Agenda item

Agenda item

Annual Report of Manchester Safeguarding Adult Board April 2018 - March 2019

Report of the Executive Director of Adult Services and Former Independent Chair of Manchester Safeguarding Children Board

 

This is a covering report providing an overview of Manchester Safeguarding Adults Board Annual Report which is for the period from April 2018 - March 2019. This document reports on the work of the partnership.

 

Minutes:

The Committee considered the report of the Executive Director of Adult Servicesand the former Independent Chair of Manchester Safeguarding Adults Board. It provided Members with an overview of the work of the Board for the period from April 2018 - March 2019.

 

The Independent Chair of Manchester Safeguarding Adults Board referred to the main points of the report which were: -

 

·                Noting the priorities of the Board that were rolled forward from 2017/18 into 2018/19;

·                Noting the key activities described in 2018/19; and

·                Futurechallenges and improvement.

 

The Executive Director of Adult Services paid tribute to the former Independent Chair of the Manchester Safeguarding Adults Board for her commitment and diligence in safeguarding adults in Manchester.

 

The Executive Director of Adult Services stated that in recognition of the reconfiguration of services in Manchester new safeguarding arrangements were due to be announced in September and information on these would be shared with the Health Scrutiny Committee.

 

A Member commented that the use of the word ‘customer’ in the context of Domestic Violence was inappropriate. The Independent Chair of Manchester Safeguarding Adults Board acknowledged this comment and stated that this would be corrected prior to the reports formal publication.

 

A Member commented that the report referred to the Learning from Reviews Subgroup and noted that it stated ‘It had been a challenge to secure regular and consistent attendance from all agencies and the subgroup had three different Chairs which had led to some inconsistency and slow progress at times.’ and asked what was being done to address this. The Independent Chair of Manchester Safeguarding Adults Board informed the Committee that the new Chair of the Subgroup was addressing this issue and Learning from Reviews would continue within the new arrangements. She said this would be aligned with the Learning and Improvement Subgroup, and she was confident that this new arrangement would improve this situation.

 

The Executive Director of Adult Services commented that the new safeguarding arrangements would strengthen learning reviews and ensure that the right action was taken at the right time by the right partner.

 

In response to a question regarding the number of, and costs of legal challenges and how this was monitored and reported, the Independent Chair of Manchester Safeguarding Adults Board stated that it was not the role of the Board to consider any legal challenge and responsibility for that rested with the relevant partner. She further stated that the Board were satisfied with the approach taken to The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). The Executive Director of Adult Services informed Members that she met with legal officers on a monthly basis to review and monitor any challenges.

 

The Executive Director of Adult Services responded to a comment from the Chair who noted that the membership list of the Board was predominantly statutory health providers and there appeared to be little or no representation from the Voluntary and Community Sector, and asked if this was typical.  She advised that the levels of representation would be reviewed and workshops around this had been delivered with the intention to include both statutory and non-statutory bodies represented on the Board. She further stated that the recently appointed Director of Homelessness would be joining the Board.

 

Decisions

 

The Committee: -

 

1. Note the publication of the Manchester Safeguarding Adults Board Annual report 2018–2019.

 

2. Recommend that the word customer is removed and replaced with a more appropriate term when referring to Domestic Violence.

 

[Cllr Watson declared a prejudicial interest in this item of business and withdrew from the meeting.]

 

Supporting documents: