Issue 27 | October 2023
Welcome to the October edition of Pass It On News.
A bi-monthly newsletter bringing you the headlines and new policies, procedures and guidance from your West Sussex Safeguarding Adults Board.
In this newsletter
Last month we held the second meeting of the Safeguarding Adults Board in the 2023/24 year. The topics discussed included:
- a case study from South East Coast Ambulance Service
- reports from our subgroup Chairs
- presentations on two soon-to-be-published Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SARs)
- an update from the West Sussex County Council Community Safety Team about asylum seekers and vulnerable migrant groups in West Sussex
The next Board meeting is scheduled for December 2023, and will be our first in-person meeting since the pandemic.
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We have recently published a new podcast about the Mental Capacity Act.
The Mental Capacity Act (2005) is a legal framework for people over the age of 16 who may lack the mental capacity to make specific decisions, on a permanent or temporary basis. Please refer to the Mental Capacity Act podcast, and previously published learning briefing, to learn more about what may affect someone's mental capacity; how capacity should be assessed; and what happens after a capacity assessment.
Please do share these resources widely within your organisations, and remember, to support your Continual Professional Development (CPD) we have created a CPD Reflective Log for your use. Please feel free to use this to track, and reflect on, the professional development that you complete using our resources.
The Modern Slavery Statutory Guidance has been updated following a judicial review challenge that led to the Home Secretary agreeing to withdraw, reconsider and revise parts of the guidance.
The pan-Sussex modern slavery section of the Safeguarding Adults Thresholds (Guidance for Professionals) has been reviewed in light of this, as well as our West Sussex modern slavery SAR, to ensure that they reflect the changes required. This updated section will soon be published and we will let you know as soon as this has been done.
We have recognised, from our Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SARs), audits and our Multi-Agency Risk Management (MARM) subgroup the need to prioritise, develop and support self-neglect practice. As a result, self-neglect is one of our Board’s priorities this year and strongly features in our Board’s subgroup workplans. We are soon to request your participation in a self-neglect survey to understand from you what the issues, barriers, challenges and positive factors are when working with adults who self-neglect. We have also commissioned a Thematic SAR on self-neglect to look at the detail and learn from:
- Work we have already undertaken, including our audit, policy, thresholds guidance and learning resources
- A SAR referral which triggered the need for this Review
- Reviews with themes relating to self-neglect carried out by all three Sussex SABs
- The use of the self-neglect process, considering practical changes in relation to support for complex cases
- Multi-disciplinary team working and practice
- Mental Capacity Assessments and best interest decisions
- The completion and implementation of risk enablement plans
- The exploration of barriers to practice, including resource issues and time constraints
Following this Review, we will take forward recommendations to support and improve practice in this area.
For learning resources related to self-neglect, visit our website.
Throughout 2023 we are running staff briefing sessions, providing an opportunity for all staff working across our partnership to join a brief session to learn about the work of our West Sussex Safeguarding Adults Board. This session will include information about how our work is relevant to your role, vital information about learning from our Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SARs), and the resources available to embed this learning and support your practice to be current.
Spaces are available on the following upcoming dates and can be booked via Eventbrite:
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Have you seen our e-learning digital resource, 'An Introduction to the West Sussex Safeguarding Adults Board'? This course, featuring a series of short animated videos, will guide you through who we are, what we do, and what resources we have available to support you in your safeguarding practice.
You can access this resource via the Learning and Development Gateway; you will find it in the ‘Featured Courses’ section.
This is a reminder that last year we worked with our colleagues in East Sussex and Brighton & Hove to create a suite of resources for use by professionals, community groups and organisations, and members of the public.
On our website, you will find:
- Adult safeguarding posters
- About us poster
- Adult safeguarding leaflets
- West Sussex Tricky Friends animation
Please do support us to raise awareness of adult safeguarding by sharing these resources widely. We hope that having consistent resources across Sussex will make it easier for those agencies who come into contact with people living across Sussex.
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Monday 20 - Friday 24 November 2023 will be Safeguarding Adults Week 2023, and this year the theme is prioritising the welfare and wellbeing of yourself and others. For information about the key themes for each day of the week, visit the Ann Craft Trust website, or our website.
We are continuing to work on developing the Sussex Safeguarding Adults Policy and Procedures. Within the next year, we anticipate that there will be changes to the current pan-Sussex website that hosts these procedures. We will ensure that partners are kept up-to-date on any changes that may affect them, both through direct email as appropriate, and in these bi-monthly newsletters.
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