Latest News April 2022

Spring is in the air. How lovely it has been to see the blossom on the trees and the sun in the sky! It is also a time to look back and reflect on the previous 12 months. We’ve had another busy year. We are currently compiling our annual report for 2021-2022 (one of our statutory duties). We have sent out requests to SSAB members for information to be included and we would really appreciate it if you can return those to us by the deadline (31^st May 2022). We look forward to sharing our annual report later in the year.

We are also pleased to update that we have recruited 2 new team members, so we are looking forward to welcoming them to the team in the next few weeks.

New 7-Minute Briefing on Carers and support

We have recently published a 7-Minute briefing on Carers, which explains what a carer is, what a carer’s assessment is and support that’s available for people who are carers. There is also a plain text version. Please share this with colleagues.

Reminder - 7-Minute Briefing on Safeguarding Adults

We have published a 7-Minute briefing which explains in brief about the Care Act, the aims of adult safeguarding, different types of abuse and how to make a referral. There is also a plain text version. Please use these documents to support discussions with your teams.

SAR Kannu – Briefing Document

We have published a briefing document for SAR Kannu to support you to cascade the learning from this SAR. The full report has been published on our website and the recording of the learning event is still available to watch.

Information Sharing – Golden Rules and Flow Chart

Sharing information is often a barrier to people making safeguarding referrals or discussing their concerns with partners. We have added some information to our website about information sharing, including a flowchart and advice on when information can be shared without consent.

Bite Size Briefing – Submitting Intelligence Reports to Greater Manchester Police

Our next Bite Size Briefing is taking place on Friday 13^th May at 11am – 12noon.

It is aimed at professionals who work out and about in the community and may come across information / intelligence that will be beneficial to the police. This information can often help to build a picture and help GMP to prevent and detect crime. GMP have created a Partner Intelligence Form which can be used to submit intelligence reports to GMP and this briefing explains more about that process. For more information to book a place please contact: ssabtraining@salford.gov.uk

Bite Size Briefing - Carers

On 8^th June at 1-2pm, we are hosting a Bite Size Briefing session on Carers via Microsoft Teams. Colleagues from the Gaddum Carer’s Service will be talking about what it means to be a carer, what a carer’s assessment is, including tips for having conversations with people about carer’s assessments and support available to people who are carers. If you would like to join us for this session please e-mail: ssabtraining@salford.gov.uk

Bite Size Briefing – Advocacy

We recently hosted a Bite Size Briefing session in conjunction with Mind in Salford who deliver the Advocacy Service. The session outlined the different types of advocacy that people in Salford can access, including non-statutory community advocacy. If you were unable to attend the session and would like to know more, please watch the recording.

Upcoming Training

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) - Tuesday 24^th May 9.30am – 12.30pm – (via MS Teams)
Introduction to Domestic Abuse - Thursday 16^th June 9am-4.30pm - (Face to face)
MAPPA (Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements) - Tuesday 21^st June 2-3.30pm –Training (via MS Teams)

For more information about any of the above training, please contact ssabtraining@salford.gov.uk

Community Led Support in Adult Social Care

This is a strengths-based approach that is currently being implemented in Adult Social Care with support from the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi). The approach aims to use different ways of working with people to maximise the strengths and community connections of people locally. The training provided by NDTi is available to anyone working in Salford. There are 4 sessions which cover:

1^st Introduction to CLS
2^nd Good conversations
3^rd Outcomes and supports
4^th Strength based reviews

There is some more information on our website if you are interested in attending.

7-13 June is Carers Week

If you are not able to join us for the Bite Size Briefing mentioned above, it might be a good opportunity to use the 7-Minute briefing to discuss carers and support for carers with your teams. A number of recent safeguarding adult reviews have found that carers have declined a carers assessment due to a lack of understanding of what it actually is.

Stephen Heggarty, Gaddum’s Adult Carers Outreach and Development Worker has made a really helpful short video (1min 30) which explains more about Carer’s Assessment and how to access one via Gaddum.

New Language – Planning Meeting and Outcome Meetings

As part of ongoing work to strengthen person centred working, you may notice that some safeguarding meetings have new names.

Strategy Meeting will be called Planning Meetings
Case Conferences will be called Outcome Meetings

New Domestic Abuse Services

Following a competitive open tender process, a new partnership of four charities has been selected to provide Domestic Abuse services in Salford from April 2022. Salford Foundation, Pankhurst Trust (Manchester Women’s Aid), TLC: Talk, Listen, Change and Trafford Domestic Abuse Service (TDAS) have come together to create the new “Safe in Salford” Domestic Abuse service.

The new service is jointly funded by Salford City Council, Salford NHS Clinical Commissioning Group and Greater Manchester Police. The five-year contract has been awarded to Salford Foundation, who will lead the new service in a Lead Provider model. Under this new way of working, the 30-year-old social inclusion charity will sub-contract to Partnership providers and co-ordinate a wide range of services to support victims and survivors, children and young people, and perpetrators who want to change their behaviour.

The “Safe in Salford” partnership is being designed to be flexible and accessible, offering person-centred, trauma informed safety and support. For more information and how to refer to the new service click here.

New Resources for supporting Older LGBT+ Victims / Survivors of Domestic Abuse and Older Victims with Dementia produced by Dewis Choice

Dewis Choice is a Welsh initiative based at the centre for Age, Gender and Social Justice at Aberystwyth University. It was established in 2015 and combines a co-produced service with research on domestic abuse later in life.

They have recently launched a Dementia and Domestic Abuse Toolkit. A launch event was held and the recording of this launch event is available to watch.

They have published a Good Practice Guide for working with Older LGBTQ Victim-Survivors of Domestic Abuse. You can watch the recording of the launch event.

They have also produced a short film called Hidden Voices which talks about some of the particular challenges faced by older LGBT+ victims / survivors of domestic abuse and what organisations can do to better support them.

National Consultation – Changes to the MCA Code of Practice and implementation of Liberty Protection Safeguards

After many delays, the consultation on the changes to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 Code of Practice and implementation of the Liberty Protection Safeguards is now taking place. The consultation will last for 16 weeks, closing on 7^th July 2022;

The MCA Code of Practice is being revised with LPS chapters added so it will have to be cascaded to all services using the MCA, not just those that may be affected by LPS;
DHSC has also published the following:

6 sets of regulations (e.g. who can be an assessor, who can be an AMCP, etc)
revised Impact Assessment
Workforce and training strategy
Training framework
National minimum dataset

There will be a number of engagement events
The date for implementation will be set once the Government has considered the responses to the consultation.

Salford has an LPS steering group which are leading on this work. If you require further information or wish to feed back any comments, please contact Martin Sexton (martin.sexton@salford.gov.uk).

New National Guidance - Revisiting Safeguarding Practice

The Department of Health and Social Care has recently published Revisiting Safeguarding Practice - a briefing for social workers and other safeguarding practitioners working in adult social care who are involved in safeguarding. It sets out the roles and responsibilities in relation to adult safeguarding and aims to ensure statutory responses are informed by a consistent person-centred approach.

New SSCP Guidance - Support and Safeguarding: Helping Children to Thrive

The SSCP have published a new guidance document titled Support and Safeguarding: Helping Children to Thrive which will replace the previous Thresholds of Need guidance.

The new guidance introduces a model of help and support, providing information on the levels of need and gives examples of some of the indicators that a child or young person may need additional support. By undertaking assessments and offering services and support at the earliest opportunity, professionals can be flexible and respond to needs of different children and families. Along this continuum, services become increasingly targeted and specialised according to the level of need.

Please share the new guidance within your agencies/services.

Upcoming dates:

2^nd--8^th May - Deaf Awareness Week
9^th-15^th May – Mental Health Awareness Week
16^th-22^nd May – Dementia Awareness Week
6^th -12^th June - Carer’s Week
20^th-26^th June – Learning Disability Week

Links to other news

Finally…

If you would like us to include anything in our next bulletin or have any feedback, please e-mail us: ssab@salford.gov.uk

Best wishes

The SSAB Team