McShannon (Executive Director of People’s Services) thanked Fiona Bateman for the report and said the Council welcomed her leadership as Independent Chair. She asked how the Board used performance data proactively to surface practice issues early.

Fiona Bateman said the quality and practice sub-group scrutinised data from agencies carefully. She gave the example of working with the Council’s Adult Social Care team who had been very open with the Board to look at areas for improvement. The Board looked at areas such as transitional safeguarding and homelessness, pulling data from a range of sources to look at how resources could best be targeted. She said the Board was very data-driven and was keen to evidence all recommendations with robust data.

Katharine Willmette (Interim Director of Adult Social Care) echoes Jacqui McShannon’s comments and thanked Fiona Bateman for the report and her leadership. She welcomed the greater focus on performance data from a variety of sources, noting that historically it had been very local authority focused, but looking across partners gave a more accurate picture and would lead to better outcomes.

The Chair asked if there was Councillor representation on the Safeguarding Adults Board. It was noted that the Safeguarding Adults Board had been fully supported by Councillor Lucy Richardson.

Fiona Bateman and members discussed the benefits of her attending meetings of the Health and Wellbeing Board in her role as Independent Chair of the Safeguarding Adults Board. The Chair welcomed the suggestion and said she would be a valuable addition.

ACTION: David Abbott

RESOLVED

1. That the Health and Wellbeing Board noted the report.