To agree the minutes of the meeting of 4 October 2013.

Agreed that the minutes of the meeting held on 4 October 2013 be confirmed.

Matters Arising

§  Include Geoff Baines taken over from Steve Waite.

§  Minute 25 – this was a typo.

§  Minute 29 – Peer review delayed to September 2014 – date will be circulated with the minutes.  Can we learn anything from other peer reviews that have already taken place?  Will circulate examples with the minutes.

§  Minute 27 - Logo – Sam Sposito would circulate the new logo to the board and webpages were now set up.

§  Minute 31- Action plan.  Was the SCR review circulated with the minutes?  No they would be circulated when published.

§  Minute 32 - Financial abuse and safeguarding adults.  This item would be deferred to a future meeting.

§  Invited Helen Toker-Lester to talk to the board under any other business on the Winterbourne View updates.

To receive any declarations of interest.

In accordance with the code, a declaration of interest was made by Mandy Cox.  Mandy also sits on other children and adult safeguarding boards across the peninsula.

To receive reports on business which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be brought forward for urgent consideration.

There were no items of chair’s urgent business.

Debbie Butcher, Head of Safeguarding provided the board with an update on the Safeguarding Adults Board Terms of Reference.  The following comments were made -

§  should read City College Plymouth rather than Plymouth City College;

§  NHS England should be included in the membership;

§  User representation should also be included and look at the need to set up a user representative group;

§  the Dignity in Care Forum would represent the community and voluntary sector;

§  prevention needs to be covered and would normally sit with the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) rather than with the Safeguarding Adults Board.  The link with the CSP would be with Pete Aley who is now a member of this board;

§  include outcomes for vulnerable adults rather than focus on the system,  could use ‘best outcomes for people’;

§  section on management reviews.

Agreed that the Safeguarding Adults Board Terms of Reference is re-circulated to members for further comments.  Comments to be sent to Hannah Shaw and the TOR will be updated and resent until all members have reached agreement.

Ian Lightley, General Manager provided the board with a presentation on the Integrated Safeguarding Pathway.  The purpose of the presentation was to introduce to the board to the team, managing alerts and tracking alerts that were open, benefits of the new arrangements and multi-agency working.

In response to questions raised, it was reported that -

§  there was a need to work more with the safeguarding police colleagues to have the overview and to ensure there were no gaps;

§  there were opportunities for co-location and would be of great benefit and sensible way forward;

§  there was a pilot running in North Devon, funding nurses into Devon CC and part of triage and investigation teams – analysis to be undertaken on what value this has added;

§  there was value in bringing PCH closer together and want to do everything we can to contribute to that but as an NHS community there were boundaries;

Agreed that a report to be provided to the Safeguarding Adults Board in the summer on –

1.         progress update on the Integrated Pathway.

2.         co-location opportunities and how we move forward in Plymouth.

Jim Gould, Chair reported that he was meeting with Devon Audit Partnership (DAP) next week.  They would be focussing on the 2011/12 recommendations and whether we have improved our processes.  There were a couple of areas that need more attention would expect DAP would want to meet with some members of the board.

The Chair was unsure if DAP would be happy with our sharing of information between the different organisations.  This needs to be raised as a specific issue and would provide DAP with what we have.   NEW Devon CCG were happy to discuss with DAP, if that was required.

Debbie Butcher, Head of Safeguarding was working on an action plan and made links to the Section 11 Audit which this year includes questions on adults.  Staff survey undertaken for staff across adult and social care and would circulate the results with the minutes.

Agreed that –

1.         the results of the staff survey are circulated with the minutes.

2.         an action plan focusing on areas of training following the results of the staff survey are shared at the next Safeguarding Adults Board meeting.

Jim Gould, Chair reported that this was a quality assurance process.  The Corporate Safeguarding Plan was a live document that changes over time with new actions and priorities with the aim to moving everything to a green rating.  The plan is monitored and the Chair meets with Tracey Lee, Chief Executive, Plymouth City Council, Councillor Sue McDonald, Cabinet Member for Public Health and Adult Social Care and the relevant Assistant Directors every quarter.  The Chair gave assurances that the board was working properly.

Debbie Butcher, Head of Safeguarding and Roslyn Azzam, Deprivation of Liberty Lead Officer provided the board with a performance update.  It was reported that 85 per cent (258 of 301) of investigations begun between April and September 2012 had been concluded as at the end of December 2013.  Of the remaining 43 that were open, 16 were waiting for final case conference meetings and the remaining 27 were waiting for updated data.

The board agreed the recommended management actions –

The recommendations include those from October which have been carried forward awaiting information for national comparison from 2012/13.

§  make use of benchmarking data from other areas to consider how the number of alerts on Plymouth 2012/13 compares to recognised comparator authorities by populations;

§  continue with regular safeguarding activity meetings ti ensure all open safeguarding cases have a conclusion and results recorded as soon as that information is available;

§  continue to monitor trends in the number of investigations where abuse is substantiated and carry out periodic audits to ensure consistent decision-making;

§  re-instate quarterly performance monitoring meetings to consider trends, analysis and implications for practice;

§  carry out further analysis on the increase in alerts from residential care homes to be included in the report to the Safeguarding Board in April;

§  ensure consistent data is recorded regarding the Mental Capacity of the alleged victim and the involvement if advocates, as required for the national safeguarding adults return.

Jim Gould, Chair reported that the budget was being worked on for 2014/15 and Debbie Butcher would shortly be making contact with all the agencies.

Agreed that NEW Devon CCG provide an update on the Frances Report – Lessons Learnt to the next meeting of the Safeguarding Adults Board.

Winterbourne View

Helen Toker–Lester, Joint Planning and Commissioning Manager for Learning Disabilities, NEW Devon CCG provided the board with an update on Winterbourne View.  It was reported that there was a plethora of recommendations from the Winterbourne review and the main thrust was to look at getting people repatriated and work started in Plymouth well before Winterbourne View story broke.

The main concern was that there were individuals that did not need to be there and had an unreasonably long stay away from their families.  In Plymouth, 18 people fall into that category and have a seven step model of repatriation into the local area.    Out of the 18, two were inappropriately placed in hospital.  Getting people back is one part of the process, since the process began not placed anyone outside of Plymouth.

The model adopted in Plymouth provides supported living for individuals helps provides tenure and creates an environment for that person to succeed.  The staff team is recruited around the person and this creates a strong bond between the individual and their staff and helps minimises some issues they may have had.

Safeguarding Training

Julian Mouland, Independent Chair, Joint Commissioning and Adult Social Care reported that they were managing more complex investigations.  Work had already been undertaken on the Training Strategy and will approach partners to ensure their involvement.  Training achieved to date –

Trained 1,530 people so far and provide training on -

Level 1 – eLearning package

Level 2 – alerter training

Level 3- more specialist meetings/chairing training

Chair training took place this week and received good feedback.

A discussion took place on SCIE (Social Care Institute for Excellence) Review Training and whether this board missed an opportunity to undertake this training when rolled out to Plymouth Safeguarding Children Board.  Debbie Butcher had approached them to look a package for Plymouth and there was an opportunity to train up to 12 people, once we have full detail will discuss further.  Concerns were raised over this training; in a recent management review gaps were highlighted.

Serious Self Neglect

It was reported that there is no overarching definition on ‘serious neglect’.  It was important to link to VARM processes.  Re-launch of VARM policy and process this year in order to align serious self-neglect.  Torbay had a particular interest and agreed to lead on this.  Important element of our prevention and worthwhile spending time to get this right and understood.

The next meeting will take place on Friday 4 April 2014.  The agenda for the next meeting will include Section 136 Update provided by DS Paul Northcott, Jane Elliot Toncic and Geoff Baines.

Jim Gould, Chair gave thanks to Debbie Butcher for her work on safeguarding and wished her well in her new role as Assistant Director in Cumbria.

Agreed that under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public are excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended by the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

This item moved to part II due to the nature of the information being provided to the board.