Safeguarding Adults Week Bulletin: Wednesday 20 November 2024

West Sussex County Council sent this bulletin at 20-11-2024 09:00 AM GMT
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Wednesday 20 November 2024
Establishing professional boundaries

This week is Safeguarding Adults Week. During this week, we'll be sharing daily bulletins with you, related to the Ann Craft Trust themes. 

Today's theme

Today's theme is 'establishing professional boundaries'. Good quality relationships are essential when it comes to successful multi-agency working. Professional boundaries can help us to set clear expectations for these relationships. 

Today, we're going to consider what happens when multi-agency working isn't working as well as we'd like, and how we can establish appropriate professional boundaries to overcome the challenges of multi-agency working.

What might this mean for you and your organisation?

Of all of our policy, procedures, and protocols, the one that we hear is least known of and used, is the Sussex Safeguarding Adults Escalation and Resolution Protocol. We would like to take this opportunity to draw your attention to this protocol, and its vital role in supporting you to establish and maintain professional boundaries while working on a multi-agency basis.

What is the purpose of the protocol?

The Sussex Safeguarding Adults Escalation and Resolution Protocol is designed to provide you with a framework for constructive discussions, with the intention of resolving professional disagreements between professionals or agencies. It is intended for use specifically in relation to adult safeguarding (rather than disagreements about individual practitioner performance, assessment, eligibility with regard to care and support needs, or funding arrangements). You may still find the overarching principles useful, though, for resolving any kind of dispute.

The protocol outlines a process for escalating and resolving disagreements where an agency or professional is concerned about a safeguarding decision made by another agency. The protocol is intended to support respectful challenge and defensible decision-making, and thus promote successful professional boundaries.

Disagreement

Who is the intended audience?

The protocol is intended for use by all staff, with specific additional actions for supervisors and line managers, safeguarding leads, heads of service, and the Chief Officer for the local authority.

What is the process?

The process should only be followed by Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB) partner agencies in response to issues arising around adult safeguarding practice, which may include mental capacity concerns relevant to the safeguarding process. The following is an abridged version of the process.

  • Stage 1 - professional to professional: Any professional who considers that a decision in relation to a safeguarding concern or safeguarding enquiry, and/or an associated mental capacity assessment or best interests decision, is not safe or is inappropriate, should initially consult a supervisor or manager in their own organisation. Initial attempts should be made to resolve the problem at practitioner level between agencies.
  • Stage 2 - supervisor/line manager to supervisor/line manager: If the problem is unresolved at stage one, the worker should ask the supervisor or line manager within their own agency to raise the issue with the equivalent supervisor or line manager in the other agency. The two managers will seek to resolve the dispute at this stage.
  • Stage 3 - safeguarding lead to safeguarding lead: If the problem is unresolved at stage two, the supervisor or manager reports to their named/designated organisational safeguarding lead or representative. The two organisational safeguarding leads or representatives must attempt to resolve the professional differences through consideration and application of relevant legislation and pan-Sussex policy and procedures, such as the Sussex Safeguarding Procedures. The Principal Social Worker may also be consulted at this stage to advise.
  • Stage 4 - head of service to head of service: In the unlikely event the problem remains unresolved after stage three, the safeguarding leads or representatives report to their Heads of Service (as well as informing the nominated SAB member if this role is separate) to discuss and seek resolution. The Principal Social Worker may also be consulted at this stage.
  • Stage 5 - Chief Officer for the local authority: If the dispute continues, the final decision on conflict resolution rests with the Chief Officer for the local authority as the lead agency for adult safeguarding. 

Where can I find out more?

To read in more detail about the process for escalating and resolving issues in multi-agency working, access the protocol:

What are we doing to support your practice?

We have a number of resources related to multi-agency working and professional boundaries on our website. Don't forget, to support your Continual Professional Development (CPD) we have created a CPD Reflective Log (Word, 2.3MB) for your use. Please feel free to use this to track, and reflect on, the professional development that you complete using our resources. 

Multi-agency working is a West Sussex Safeguarding Adults Board priority for 2024/25 and features as an area for improvement in our Safeguarding Adults Reviews. One of our ways of delivering on this has been the creation of a specific section on multi-agency working in the Sussex Safeguarding Adults Policy and Procedures, so please do make sure you’re familiar with this.

Key documents:

Further reading

Find Out More icon

For more information about professional boundaries, check out these resources:

Ann Craft Trust

For more information on today's theme, or any of the themes from this week, visit the Ann Craft Trust website.