19th Edition 9th January 2009
In this month’s issue:
Inquest / Howard League attack review for backing painful restraints · Direct payments, personal budgets and individual budgets · Carers UK disappointed by lack of action on benefits trap · Social worker’s registration removed following relationship with client · Training ·
Keeping people safe is a universal government objective and applies equally to all of the adults that we work with. Safeguarding is complex and is not the sole responsibility of any single agency; it is the responsibility of our colleagues who work in health, police, probation and housing. However the co-ordination of Safeguarding is a local authority responsibility and is includedin section 7 of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970. This means that safeguarding adults is a statutory duty placed on us.As we all know the amount of statutory work that we are required to do has increased significantly over the last few years with the Mental Capacity Act and the introduction of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards.
With this in mind we need to be clear that statutory work must take priority when considering workloads within teams. Iain and I are working with Managers to ensure that our database is up to date with 'live' cases and this is being done so that alerts can be fairly distributed across all trained investigators.
In this way we hope to achieve a balance between individuals day to day duties and the statutory duties placed up on us.
Hayley Seymour
Principal Officer Primary Care
Related links
Mental Capacity Act 2005
Mental Capacity Act 2005Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards
Mental Health Capacity Act Leaflet from Dorset Advocacy
Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006
Safeguarding adults and the protection of vulnerable adults (POVA)
CSCI - Safeguarding adults
IainBaker & I have been sendingemails on a monthly basis requesting updates on openAdult Protection cases. The response to these emails have to date been sketchy however I would like to thank those of you who regularly updateus.
Going forward your monthly update will need to include the following:
· Open cases within your team
· Cases that have not led to a full investigation
· Cases that are subject to a safeguarding plan
The monthly request for this information will be sent out by me and a deadline of 7 days for response will apply.Managers need to be aware that Principal Officer are now required to provide the Senior Management Team (SMT) with a monthly update in regard to Adult Protection cases within their respective teams. The report they produce will need to contain the information noted above.
We hope that by reducing the open cases on the database, Iain and I can effectively monitor open cases, ensure that alerts are distributed fairly across investigators and reporting to management much more consistent and streamlined
Hayley Seymour
Principal Officer Primary Care
A number of different teams contributed towards the policy and the supporting documentation and Managers were also asked for their comments. These were incorporated where possible and the policy is ready to use. The new policy has sections in it specific to Safeguarding Adults and has been designed to ensure that Investigators and those monitoring Safeguarding Plans can have an open recorded dialogue about the cases they are holding with their line manager.Everyone should use the new Supervision documents. Managers and Principal Officers mayhave made few minor adjustments to suit their particular teams, allowing a degree of flexibility whilst also ensuring that EVERYONE receives a consistent standard of supervision.
Hayley Seymour
Principal Officer Primary Care
Path to find the Supervision Policy and link (please click below)
Loop > My Service Unit > Policies and Procedures > Staff > Supervision Policy
Currently a lot of work is being completed within teams in relation to tidying the Adult Protection database to ensure that it reflects active current cases. Monthly lists of currently open cases are being sent out to team managers for action.
Following consideration of our data storage, it has been decided that the Adult Protection Case document file will have open access in line with the current case recording in the ESCR through Carefirst.
Everyone is reminded of their obligations under data protection that information stored is to be used appropriately and as required and should remain confidential unless the appropriate data protection considerations have been given. As such these notes are viewable on a need to know basis only.
\\artemis\soccommis\Adult Protection\AP CASE DOCUMENTS
As part of the development of our practice and this database, a number of new forms have been developed and Guidance notes written or amended within the internal procedures, and once these have been finalised and compliance checked they would be formally launched. The majority of this information has already been discussed with the Investigators and Team Managers in preparation but further information will be provided once all of this is ready for use.
A few interim issues however that you could help with follow;
· If you are a team manager who is allocating work to the Adult Protection Investigators. It would be helpful if the name of the allocated investigator could be shared with Myself, and Eva Brachova once known, this will help maintain currency of database information and assist us to direct any queries appropriately. A prompt will be sent out with each alert to remind you to do so.
· Can I remind everyone who is saving information into the Adult Protection case Documents file to look at Guidance note 26 within the Internal Procedures to remind themselves of recording needs, but also Appendix two the Documentation Procedure to ensure that all documents saved in the correct location and also under the appropriate reference.
·
When closing a case with part two of the alert form please can you save this separately rather than add the information to the already saved Alert form, as this helps in terms of auditing and quality checking.
Many Thanks,
Iain Baker,
Practice Supervisor for Adult Protection
Related documents:
Internal Adult Protection Procedures - Guidance Note 26
Internal Adult Protection Procedures - Appendix 2
Adam Rickwood's mother joins condemnation of restraint review
Campaigners including Inquest andthe Howard League for Penal Reform have attacked the failure of the independent review of restraintin youth custodyto recommend a ban on the use of painful techniques. They were joined in their condemnation by the NSPCC, crime reduction charity Nacro and the Children's Rights Alliance for England. Inquestco-director Deborah Coles said the charity was "bitterly disappointed" that the government-commissioned review, which reported today, had concluded that pain-inducing restraint was justifiablein exceptional circumstances. This recommendation was taken up by government, along with the vast majority of the review's otherproposals.
Opposed by UN and Aynsley-Green
Colessaid the review's stance on painful techniqueswas inopposition to the UNCommittee on the Rights of the Child, which monitors compliance with the UNchildren's rights convention, and children's commissioner for England Al Aynsley-Green. She was joined in her condemnation by Carol Pounder, the mother of Adam Rickwood, whokilled himselfaged 14 in 2004at Hassockfield Secure Training Centre hours after being restrained using the painful "nose distraction" technique. Adam'sinquest, and thatof Gareth Myatt,led ministers to commission the review last summer. Pounder said: "I am disgusted that force is still being allowed to be used. At home parents are not allowed to use any kind of force against their children. Why are children in custody treated differently?"
Scandal
HowardLeague director Frances Crook added her voice to the criticisms, and claimed it was a "scandal" that the review had "failed to deal with the wider issues of conflict resolution, staff skills and training and the behavioural needs of children". This was despite a number of recommendations in the review on training and promoting conflict resolution. Coles added: "This was an opportunity to make a real difference to safeguarding the human rights of children in custody. Instead we have yet another report that outlines little more than what was already known at the conclusion of the inquests into the deaths of Gareth Myatt and Adam Rickwood."
To read more please click below
Inquest/Howard League
15 December 2008
Community Care.co.uk
Expert guide on direct payments, personal budgetsand individual budgets
Direct payments, personal budgets and, to a lesser extent,individual budgets are at the core
of the government's aim of personalising adult social care services around the needs of users.
Through the PuttingPeople First initiative, councils will be expected to significantly increase
the number of people receiving direct payments and roll out a system of personal budgets for all
users of adult social care, from 2008-11. In the long-term all users should have a personal budget
from which to pay for their social care services, apart from in emergencies. Putting People First is the culmination of a policy process that began in 2005, with the adult social care green paper, Independence,Well-being and Choice, and was developed through the 2006 health and social care white paperOur Health, Our Care, Our Say.
Latest articles on direct payments, personal budgets and individual budgets
1. Direct payments, personal budgets and individual budgets
2. Personalisation
3. Mental Health Foundation: BME groups face capacity act barriers
4. Adult protection: Mind issues warning over state intervention
5. Carers UK warn of cash crisis for carers as household bills rocket
Care services minister Ivan Lewisand the Department of Health are drivingthe Putting People First initiative, but scepticism remains amongpractitioners and social care leaders about the impact of personalisation on social workers' roles, on levels of risk carried by service users and about whether councils will be adequately resourced to deliver reform.
So what exactly are direct payments, personal budgets and individual budgets?
To read more please click below
Direct payments personal budgets and individual budgets
17 December 2008
Community Care.co.uk
Carers’ benefits do not meet their needs and should be reformed, the government has acknowledged.
However, changes to carers’ benefits will be considered only as part of the wider plans for welfare reform, according to a memorandum issued on Friday by Minister of State for Disabled People JonathanShaw MP.
The document, issued in response to the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee’s July report, Valuingand Supporting Carers, says: “Whilst the government does not accept the general level of support provided to help with caring and the costs of a disability is inadequate, the government does accept that the support available to carers does not differentiate sufficiently between the different needs and circumstances of carers.”
To read more please click below
Carers benefits
22 December 2008
Community Care.co.uk
A social worker has been removed from the Social Care Register by an independent panel of the General Social Care Council (GSCC) after being found to have engaged in an inappropriate personal relationship with a person who uses services.
The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the service user, was a senior social worker at the time he met the young woman, who was described at the three-day hearing as a vulnerable user of mental health services. The panel heard that he saw her on several occasions out of hours, putting the woman at risk of damage to her mental health and ongoing care.
To read more please click below
Registration removed
3 December 2008
General Social Care Council
From 23rd January 2009 there will be a workbook implemented for all delegates attending future Adult Protection Awareness training. This will need to be completed on individuals return to their workplace. Once completed managers will sign off a certificate (located in the back of the workbook) which states they have met all the outcomes and are fully aware of their role and responsibilities as a worker supporting vulnerable adults.
A Managers / supervisors guide to the outcomes of the workbook will also be available for all managers to enable them to sign off completed work.
Thanks
Mandy Holmshaw
Training Officer, Social Care Training Team
SPACES ON 2009 COURSES – BOOK QUICK!
· Adult Protection (one day) Awareness training (formerly Alerter’s training):
23rd January – full 5th February - full 19th February – full 10th March – full
24th March – a few places available
· ½ Day Adult Protection Refresher training:
Places available on all of the following: 28thJan(pm) 10th Feb(pm) 16th Mar(pm)
· Investigator’s courses:
2nd – 6th Feb. 09 Bournemouth hosting, with Consolidation day on 11th May 09 – full
16th – 20th March 09 Dorset Police hosting, with Consolidation day on 13th July 09
· Mandatory training: Recall day for all Investigators: 9th March 2009 – please book your place now
· Manager’s (who manage investigators) training: 14th & 15th January 2009 – full
· Chairing Adult Protection Meetings: 29th January 2009 – full
· Guidance for Manager’s – to be advertised in new training planner
Please forward your nomination forms for any of the above to:
Lucy Muscatt – Social Care Training, Room 11b @ The Oakdale Centre
If you have any queries or contributions to make to this Newsletter
then please contact: Eva Brachova on ext. 3610
Next issue will go out on Friday 13th February.
Articles need to be sent in by Friday 6th February. Thanks
Editor: Eva Brachova, Management Support Officer, Adult Social Services Commissioning, Tel: 01202 (63)3610
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