Agenda and minutes

·       Tuesday, 26^th August 2025;

·       Tuesday, 28^th September 2025;

·       Tuesday, 6^th January 2026;

·       Tuesday, 24^th February 2026; and

·       Tuesday, 14^th April 2026

The provisional dates set for this Committee were approved for the new Municipal year.

There were no interests declared at this meeting.

RESOLVED – That the Minutes of the meeting of this Committee held on 1April 2025 be approved as a correct record.

Report of the Assistant Director, Adults

The Head of Adults introduced a report outlining the Council’s safeguarding responsibilities and the executive strategy process. A presentation was prepared in advance for the meeting which touched upon both areas, focusing upon the protection of vulnerable adults.

In terms of Safeguarding, The Head of Adults reinforced that Council operates under the statutory framework of the Darlington Safeguarding Partnership (DSP henceforth), and that the Council has a responsibility to ensure that all commissioned agencies work in line with such framework and in line with the Care Act 2014.

With regards to the Executive Strategy Process, this was described as a multi-agency framework designed to address serious safeguarding concerns, including organisational abuse and complex cases. It ensures that safeguarding responses are coordinated, person-centred, and legally compliant.

The presentation detailed how the service area carries out a self-audit, identifying both areas of strength and areas of development and subsequently acting on areas that require more attention. Expectations and an improvement plan are outlined after also speaking to staff, residents and family members to garner a more holistic view. The focus here being to ensure the safety of the current cohort of residents.

The Head of Adults made reference to the Safeguarding Adults Boards (SABS henceforth) which is required to be established by every Local Authority. The role of a SAB is to develop safeguarding strategies, conduct Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SARs henceforth), and promote inter-agency cooperation. With regards to SARs, such reviews must be conducted when an adult or is seriously harmed as a result of abuse or neglect, and there is concern about how agencies worked together. Here in the discussion, reference was made to a ‘safeguarding triage’, with both officers emphasising how human rights are at the centre of this practice.

The Head of Adults and Safeguarding Service Manager then alluded to care homes that are both still within and have passed through the executive strategy process, outlining reasoning for adoption into the strategy and satisfaction that certain establishments can exit the strategy.

Further reference was made to the service area’s prevention duty, notably undertaking a risk notification pilot which has prevented 330 safeguarding incidents per annum thus far. Additionally, both officers touched upon the CPD delivered to staff, which they ensured was evidence-based training.

Brief reference was made to the recent CQC inspection carried out within the service area which returned a positive result, and Members shared very positive sentiments towards this and the staff within the service area.

In terms of areas of malpractice, there were multiple mentioning’s of medication being distributed incorrectly, and this was picked up on and questioned by Members present at the meeting. Specific questions were posed regarding whether the multiple cases of this had similar causes, which the officers responded to saying that high levels of staff turnover and thus subsequent lack of training and sufficient management had resulted in an ‘as and when’ protocol being adopted in some cases which proved to be an issue. The officers addressed the efforts being made to  ...  view the full minutes text for item AD51

Report of the Assistant Director, Law and Governance

The Assistant Director, Law and Governance, submitted a report (previously circulated) which requested that Members gave consideration to the Work Programme items scheduled to be considered by this Scrutiny Committee during 2025/26, and to any additional areas that Members would like to be included.

Following the Annual Briefing of this Scrutiny Committee, a draft Work Programme had been prepared, and Members agreed that the provisional items and timeframes be approved.

Members requested that an items on the subject of Learning Disabilities and Adult Day Services be incorporated into the Work Programme for 2025/26, which officers in attendance agreed to facilitate.

The Chair reminded the Members that items pertinent to this committee which appear on the Forward Plan can be incorporated into the Work Programme without the use of a Quad of Aims.

The Chair also discussed the potentiality of Cross-Committee Scrutiny meetings to discuss items which fall under multiple service areas. This was well received and updates on such were agreed to be followed up.