West Sussex Safeguarding Adults Board teamed up with the Safeguarding Children Board for Safeguarding Week, which ran from the 27th November until 1st December.  It was a very successful week with many of our partners being proactive in raising particular aspects of safeguarding such as West Sussex County - Council's Community Safety Team who ran workshops around West Sussex about issues such as Reducing Radicalisation, Serious and Organised Crime and Online Safety. 

Others like West Sussex County Council's - Care and Business Support Team  and Western Sussex Hospitals worked with their safeguarding champions on understanding how people with support and care needs experience hospital visits.

Marjorie Cobby and Compton House care homes took part in safeguarding week, encouraging staff and the people they care for in their homes to talk about how best to keep them safe.

For a full list of all those who took part please click here. 

The Care and Business Support Team from West Sussex County Council are being used as an exemplar of good practice through ADASS and the Local Government Association who together have developed a suite of resources intended to support Safeguarding Adults Boards (SABs) and partners in developing and promoting Making Safeguarding Personal (MSP).

You can find their work on page 29 of Making Safeguarding Personal: Health and Social Care.  There are a couple more documents to be added to the suite of resources that include:

• support for Boards across the Safeguarding Adults Partnership
• what might ‘good’ look like for health and social care commissioners and providers?
• what might ‘good’ look like for the police?
• what might ‘good’ look like for advocacy?
• what might ‘good’ look like for those working in the Housing Sector?

Over the Christmas period, CarePoint, the Adult Social Care helpline will be staffed by social workers running an out of hours service.  The best way to ensure a concern is raised is to phone the regular CarePoint number:

                   01243 642121

Brighton & Hove Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB) undertook a Safeguarding Adults Review (SAR) following the death in December 2014 of a homeless individual in Brighton & Hove. The Brighton and Hove Safeguarding Adults Board have produced a short briefing summarises the findings of a recent multi-agency audit of safeguarding responses to homeless adults in Brighton & Hove here.

You can read the full report and learning briefing here.

Last month The Telegraph reported that more than 1,000 cases of suspected adult abuse has been reported every day and experts warn of a growing culture of “ageism and neglect”.

Official Government data shows the number of concerns raised by public officers rose by six per cent in 2016-17 compared to the previous year, the overwhelming majority relating to pensioners.

Charities have blamed an epidemic of short-staffing in care homes, but also said neglect and abuse - often financial - within families may be responsible for the rise.

Read the article in full click here

The Charity Commission’s new safeguarding strategy says that safeguarding is a key governance priority for all charities, not just those working with groups traditionally considered at risk.

The strategy explains that trustees should ensure their charity provides a safe environment for staff, volunteers, and anyone who comes into contact with their organisation.

It also makes clear that safeguarding goes beyond preventing physical abuse, and includes protecting people from harm generally, including neglect, emotional abuse, exploitation, radicalisation, and the consequences of the misuse of personal data.

Read the article in full click here.

The House of Commons Public Account Committee is looking into the growing threat of online fraud.  The Committee recognises that online criminals can target thousands of victims at the same time, causing financial and emotional harm to people and harm to businesses’ finances and reputations. In the year to September 2016 there were an estimated 1.9 million incidents of cyber-related fraud in England and Wales.

Read the report here.