Agenda item

The Committee received a report of the Durham Safeguarding Adults Partnership Independent Chair that presented the Annual Report for 2023/2024 of the Durham Safeguarding Adults Partnership (DSAP), which provided assurance of the safeguarding adults activity across County Durham (for copy see file of Minutes).

The Durham Safeguarding Adults Partnership Business Manager was in attendance to deliver the report.

Councillor Quinn thanked the Officer for looking into the safeguarding issues on people living on their own and the vulnerable.

In response to a question from Councillor Earley, the Business Manager indicated the following on from the high profile exposes that happened many years ago in other parts of the country they ended up with Transforming Care. Transforming Care from an NHS perspective was predominantly around people being placed some distance from their home in an “out of area placement”. The partnership has had for a number of years some assurance around transforming care and what that means if they are placed in our county or out of county. Some elements of that were now picked up within local authority assessment under the Care Quality Commission whilst others were picked up under the assurance role of the safeguarding adult’s partnership in terms of reporting. For a number of years, they have had regular updates on who had been placed outside the area from the local authority and the oversight of those adult’s placed elsewhere.

The Safeguarding Adults Business Manager provided members’ assurance that mechanisms were in place to ensure that information and soft intelligence was shared between the Council and Partners where concerns were highlighted in respect of quality of care. The expectation was that agencies could collect and share that information with the local authority to ensure service standards were maintained. The Partnership received information updates which identified the potential need for interventions should concerns arise around safeguarding. They have updates pre and post local authority assessment from the care quality commission.

In response to a further question from Councillor Earley, the Business Manager stated that there was a national working group around the prevention of institutionalised abuse and the development of service standards which would tackle this.

Councillor Hunt referred to vulnerable adults been used by drug gangs and asked if they have a lot of referrals and what the process was.

The Business Manager responded that children who can be criminally exploited sit within the safeguarding children’s partnership although work was done with the Safeguarding Adults Partnership during the transition from childhood to adulthood. The Safeguarding Adults Partnership had not received reports of drug exploitation specifically but were aware of the risks posed in terms of financial abuse, modern slavery linked to drug and substance misuse. Incidents of home invasion had also been reported and members were assured that the Partnership undertook regular audit activity and case working to address such issues.

The Partnership was currently working on engaging with adults who may be at risk or experiencing such issues and were hoping to develop an associated “toolkit” in this respect later in the year.

The Chair referred to SARs and asked if the training was optional or mandatory.

The Business Manager responded that the review training was not mandate but was open to all partners of the board.

Resolved: (i)That the Durham Safeguarding Adults Partnership Annual Report suite for 2023/2024 the progress made by the Partnership be noted.

(ii) That the future work of the Durham Safeguarding Adults Partnership be noted.