Agenda item

Report of the Adult Safeguarding Partnership Board

[John Wood, Independent Chairman of the SSASPB & Helen Jones, Adult Safeguarding Partnership Board Manager, in attendance for this item]

As part of requirements within the Care Act 2014 Statutory Guidance, the Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Adult Safeguarding Partnership Board’s (SSASPB) Annual Report is presented to the Safeguarding Overview and Scrutiny Committee. The Committee were aware that the Board had a strategic role to oversee and lead adult safeguarding and consider a range of matters that contributed to the prevention of abuse and neglect.

The Annual Report covered the period from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021. During this period there had been 13,227 occasions where concerns had been reported that adults with care and support needs may have been experiencing or at risk of abuse and neglect. This was an increase of 1,051 from 2020/21. Following initial assessment, the duty of enquiry requirement had been met in 21% of those reported concerns, a decrease of 4% from 2020/21. Members heard that arising from this increase discussions were taking place amongst safeguarding partners to develop a mutual understanding of what constitutes a safeguarding concern with the aim of ensuring proportionate ongoing management to protect resources.

The Committee received details of the age, gender and ethnicity of those subject to a Section 42 enquiry. They also received details of the type of abuse and location of reported abuse. The Annual Report also contained case study examples which exemplified types of abuse and neglect and the multi-agency responses to these. The Committee were informed that these case studies helped to give context to the Annual Report, particularly when considering the readership of the Report and the need to present a balanced picture.

In Staffordshire, 67% of adults subject of a Section 42 enquiry provided a response to the question of whether their desired outcomes from the enquiry had been met in full, partially met or not met. 97% of those responding stated that their desired outcomes were either fully or partially met. This was a slight reduction from the reported 98% last year. Members heard that the reasons given for desired outcomes not having been met had been explored by the Board and received examples of reasons for this.

Hidden abuse had been a priority for the Board and remained a theme that was addressed by them. In particular it was important that awareness training was in place as personnel changed amongst practitioners. The Committee were keen to be a part of this awareness training to help spot hidden abusive behaviours. 

The importance of data was discussed. In particular the areas where specifics were unknown, eg 6% of ethnicity was unrecorded. This had the potential to impact on targeting resources as the most vulnerable groups may not be identified accurately. There was a constant strive to improve data recording and to ensure all practitioners understood the importance of thorough and accurate data, although sometimes the data recording systems used made this difficult. Members also emphasised the benefits of meta-analysis to help identify the most vulnerable and target support appropriately. Board partners were at different stages of data recording, and this had an impact on data analysis. However, these suggestions would be taken to the Board’s Quality Assurance Group for consideration.

Members raised concerns at the lack or reference within the Report to online abuse. Abuse recording was in line with the Care Act and therefore online abuse was not recorded as a stand-alone category. However, this type of abuse was recorded within existing categories. Work by Age Concern and Age UK helped support awareness raising and education in this area. Consideration was given to how this could be more obviously reflected in the Report, with a suggestion that this should be included on the Board’s next Audit and Assurance agenda.

Members raised the disparity in numbers between referrals from Staffordshire when compared with those from Stoke-on-Trent. As in previous years this was due to a different interpretation to recording. This had been the subject of discussion, with interpretational differences remaining unresolved.

Resolved: That:

a)    in accordance with the requirements of the Care Act 2014 Statutory Guidance the SSASPB Annual Report be received; and,

b)   the Committee take part in hidden abuse awareness training;

c)   consideration of how more sophisticated data analysis could be used within the report be included on the SSASPB next Quality Assurance  meeting agenda; and

d)   how online abuse could be highlighted in future Annual Reports be included on the SSASPB’s next Audit and Assurance agenda.