Agenda item

The Chair welcomed Jane Booth, Independent Chair of the LSAB/LSCB, to the meeting. Jane presented a report on the Lancashire Safeguarding Adults Board Annual Report 2015-16.

Lancashire County Council was a lead member agency of Lancashire Safeguarding Adults Board (LSAB). The LSAB had to produce and publish an Annual Report. The draft report for 2015-16 was presented to the Scrutiny Executive prior to publication in September and the final version was now being formally presented to the full Scrutiny Committee together with an update on the work the LSAB had completed in the interim.

The main body of the report was written by the previous Chair of the Board, who resigned earlier in 2016. Interim arrangements were made for the Chair of the Children's Safeguarding Board to also chair the LSAB and this had now been confirmed up to March 2018.

The report drew attention to the impact of changes in legislation which had put the Board on a statutory footing; it provided a brief local context and information about the Board's priorities in 2015-16, together with analysis of data, it reported on coordination and collaboration between services and drew conclusions re adult safeguarding. The report concluded with a review of news during the year which highlighted issues in safeguarding.

What was clear from the report was that adult safeguarding was challenging. Adult vulnerability was complex. The demographic profile of the community would continue to include increasing numbers of people who fell into service user groups more vulnerable to risk of abuse or neglect (including self-neglect) because of their health or social care needs or issues of mental capacity, abuse and neglect. The challenge for agencies in making a proportionate response to safeguarding issues was increased by reducing resources for all services.

The change in the statutory basis of the LSAB and the establishment of a joint business support unit with the Children's Board had enabled the Board to be more pro-active, to develop a formal business plan, and to develop effective sub-groups to deliver the plan. The main body of the report reflected on work completed since April 2016 or currently in progress; there was much being done and more to do. The busy agenda was only made manageable through the commitment of the LSAB members and its business unit.

Questions and comments by the Committee in relation to the report were as follows:

·  There were concerns about delays in processing referrals and in dealing with assessments linked to deprivation of liberty safeguards. Members stated that these were unacceptable. The issues around deprivation of liberty safeguards were not just a Lancashire problem but a national problem. The reality was that it had become a much greater workload. More resources had been put into it but it was still difficult to manage. There was a law commission piece of work going on to pull the legislation back into a sensible position that could be made sense of. The people who were at most risk in not having these procedures followed had to be prioritised such as those who had an End of Life Care Plan

·  Regarding the guidance on self-neglect, Members enquired if the people of Lancashire were at risk as the guidance felt a bit weak. They were informed that work was being done on the self-neglect policies and procedures. Self-neglect was a new area introduced to safeguarding arena by the Care Act 2014.

·  All agencies were brought together in April 2016 looking at how to make safeguarding personal. Safeguarding was embedded in Social Care but LCC was struggling to reach everybody in the care and health network. The Safeguarding Board knew there was a lot of work to do and had to be proportionate about it. There was no lack of commitment with the agencies and a lot of training was being rolled out.

·  It was noted that there was no representatives from the prison service or probation service at Board meetings. It was pointed out there had been better attendance in the current financial year from the probation service. Also there were two representatives from the prison service who wished to be on the Safeguarding Board. The Board recognised that prisons were now housing more elderly people who wore becoming increasing reliant on other prisoners.

Resolved: Scrutiny Committee considered the content of the Annual Report and the more recent work of the Board and identified any areas it may wish to comment on and any action it may wish to take.