Vacancy – Adult Safeguarding Board Making Safeguarding Personal Sub-Group
‘What’s the point in making someone safe if you simply make them miserable?’
Making Safeguarding Personal is an initiative which aims to support Local Authorities and their partners to develop more outcomes focussed and person-centred safeguarding practice through:
- A change in practice that enables safeguarding to be done with, not to, people
- A new focus on achieving meaningful improvement to people’s circumstances, rather than just on ‘investigation’ and ‘conclusion’
- Practices and activities that utilise social work skills better than just ‘putting people through a process’
- Something that enables practitioners, families, teams and Safeguarding Adults’ Boards know what difference has been made through safeguarding work and interventions
There is currently a vacancy on the Rotherham Adult Safeguarding Board Making Safeguarding Personal Sub-Group for a VCS representative – if you would be interested in finding out more/getting involved, please contact linda.jarrold@varotherham.org.uk. Meetings are held bi-monthly and are for 2 hours – the next meeting will be on 9th February 1.30pm at Riverside.
Self Neglect and Mental Capacity – Evidence/Case Studies Needed
Self-neglect (e.g. issues such as hoarding), particularly where people with mental capacity refuse care and support, is emerging as a matter of concern amongst ASC members, and nationally is receiving increased attention and has featured in a number of Serious Case Reviews. Its inclusion as part of the definition of abuse and neglect in the statutory guidance to the Care Act 2014 has increased interest in best practice approaches and how to achieve beneficial outcomes, however it often does not fit neatly into either safeguarding work or an assessment process that relies on people requesting services.
Research suggests the following gaps in the implementation of the Mental Capacity Act in relation to issues of self-neglect:
- Inconsistency in reviewing capacity and in particular the specificity of the decision required, leading to missed opportunities for intervention
- Lack of awareness/specific knowledge around executive capacity and situational capacity, leading to inadequate or un-evidenced statements of capacity
- No clear position statement on the local approach to self-neglect – leading to dilution of the issue of self-neglect and in some situations for the existence of mental capacity to be used as a justification for inaction
Do you have any evidence/case studies on how issues of self-neglect are being handled in Rotherham and/or any best practice you can share on achieving positive outcomes for people who self-neglect? We are particularly interested in numbers of/case studies regarding ‘no further action’ decisions where lifestyle choices are given as the reason.
Safeguarding is a standing item on the agenda for ASC meetings and we will be allowing additional time at the next few meetings to share information around self-neglect, or if you can’t attend please send any evidence/case studies to linda.jarrold@varotherham.org.uk. We have a VCS representative on the Adult Safeguarding Board (Lesley Dabell) who is keen to collate this information and feed this to the Board.
For further information / articles on self-neglect please follow the links below
SCIE Briefing: self-neglect policy and practice, key research messages for practitioners
Community Care Act Article on the tension between self-neglect and human rights
Rotherham Adult Services Consortium 