Strategic Plan 2020 - 2025
Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Safeguarding Adults Boards Strategic Plan 2020 - 2025.
We are working under the expectation that Covid-19 and responses to it will continue over the next year and therefore all of the work of the Safeguarding Adults Boards into 2021 will take place in that context. Many areas of our work will need to change to adapt to this context. There will also be some areas of business that need a specific focus related to Covid-19 and our response to it.
We will continue to monitor and adapt our approach and annual business plans (which sit under this strategic plan) in response to changing circumstances around Covid-19.I am pleased to share this strategic plan, which sets out the priorities for safeguarding in Leicester City, Leicestershire and Rutland. As Chair of the Leicester Safeguarding Adults Board, and Leicestershire and Rutland Safeguarding Adults Board, I am keen to ensure that people who live and work locally are clear about our vision and understand how we will take action to deliver this in partnership.
Safeguarding is everybody’s business – we all have a part to play in keeping citizens safe from harm and abuse. By helping people to understand what abuse is, how this can be reported and how agencies will respond to concerns, we aim to build empowered communities. It is this empowerment, of individuals and of agencies that will protect vulnerable people from harm and enable all partners to respond quickly and effectively where required.
These are big issues and broad priorities, which will be delivered over a five-year period; the LSAB and LRSAB annual business plans set out the specific actions and areas for focus over that time frame.
Fran Pearson, Independent Chair
The LSAB and LRSAB together aspire to have:
A city and counties where people are able to live their lives without abuse or harm from others because
- Abuse is not tolerated
- People know what to do if abuse happens
- People and organisations work together to prevent and respond to abuse
Safeguarding Adults Boards (SAB) are required to publish a strategic plan. This should set out how the SAB will seek to prevent abuse and neglect and how it will help and protect people with care and support needs at risk of abuse and neglect.
The strategic plan has two main purposes:
- To specify the actions required by the SAB and each of its member agencies to implement the strategy
- To inform the local community and all interested parties, including practitioners, about the work programme of the SAB
This strategic plan is a high-level statement of the SABs’ vision and priorities over the next five years. The Leicester SAB (LSAB) and Leicestershire and Rutland SAB (LRSAB) also have individual annual business plans, which support the delivery of the joint strategic plan and set out the detailed actions and their delivery timetable during the year.
This strategic plan is informed by a range of data and qualitative feedback about safeguarding across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. This includes comparisons with other areas, national and local research, findings of case reviews, audits and safeguarding adults reviews (SAR) as well as feedback from people who use services or have experienced a safeguarding episode and their carers.
The Government has published 6 principles to be used by local authority adult social services, the NHS, Police and other agencies for both developing and assessing the effectiveness of their local adult safeguarding arrangements. These also describe, in broad terms, the desired outcomes for adult safeguarding, for both individuals and agencies.
Empowerment – People in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland will be supported and encouraged to make their own decisions through informed consent.
Prevention – In Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland we believe it is better to take action before harm occurs.
Proportionality – To safeguard the people of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, we will take the least intrusive response appropriate to the risk.
Protection – We will support and ensure representation for those in greatest need
Partnership – Solutions will come from agencies and local people working together across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, all having a part to play in preventing, detecting and reporting neglect and abuse.
Accountability – The work of the Boards will be transparent and accountable to the people of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.
SABs must engage and consult with the local Healthwatch and the local community in preparing its plan. This plan has been shared with a range of stakeholders and local groups for their input:
- Healthwatch
- Learning Disability Partnership Board
- Mental Health Partnership Board
- Older Person’s Forum
- LSAB Engagement Group
The Leicester Safeguarding Adults Board (LSAB) is a statutory, multi-agency partnership coordinated by the local authority. The LSAB oversees and leads adult safeguarding across the Leicester City Council area. LSAB’s main objective is to gain assurance that safeguarding arrangements are effective and that partner organisations work well individually and together, to support and safeguard adults in Leicester who are at risk of abuse and neglect.
The Leicestershire and Rutland Safeguarding Adults Board (LRSAB) is a statutory, multi-agency partnership coordinated by the local authority. The LRSAB oversees and leads adult safeguarding across the Leicestershire County Council and Rutland County Council areas. LRSAB’s main objective is to gain assurance that safeguarding arrangements are effective and that partner organisations work well individually and together, to support and safeguard adults in Leicestershire and Rutland who are at risk of abuse and neglect.
LSAB and LRSAB aspires to have:
A city and counties where people are able to live their lives without abuse or harm from others because
- Abuse is not tolerated
- People know what to do if abuse happens
- People and organisations work together to prevent and respond to abuse
Making Safeguarding Personal is an approach that places individuals at the centre of a safeguarding process. In Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland we have adopted these principles, delivering a different approach to safeguarding interventions across partners. Therefore, Making Safeguarding Personal is an underpinning principle for all of our activity as SABs.
We aim to promote a strengths-based focus in our practice, finding out what matters to people and how we might enable them to achieve this.
LSAB and LRSAB’s purpose is to:
- Set the vision and priorities for partnership working on safeguarding
- Agree specific objectives to strengthen safeguarding in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland
- Co-ordinate the strategic development of adult safeguarding across the city and counties
Our values
LSAB and LRSAB members embrace a common set of values, shared with the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Safeguarding Children Partnerships.
- All people of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland have the right to:
- dignity, choice and respect
- protection from abuse and/or neglect
- effective and co-ordinated work by all agencies to ensure a holistic child/person centred response
- the best possible outcomes, regardless of their age, gender, ability, race, ethnicity, religion, belief, sexual orientation and circumstances
- high quality service provision
- Safeguarding the wellbeing of children, young people and adults is a responsibility we all share.
- Openness, transparency and sustainability will underpin the work of the Boards.
- Participation by children, young people and adults is essential to inform services, policies, procedures and practices.
- Services to meet the individual needs of children, young people and adults aspire to reach the highest standards.
- Celebration of strengths and positive achievements is important to the Boards and Partnerships, as is the commitment to a process of continuous development and improvement.
- Constructive shared learning to protect children, young people and adults will be integral to the Boards’ and Partnerships’ business.
A local authority, having consulted the other members of its SAB, must appoint as the chair a person whom the authority considers to have the required skills and experience. The LSAB and the LRSAB have appointed a shared Independent Chair. The Chair is responsible for overseeing the effective work of the SABs in line with the Care Act 2014.
Each SAB is required to have core statutory membership from the Local Authority, Police and the local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). In addition, the SABs’ membership includes NHS providers, emergency services, housing services, providers of probation and prison services, representatives of service users and carers and the local Healthwatch.
LSAB and LRSAB share many of their partners and providers. Therefore, the two SABs have developed a joint strategic plan and work closely on a number of operational safeguarding matters. The two boards have regular joint sessions, to share common issues and have a number of shared sub groups.
The LSAB works closely with the Leicester Safeguarding Children Partnership Board and the Safer Leicester Partnership in the city.
The LRSAB works closely with Leicestershire and Rutland Safeguarding Children Partnership, the Safer Rutland Partnership, and Community Safety Partnerships in Leicestershire.
Both Boards also maintain strong working relationships with local Health and Wellbeing Boards, and the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR) Strategic Partnership Board, in particular the LLR Vulnerability Executive.
The LSAB and LRSAB have a number of statutory duties which must be met. The SABs also have an ongoing responsibility to ensure every day activity is delivered by all partners in a way that safeguards adults at risk from abuse and harm. This is business as usual and is monitored routinely by the SABs.
The SABs use a range of information sources to understand how well people are being safeguarded and where we may need to pay more focus in order to secure improvements. Information sources include:
- The Performance Assurance Framework, which captures data, quality and experiential information
- Safeguarding Adults Reviews
- The Annual Report
- Feedback from people who use services and from carers
- Dialogue with providers of services and staff
The LSAB and LRSAB hold a business development day at least annually, where the range of intelligence about safeguarding in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland is considered and the areas of focus for the coming year are agreed.
The LSAB and LRSAB must ensure statutory compliance and seek assurance about how effective all safeguarding activity is, as well as address any priority issues for action. Therefore, the two SABs have 2 core and 4 developmental priorities. The developmental priorities are broad and shared by the two SABs. Each SABs annual business plan will set out any specific themes or areas of focus for that year.
- Ensuring Statutory Compliance
The LSAB and LRSAB have mechanisms in place to ensure that they comply with the requirements of the Care Act 2014. These include the production and publication of a strategic plan and an annual report as well as commissioning Safeguarding Adults Reviews in line with legislation. The two SABs share Multi-Agency Procedures.
- Enhancing Everyday Business
The LSAB and LRSAB require assurance from all partners that they are delivering good quality services which keep people safe from harm and abuse. In addition, the awareness, training and development of staff is critical to those good quality services. The SABs take a lead in ensuring that there is enhanced training for the partnership, whilst expecting that every agency ensures that its own staff have the core safeguarding training that they need to do their jobs effectively and safely. The two SABs share an Audit Group.
Developmental priorities
- Strengthening User and Carer Engagement
The LSAB and the LRSAB are committed to learning from the experience of people who use services and their carers, including those who have directly experienced safeguarding issues. This is an area that is often challenging for SABs to address.
Understanding the impact of our work is felt to be critical to our assurance process as a board. Therefore, we believe it is a priority to support people who feel able to share their experience.
For LSAB, an Engagement Strategy is in place for delivery and whilst we have made good progress in this area we need to continue to develop a sustainable and effective set of arrangements for engaging with users and carers.
For LRSAB, Engagement has taken place on an ad hoc basis and further development is required to develop a sustainable and effective set of arrangements for engaging with users and carers.
- Raising awareness within our diverse communities
Leicester is a highly diverse city and it is vital that all of our communities are safeguarded. To deliver this effectively the LSAB needs to be assured that communities understand what abuse is, know how to respond where they are concerned about abuse and receive support that is relevant and appropriate to their circumstances. The data in the Annual Report (2019/20) suggests an over-representation of people from white communities in comparison to the total adult population. This has not substantially changed although this was a priority within our previous strategic plan.
In Leicestershire and Rutland and the LRSAB requires further work to understand safeguarding need and access to services for people from diverse backgrounds.
Therefore, it continues to be a priority for the LSAB and LRSAB to better understand and address any barriers to engaging well with our diverse communities, in particular (but not exclusively) our Black and Minority Ethnic communities.
- Understanding how well we work together
Messages from safeguarding reviews and domestic homicide reviews have reflected the challenges in working with people who have multiple risk factors in their lives, such as mental health needs, substance misuse issues, learning disabilities or domestic violence issues. It is also the case that services are under pressure in austere times, making communication and joint working ever more important to manage risk well.
Nationally, the effectiveness of joint working, including information sharing and communication, are themes from learning reviews. Therefore, the LSAB and the LRSAB have a shared priority to ensure that joint working is effective to safeguard adults. Recognising that this is a significant piece of work, the annual plan will identify a specific theme for exploration and action as a ‘task and finish’ activity. In recent years the SABs have focussed on safeguarding transitions, of young people who are at risk of harm as they move into adulthood, as well as people living in residential care environments.
- Prevention – helping people to stay safe, connected and resilient to reduce the likelihood of harm, abuse or neglect
The LSAB and the LRSAB believe that there should be a clear approach to supporting the factors that help to prevent abuse from happening in the first place. Recognising that our approach to prevention of harm and abuse will be a long-term strategic priority for the SABs, we will continue to finalise prevention principles and identify specific pieces of work based on these as required.
The LSAB and the LRSAB have a set of sub-groups and task and finish groups that will enable the delivery of the strategic priorities and statutory expectation, as well as maintaining oversight of usual business. These may change as the annual business plan refines the actions that are required to deliver the strategic plan.
Joint LLR Policies and Procedures Group
- LLR Audit Sub Group
- Enhancing Everyday business
Ensuring statutory compliance
- LSAB/LRSAB: Strategic Plan/Annual Business plan/Annual Report
- LSAB Review Sub Group & LRSAB Case Review Group – commissioning and quality assuring safeguarding adults reviews and overseeing delivery of recommendations
Enhancing everyday business
- LLR Audit Sub-Group
- LLR Performance Sub Group - Providing assurance by gathering and analysing local information (data qualitative feedback, comparative material)
- LLR Training Sub group – ensuring staff are well trained and aware of safeguarding issues
Raising Awareness in diverse communities
- LSAB engagement sub group – LRSAB arrangements to be confirmed
Strengthening user/carer engagement
- LSAB engagement sub group – LRSAB arrangements to be confirmed
Understanding how well we work together
- LSAB / LRSAB thematic task and finish groups (see annual business plans)
Improving safeguarding transitions
- Leicester City transitions board (task and finish – Leicester city only)
The LSAB publishes an annual business plan which sets out how the priorities will be delivered by the groups above. This is available at: Safeguarding adults board
The LRSAB publishes an annual business plan which sets out how the priorities will be delivered by the groups above. This is available on the LRSAB website.