Agreed that the minutes of the meeting held on the 4 April 2014 be confirmed.

Matters Arising

·         Minute 50 – Audit update.  An update would be provided to the Board as part of the Safeguarding Manager’s Report.

·         Minute 53 – Care Home Management.  An update would be provided at a subsequent meeting.

·         LSCB discussions – further update to follow.

·         Kelechi Nnoaham, Director of Public Health has been invited to attend to attend all Safeguarding Adults Board meetings;

·         Minute 58 – Section 136 Update.  This item is on today’s agenda.

·         Minute 54 – Health Report.  It was reported that on-going discussions were taking place regarding the pilot for NHS representation.  The Board to receive an update at the next Safeguarding Adults Board meeting.

In accordance with the code of conduct, declarations of interest were made by Martin Cordy who also sits on the Devon Safeguarding Adults Board.

There were no items of Chair’s Urgent Business.

Vicky Clarke provided the Board with an overview on place of safety.  It was reported that –

(a)           Section 136 gives the police the power to remove an apparently mentally disordered person from a public place to a place of safety for up to 72 hours for the specified purposes. A place of safety would be either a police station or suitable hospital ward i.e. the Glenbourne Unit PoS suite;

(b)          72 hours gives the relevant professionals time to delay an assessment if they are intoxicated, and a dedicated hospital suite is preferable to the police custody suite;

(c)           the Place of Safety at Glenbourne is a secure unit and there is staffed by a dedicated team that worked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.   The assessments are carried out within the first 1 to 2 hours of a person entering the unit;

(d)          people are accepted from the outskirts of Plymouth;

(e)          they are working with the street triage project and the police to look at other options rather than Section 136;

(f)            they are considering where children and young people should be assessed for the whole of Devon.  There was a longer piece of work that needs to be undertaken and Glenbourne might not be the age  appropriate place for them.

In response to questions raised, it was reported that -

(g)           there is potential of using the suite as a temporary measure for children and young people because it was not acceptable for the children to be held in police custody.  They are working with CCG to look at the possibility of using Glenbourne with a backup at Plymbridge House as there were a few occasions when they had not been able to locate a bed;

(h)          both Safeguarding Adult and Children Boards had highlighted this as a concern and both Boards need to commit to finding a solution because morally it was not right to accept that a 15 year old to be held in a cell.

DS Paul Northcott provided to the Board a presentation on Safeguarding Vulnerable People – Torbay Pilot.  It was highlighted that –

(a)           they were looking at a single safeguarding process and if successful would roll out force wide;

(b)          the pilot was introduced on 19 May 2014 with a phased implementation and scheduled to run for 6 months.  The pilot was working really well;

(c)           Vulnerability Screening Tool (ViST) – this is a basic safeguarding and risk assessment tool, applicable to children and adults;

(d)          Central Safeguarding Team (CST) – will add value to ViST submissions. Signpost and refer for statutory and non-statutory support operating 3 days a week;

(e)          Local Safeguarding Team (LST) – the team will commence September 2014 and trained to work across all areas;

(f)            230 officers trained in Torbay in risk, threat and harm and looking to roll out training force wide;

(g)           they were starting to implement the model because it had been so successful.

In response to questions raised it was reported that that impact of the pilot meant that early help took up a lot of the demand at the front end and there where excellent examples of this working.

Jim Gould, Independent Chair and Julian Mouland shared with the Board the PSAB Budget.  It was reported that –

(a)           Agreement for contributions were received which were welcomed as the Board changes shape in line with Care Act there was a need for a  strategic plan.  The Care Act was clear that this Board needed to be in line with the Safeguarding Children Board along with funding and partnership arramgements;

(b)          Plymouth City Council are looking at what other Boards were receiving across the region and mapping the contributions made by the different partners.

There was discussion regarding a single professional unit supporting the Safeguarding Children Board and the Safeguarding Adults Board.  There was an option of holding the PSCB meeting in the morning and PSAB meeting in the afternoon.  By both Boards meeting on the same day would help logistics and there was a need to look differently at how the agenda was produced..

Agreed that a small working group made up of officers from PSCB and PSAB to look at the different options for support for this Board with the new changes coming into effect in April 2015.

Kate Jones, Project Manager provided the Board with a presentation on the Care Act 2014 – preparation.  It was reported that -

(a)           the National Assistance Act was an historic piece of legislation and had remained unchanged since 1948.  This update replaces most of the legislation with new duties and changes around funding reforms;

(b)          the Act ensures that people would have clear information and advice upfront with high quality range of support to choose from to meet their needs;

(c)           implementation of the Act would be in two phases –

·         April 2015 – changes to assessment and eligibility;

·         April 2106 – cap on care costs.

(d)          key duties include –

·         the assessment of adults, regardless of needs for care/support or financial resources;

·         the assessment of carers and provide services for those who are eligible;

·         placing Safeguarding Adults Boards on a statutory footing.

(e)          the implementation of the Care Act was linked to the wider Integrated Health and Wellbeing Transformation Programme;

(f)            Legal Framework for Safeguarding –

·         clear legal framework for how local authorities should protect adults at risk of abuse or neglect;

·         A joint working protocol to be established with key partners which clarifies roles, responsibilities and allows for the sharing of information;

·         a SAB with statutory partners from the local authority, CCG and Police, that meet regularly to consider local issues and ensure the SAB arranges Independent Management Reviews and Serious Case Review as necessary;

·         requirement to publish an annual strategic plan and annual report.

(g)           Next steps –

·         drop in workshops for adult social care staff;,

·         communications with partners and the public;

·         responses to the Department of Health consultation to be collated and submitted.

In response to questions raised, it was reported that -

(h)          it was difficult to gage what the impact of the cap arrangement would be and the implications;

(i)            Jane Elliott Toncic and Julian Mouland were in the process of pulling together a report and requested input from partners.

Agreed that Officers from Plymouth Community Healthcare and NEW Devon CCG work with Officers from Plymouth City Council to contribute to the report.

Angela MacBlain, Project Officer provided the Board with a Peer Challenge Update.  It was reported that -

(a)           originally the Peer Challenge was due to take place in the first week in December 2013.  It was cancelled and re-arranged to take place in either April or October 2014.  The Peer Challenge would now take place in the first week in December 2014;

(b)          the purpose of the Peer Challenge was to help us identify where our strengths and weaknesses were.  It’s a constructive and supportive process and an opportunity for colleagues to learn from one and other.  Some of the original plans would be carried forward with slight amendments;

(c)           the Peer Challenge will focus on 4 themes –

·         service delivery and effective practice;

·         performance and resource management;

·         commissioning;

·         working together – Local Safeguarding Board.

(d)          the Peer Challenge would be taking place over 3 days.  Day 1 – meet and greet followed by 2 days of intensive interviews structured around focus groups.  The Dignity in Care Forum would be attending as part of the focus group;

(e)          a designated webpage would be set up and posting information that the LGA have requested to read prior to their visit; 

(f)            as part of our preparation they would be undertaking a self-assessment and welcome partners to be part of the project team;

(g)               after the visit they will take on board any recommendations for future development.

Jane Elliott Toncic, Adult Safeguarding Manager provided the Board with a report.  It was reported that -

Corporate Safeguarding Plan

Feedback for plan was received on time and they were moving towards the green ratings.

They had made links with University of Plymouth with regard to the Adult Safeguarding Conference taking place before next summer.

SAB training rolled out across the council and to staff for the One Stop shop opening in October.

Agreed that the Safeguarding Adults Board –

1.         Review Terms of Reference and membership of the Safeguarding Adults Board, in line with the Care Act.

2.         Ensure that the Partnership agreement is revised and signed by statutory partners and wider SAB partners.

Devon Audit Partnership Interim Update

Interim update commenced in May and full report not ready for today.  Improvements are required and this was expected and has been a positive process so far. Full report and management response to be presented at next meeting.

PSAB and PSCB Independent Chair Recruitment Update

Ten candidates applied for the position and this had been shortlisted to 4 candidates.  An intensive interview process would be taking place soon.

PAUSE Update

Established links with an adult user group which was facilitated by a dedicated worker from the Highbury Trust and would now develop the user group as a sub group of the Board.

ASC Safeguarding Pathway Update

The team were facing pressures from the volume of alerts and a demands from the increase in DoLS applications.   There were some multi agency issues which included co-location being explored.

RoslynnAzzam, Deprivation of Liberty Lead Officer provided the Board with the Safeguarding Adults Return 2013 – 14.  It was reported that there had been an increase in alerts.  BME alerts were low and work had started to address this.

The Board highlighted that it would be useful to know the number of people suffering with dementia.

Julian Mouland and Geoff Baines, Plymouth Community Healthcare provided the Board with the PSAB Performance Indicators Workstream.  It was reported that the workstream was populated with data from last year and this was an example of what we might need to capture.  This was the first draft and the key was to identify what should go in and what we want to benchmark.

Agreed to format the self-assessment tool, and send out to members with a request to return in time for a report back to the board in October.

RoslynnAzzam, Deprivation of Liberty Lead Officer provided the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) report to the Board.  It was reported that -

(a)           a Supreme Court judgement in March changed the understanding of what constitutes a deprivation of liberty;

(b)          it was the responsibility of the provider as to whether they were depriving people of their liberty. 

(c)           residential care homes, nursing homes and hospitals were responsible for compliance with the Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards. This is now extended to supported living arrangements. They all need to make applications to the local authority if a person in their care is being deprived of their liberty.

In response to questions raised, it was reported that -

(d)          a Devon-wide meeting with health providers would be taking place shortly looking at what this means in practice and how we manage this;

(e)          with regard to budgets, health have made a commitment to the DoLS office and need a further conversation on this whether this would continue.  There was likely to be a pressure on the DoLS budget.

Agreed that –

1.            a Task and Finish group to agree a city-wide approach in responce to the  judgement and require progress updates to ensure that DoLS applications or court of protection applications are made for anyone in the city (or in out of county placements made by Plymouth commissioners) who may be deprived of their liberty.

2.            the task and finish group to include officer from Plymouth Community Healthcare, NEW Devon CCG, Plymouth City Council and Plymouth Hospitals Trust.

The following items were raised under any other business -

·         Primary care engagement in safeguarding – NHS England had the authority to recruit 4 Safeguarding nurses, they would sit within the CCG.

·         The Audit Report would be circulated to members by the end of July and would form part of the Peer Review.

The panel is asked to note the dates of future meetings for the municipal year 2014 – 2015.  All meetings will commence at 1.30 pm –

Friday 3 October 2014

Friday 30 January 2015

Friday 10 April 2015

The Board noted the dates of future meetings for the municipal year 2014 – 2015 –

·         Friday 3 October 2014

·         Friday 30 January 2015

·         Friday 24 April 2015

There were no items of exempt business.