The AD of Adult Social Care, Community and Housing gave an overview of the Safeguarding Adults activities of the MSAB for 2018/19 and performance.  The report presented outlines the board performance for 2018/19 published retrospectively thus reflecting on work undertaken in the previous year due to how the Department for Health and Social Care collate the national annual data returns.

The Merton Safeguarding Board is a statutory strategic function in Merton under the Care Act 2014 with responsibility for writing and publishing the annual safeguarding reports.  The board is chaired by Aileen Buckton who took over from Theresa Bell in 2020.  As of next year the new independent chair will be present on the annual report.

MSAB is made up of key partners from both statutory and non-statutory partners with the key function of providing a multi-agency response safeguarding and highlight areas to take action and safeguard vulnerable adults in Merton by all partners.

There have been improvements in safeguarding data across all areas of board and following the last annual report the board has been working to improve the recording of safeguarding database, literacy of staff across the partnership.  Improvements due to simplified safeguard processes, simplification of data recorded, simplified forms, better quality assurance processes and an auditing tool enabling managers to audit safeguarding cases on a case by case basis and ensure consistency.  The key focus is not only on the data but quality of safeguarding work in Merton.  Since the last report the board has recommissioned safeguarding and mental capacity training for staff and manager at all levels.  Key partners have also undertaken similar actions to improve safeguarding across the board / partnership.

The report is for all key partners in Merton and outlines the four subgroups the board is divided into and works.  Further details on the subgroups and Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SAR).  SAR is a legal requirement under the Care Act 2014 and is undertaken only if it is felt that agencies could have worked together more effectively to prevent the death.  The have been no SAR referrals for 2019/20 however there have been 4 reviews which have been on going due to Covid-19 and 2 are in the final stages and soon to be published.  Two cases have been considered for safeguarding review in 2020/21.

In 2019/20 there were 732 safeguarding concerns which is significantly higher than concerns from previous years and does not imply an increase in the number of safeguarding concerns but reflects on how we now record, capture and report the data.  The number of referrals are now in line with safeguarding numbers across London.  The data also shows an improvement in the number of section 42 enquiries (statutory safeguarding enquiries led by councils’ social work teams).  Note not all referrals result in enquiries, care management assessments or any further action.

The report also provides an update into the Learning Disability Mortality Review Programme (LeDeR) for Merton 2019/2020.  The LeDeR programme was established in 2015 with the aim of reducing early deaths / health inequalities of those with learning disabilities and shows a reduction in mortality cases in 2019/20 compared to the number of cases in the previous year.

MSAB agreed priorities for 2020/21 are within the circulated papers and are adaptable in line with changing needs and circumstances of our residents. 

A panel member highlighted a discrepancy on page 32 of the committee papers.  The AD of Adult Social Care, Community and Housing thanked the panel member for bringing this to light and assured the committee that the discrepancy will be corrected before the report is finalised.

Concern was also raised over the scrutiny function as the data was not current members were more interested the scrutiny function to influence current activities and future priorities.  The AD of Adult Social Care, Community and Housing noted the concern raised and would take them back to the MSAB.

A panel member asked about the difficulty in safeguarding an adult facing abuse.  The AD of Adult Social Care, Community and Housing informed all of the difficulty in safeguarding adults even with good capacity they can make good, bad and unwise decisions.   In most cases the adult may be living with the abuser, feel safe whilst still getting verbally abused but the worst outcome for them would be being removed from the family.  MSAB aim to make safeguarding personal to the individual case.  For adults with learning disability or no capacity the MSAB works with different professionals and family to make a best interest decision.

A panel member commented on the reference to unprecedented demand on the service due to Covid-19 in 2019 in the message from the chair within the report and also asked whether the service and systems can cope with growing demand.  The AD of Adult Social Care, Community and Housing responded that we have been working to prevent hospital admissions, discharging, vaccines and testing.

Safeguarding work continued throughout the pandemic and investment in safeguarding, resources, systems and processes have also continued with further planning to meet growing service demand being made.

The Chair asked why more up to date data was not available on the proviso that it may be subject to approval / being finalised by the Department of Health.  The AD of Adult Social Care, Community and Housing responded that the data being presented is 2019/20.  New data will be available after March of this year as it takes 6 weeks to 2 months to collects and then send it to the Department of Health.  Only once the Department of Health receives data from all boroughs in England is the data published this is normally between November and the end of the financial year.  The Director of Community and Housing informed all that the data available was reliant on other partners in order to get the full picture.  The difference in data collection systems for each partner organisation impacts on the time it takes to make the data available although the local authority data can be made available without partner data the picture would be incomplete.

A panel member went further to suggest making the local authority data available quarterly.  The Director of Community and Housing was happy to take this suggestion back to the MSAB Chair and reconfirmed that the MSAB role is to scrutinise the data.

It was agreed that the quarterly reporting of data would be tried for a period of time and then reviewed.

The Chair went further to ask whether the Police reorganisation of BCU has had an impact on safeguarding process.  The Director of Community and Housing replied that irrespective of changes in partner organisations, partnership working continues to ensure the statutory duties for safeguarding are met.  The multi-agency support is very strong and continues to ensure statutory functions are met with no concerns.

The panel asked who appoints the Independent Chair.  The Director of Community and Housing responded that the Independent MSAB Chair is appointed by Inspector Richards the BCU lead and Managing Director of the CCG.

The Chair thanked officers for their updates.