Agenda item

Report of Director of Children and Adults Services

The Director of Children and Adult Services submitted a report (previously circulated) together with the Annual Report 2017-18 of the Darlington Safeguarding Adults Partnership Board (DSAPB) (also previously circulated).

The submitted report outlined the requirement for the DSAPB to produce an Annual Report which outlined its activities over the previous year and which made an assessment of the effectiveness of multi-agency safeguarding arrangements within the local area and the independent Chair of the Board, Ann Baxter, gave an overview of the key messages and challenges faced.

The report set out the progress against the six key principles, as outlined in the Care Act 2014 as the strategic aims to support good inter-agency Adult Safeguarding and discussion ensued on the challenges faced by the Board in relation to the increased demand for services, within the context of reduced resources and the impact the changes to be brought by the Children and Social Work Act 2017, may have on adult safeguarding.

Particular reference was made to a piece of work which had been undertaken whereby all partner agencies had been required to do a self-audit of their safeguarding practices which had then been moderated by other partner members, and it was reported that this had worked well and the outcomes had been positive.

Discussion ensued on the future funding arrangements for the Board and the financial contribution statutory partners were required to make,  together with the valuable contribution and commitment the Fire Authority made to safeguarding, albeit they were not statutory partners

Reference was also made to the work undertaken to develop a multi-agency data set

which would provide assurance that agencies were working in partnership and were fulfilling their statutory roles in accordance with the Care Act 2014.  The use of this data would also determine whether issues needed to be highlighted.

Members sought reassurance on safeguarding issues around adults in their own homes and it was accepted that this was a more difficult area to give assurance as they were more vulnerable because they were not in a structured and controlled environment, however, the Board had not seen a rise in issues within a community setting.  Following a question by a Member in relation to BME communities, the Independent Chair reported that the level of concerns raised within Darlington were not proportionate to its population.

RESOLVED – That the report be received and the thanks of this Scrutiny Committee be extended to Ann Baxter for attending the meeting.