The Care Act 2014 puts Adult Safeguarding on a legal footing. In April 2015 Salford Safeguarding Adults Board (SSAB) became statutory. The role of the SSAB is to ensure that local arrangements for safeguarding adults are effective at protecting those adults in Salford who are considered to be adults at risk.

An "adult at risk” is defined as any person aged 18 years and over who is or may be in need of community care services by reason of mental health issues, learning or physical disability, sensory impairment, age or illness and who is or may be unable to take care of him/herself or unable to protect him/herself against significant harm or serious exploitation.

The SSAB works to promote the wellbeing, security and the safety of adults at risk, recognising their rights, mental capacity and personal responsibility in order to help prevent abuse wherever possible.

Under the Care Act 2014 the SAB has three core duties:

• develop and publish a strategic plan setting out how it will meet its objectives and how its members and partner agencies will contribute
• publish an annual report detailing how effective its work has been
• commission safeguarding adults reviews (SARs) for any cases which meet the criteria for these (please see supporting documents for criteria and how to make a SAR referral.

In addition the SSAB should evidence its arrangements for peer review and self-audit and evidence how SSAB members have challenged one another and held each other account.

Salford's Adult Safeguarding Board meets four times a year to oversee developments to adult safeguarding work in the city. Membership includes representatives from the core statutory agencies (the local Authority, the Police and the NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups). The board also has representatives from a range of other partners including mental health services, community and hospital services and a range of voluntary sector organisations.  

The board is independently chaired by Dr Steven Pugh. You can find out more about the work of the SSAB by reading the documents below including the three yearly strategic plan of the board, the one year action plan and the annual report.