Latest News November 2022
Autumn has arrived, the clocks have gone back and the nights are drawing in. This can only mean one thing… Safeguarding Adults Week! This takes place from 21 – 27 November and more information can be found below.
It’s been another busy few weeks for the SSAB Team and there have been more changes.
Dr. Stephen Pugh, the Independent Chair of the SSAB has decided to step down after many years in the role. He will continue to support the board but in the slightly different role, as Independent Advisor. We would like to thank Stephen for the commitment and support he has given to the SSAB throughout his many years as the Independent Chair.
Francine Thorpe who was previously the joint Chair, is now the sole Independent Chair.
SSAB Annual Report published
Our annual report and one page summary have now been published in the ‘About the Board’ section of our website. We are sure you will agree, this shows a significant amount of work that has taken place over the last financial year. We would like to thank all our partners for their ongoing support and their contributions to this report.
New Multi-agency Safeguarding Policy and Procedures now live
Earlier in the year we commissioned an external organisation, Tri-X to provide our multi-agency safeguarding policy and procedures. Tri-X have extensive expertise in this area and we are sure you will find that our new policy and procedures are much more comprehensive. The new procedures went live on 4th October and we hope that as you start to use them, you will find them much more helpful.
We held 3 launch / demonstration sessions in October, one of which was recorded. If you were unable to attend the live sessions, you can view the recording.
There is lots of information on the new site and initially this may seem overwhelming. Please have a look at the new site and please familiarise yourself with the sections that are most relevant to you.
If you have any questions or feedback, or if you would like to attend a future demonstration session or arrange a session for your team, please contact us at ssab@salford.gov.uk.
Safeguarding Adults Week 21-27 November 2022
The Ann Craft Trust leads on Safeguarding Adults Week which aims to raise awareness of important safeguarding issues and support organisations and individuals to feel confident in recognising signs of abuse and neglect and recording and reporting safeguarding concerns.
This year, the themes for the week are:
Monday – Exploitation and County Lines
Would you recognise home invasion often referred to as ‘cuckooing’? Have you seen information about Mate Crime and Home Invasion section in our new policy and procedures? Did you know we have 7-Minute Briefing on cuckooing and we have interim guidance for all multi-agency partners. Have you seen our or watched our recorded Powerpoint briefing or the Tricky Friends video? Could you share and discuss this with your team?
Tuesday – Self Neglect
You could have a look at the Self-Neglect and Hoarding Sections in our new procedures. Over the coming weeks, we will be reviewing and revising the current Self-Neglect Policy and Procedure. We are planning to simplify this and change it into a toolkit which aims to support the workforce to better support adults who self-neglect.
You could watch Keith’s story: a personal and touching film about hoarding produced by Birmingham Safeguarding Adults Board.
Wednesday – Creating Safer Organisational Cultures
You could spend some time familiarising yourself / your team with our new multi-agency safeguarding policy and procedures. If you were unable to attend the demonstration session, make time to watch the recording and spend some time finding your way around the site. Please let us know if you have any questions or feedback by e-mailing us at ssab@salford.gov.uk
Are all your staff up to date with their safeguarding training? Do they know the whistleblowing procedure. This could be a good opportunity to check, especially if you have new members in your team.
Are you aware of the SSAB process for dealing with concerns about People in Positions of Trust, often referred to a PIPOT?
Thursday – Abuse of Older People
The charity Hourglass highlight the stark fact that every year in the UK, more than a million older people are physically, emotionally, financially or sexually abused in the UK. They have produced a number of resources providing more information and tips to keep people safe from these different forms of abuse.
Age UK also have some safeguarding resources, which includes a safeguarding older people from abuse and neglect fact sheet.
We are holding a learning Learning Event for SAR Irene – see the information below and encourage attendance from your teams.
Friday – Domestic Abuse in Tech-Society
Although technology brings with it many benefits and access to information, sadly it can also provide abusers with even more ways to threaten, intimidate and control people. The domestic abuse charity Safe Lives has conducted research in this area and they have lots of useful information and resources on their website.
Learning Event: SAR Irene, 24 November 10-11.30am
We are holding a learning event to share the learning from this Safeguarding Adult Review (SAR) completed following the death of Irene. David Mellor, the lead reviewer, will be presenting the learning from this review, followed by an opportunity for questions and discussion.
What happened?
Irene was 71 years old at the time of her death. She lived at home with her husband ‘Brian’. A few years earlier, Irene had been diagnosed with Alzheimers and subsequently Aphasia, which affected her ability to communicate verbally. Following Irene’s death, concerns were raised about extensive bruising to her body. Whilst some of this could be explained by falls, the post-mortem concluded that some of the injuries were likely to have resulted from physical assaults.
Learning from this review includes, hearing the voice of the adult, especially where there are communication difficulties; recognising and responding to domestic abuse in older adults, including coercive and controlling behaviour; dealing with tensions during discharge; the use of the safeguarding enquiry amongst a number of other aspects.
Who should attend?
This session is particularly relevant to all professionals / practitioners who come into contact with older adults and may identify domestic abuse / safeguarding concerns as part of their role. Managers responsible for supervising staff in these roles are also encouraged to attend.
The event will be held via Microsoft Teams. If you would like to attend, please e-mail your Name, Organisation and Role to ssabtraining@salford.gov.uk.Please contact us on the above e-mail address if you require any further information or have any questions.
Learning Event: Safeguarding Adult Review (SAR) Jayne
We held a learning event to share the learning from this Safeguarding Adult Review following the death of Jayne. Allison Sandiford, the lead reviewer presented learning from the review
Jayne was 49 at the time of her death. She had been living with a number of complex medical conditions (including diabetes, asthma, hypertension, high cholesterol, migraines, reflux disease, osteo arthritis and sleep apnoea), she had received treatment for a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and she was clinically obese. Towards the latter stages of her life, she also suffered with pressure sores.
This review identified learning around co-ordination, management and discharge of patients with multiple and complex health needs; person centred care, consent / information sharing; obesity and providing bariatric care; supporting carers; raising concerns about care provided; and pain management in the community.
If you were unable to attend, you can watch the recording. The published report and briefing for SAR Jayne are available on the SSAB website.
Aphasia - Communication Resources
SAR Irene identified learning around communicating with people with Aphasia. Aphasia is a complex language and communication disorder resulting from damage to the language centres in the brain. This can be caused by: a stroke, a head injury, a brain tumour or another neurological illness. The Stroke Association has produced some helpful information on aphasia / dysphasia and they have also produced some communication tools.
Domestic Abuse and Older People resources
SAR Irene also highlights challenges in recognising potential domestic abuse / coercive and controlling behaviour in older people.
We are planning to hold training in this area, however in the meantime, you may wish to have a look at these resources produced by Dewis Choice, a Welsh initiative based at the Centre for Age Gender and Social Justice at Aberystwyth University, and has been supporting older victims of domestic abuse, including LGBTQ+ and people with dementia.
Bite Size Briefing - Exploitation in the form of Predatory Marriage – 13 September
We recently held an extended bite size briefing on Exploitation in the form of Predatory Marriage. In March 2016, Joan Blass was almost 92 years old, with severe vascular dementia and terminal cancer. She was unable to make the simplest decision and never knew that she had remarried just five months before her death. Joan’s daughter Daphne Franks shared Joan and her family’s story of a secret marriage, a revoked will, an unmarked grave, grooming, gaslighting, a Private Member’s Bill and a campaign to highlight all the issues.
We received lots of feedback regarding the event which was extremely powerful. We would encourage you to watch the recording and please share it with your colleagues / team members.
Future Bite Size Briefings
We are currently planning future bite size briefings and would love to hear your feedback on what topics they should cover. Please e-mail us your suggestions to: ssabtraining@salford.gov.uk
MAPPA Training 9 January via MS Teams, 2-3.30pm
The Probation Service will be delivering MAPPA and Duty to Cooperate Training. For more information, please visit the Multi-agency training and learning opportunities page of our website.
GMFRS Home Fire Risk Assessments
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service are offering training for partner organisations on Home Fire Risk Assessments. There is Home Fire Safety Assessments (HFSA) Training, which is a 90-minute online option; and Home Fire Safety Assessments (HFSA) Training Plus, which is a half-day session delivered at the Safety Centre in Bury. This option covers the same as the online option one but also provides learners with an immersive input on fire safety in the home and lunch is provided.
Please book directly with GMFRS via the link above.
SAVE THE DATE – 12 January 10am-12.30pm SAR Mathew Learning Event
Along with the Safeguarding Children’s Partnership, we are currently planning to hold a learning event to share the learning from SAR Mathew and talk about what services / resources are now in place. Information about this event will be shared soon.
Congratulations to the Learning Disability Service on their recent achievements
Over the last 12 months the service has won 6 awards!
They won 4 awards: GM Health and Care Champions for inclusion; Salford Care Organisation Customer Experience Award; Northern Care Alliance Customer Experience Award; and North West Regional Parliamentary award for working collaboratively with Primary care, Salford CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group), and Salford Care Organisation to deliver an effective vaccine roll out for people with Learning Disabilities.
This was done at an extremely early stage in the national roll out of COVID vaccine and there was no delay in anyone receiving the vaccine whilst the DHSC decided which people with LD could receive it and in what order.
Outcomes for the local decision was that during November 2020 and November 2021 no person with a learning disability died of COVID compared to the average of 15.4 per local authority area nationally, this data has been presented to clinical effectiveness committee during 2022.
They were also the HSJ (Health Service Journal) poster category winner in vulnerable people category, this was for the work around health inequalities and increasing the uptake of annual health checks.
In August 2022, a staff member became a Salford Care Organisation star of the month, for their work arranging the LD big health day in June 2022 as part of LD week. This event was open to families, people with LD and staff and over 150 people attended and learnt about health and how they could look to manage their own health.
CQC Inspection and Preparatory Work
As part of the ASC reform agenda, the statutory adult social care functions of the local authority will be inspected by CQC. Whilst we don’t currently know when Salford’s inspection will take place, we are working towards an implementation date of April 2023.
Whilst this might be considered a daunting issue as many of us will not have experienced an independent inspection and rating, we view this as something to be welcomed. It will provide us with the opportunity to show case the many great things that are happening in Salford, tell the real story of Adult Social Care and articulate the risks and challenges, helping us to continue on our improvement journey.
In preparation for CQC inspection Adult Social Care have recently completed a self-assessment and evidence submission. In October 2022, there was a ‘peer challenge event’ which was supported by North West ADASS, the final report is expected in the coming weeks so further information will be shared once it has been received.
Going forward there will be regular communication and staff engagement sessions around CQC preparedness and what this means for Adult Social Care and our partners.
Upcoming dates:
- 25 November – 10 December - 16 Days of Action on Domestic Abuse
- 2 December – International Day for the Abolition of Slavery
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
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