AGE CONCERN SAFEGUARDING ADULTS POLICY

Date: 16/09/2021

Designated Safeguard Lead (DSL): Thompson Keating

Deputy designated Safeguard Leads (DDSL): Nicky Lloyd and Sandra Sprawson

Review Date: 16/09/2022

Aims

This policy and procedure sets out how Age Concern implements safeguarding adults at risk with whom they come into contact in the course of their work.

Age Concern is committed to devising and implementing policies so that everyone within the organisation accepts their responsibilities for safeguarding adults at risk from abuse and neglect. This means following procedures to protect them and reporting any concerns about their welfare to the appropriate authorities.

This policy and procedure helps us to achieve this by:

• Supporting us to safeguard adults at risk, by defining abuse and informing us what to do
• Ensuring we all work to the same policy and procedure
• Making sure we are accountable for what we do
• Being clear what roles and responsibilities we all have in safeguarding
• Saying what everyone can expect from the organisation to help them work effectively

Age Concern will not tolerate the abuse of adults in any of its forms and is committed to safeguarding adults with care and support needs from harm.

This policy outlines the steps Age Concern will make to safeguard an adult with care and support needs, if they are deemed to be at risk. This policy sets out the roles and responsibilities of Age Concern in working together with other professionals and agencies in promoting the adult’s welfare and safeguarding them from abuse and neglect.

Age Concern will ensure that decisions made will allow adults to make their own choices and include them in any decision making. Age Concern will also ensure that safe and effective working practices are in place.

This policy is intended to volunteers working within Age Concern to understand their role and responsibilities in safeguarding adults. All volunteers are expected to follow this policy.  

This policy is based on:

The Care Act 2014 and the Care and Support statutory guidance
London Safeguarding Adults policy and procedures
Islington Safeguarding Adults Board’s local procedures and appendices

Under the Human Rights Act 1998, everyone has the right to live free from abuse and neglect.   https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/human-rights/human-rights-act

What is Safeguarding adults?

‘Safeguarding means protecting an adult’s right to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect. It is about people and organisations working together to prevent and stop both the risks and experience of abuse or neglect, while at the same time making sure that the adult’s wellbeing is promoted including, where appropriate, having regard to their views, wishes, feelings and beliefs in deciding on any action. This must recognise that adults sometimes have complex interpersonal relationships and may be ambivalent, unclear or unrealistic about their personal circumstances.’

Care and Support Statutory Guidance, Department of Health, updated February 2017

All adults should be able to live free from fear and harm. But some may find it hard to get the help and support they need to stop abuse.

An adult may be unable to protect themselves from harm or exploitation due to many reasons, including their mental or physical incapacity, sensory loss or physical or learning disabilities. This could be an adult who is usually able to protect themselves from harm but maybe unable to do so because of an accident, disability, frailty, addiction or illness.

Age Concern adheres to following the six key principles that underpin safeguarding work (See Care Act guidance)

Empowerment
Prevention
Proportionality
Protection
Partnership
Accountability

Age Concern will not tolerate the abuse of adults; volunteers should ensure that their work reflects the principles above and ensure the adult with care and support needs is involved in their decisions and informed consent is obtained. Age Concern should ensure that the safeguarding action agreed is the least intrusive response to the risk. Partners from the community should be involved in any safeguarding work in preventing, detecting and reporting neglect and abuse. Age Concern should be transparent and accountable in delivering safeguarding actions.

What is Making Safeguarding Personal (MSP)?

MSP means a case should be person-led and outcome-focused. The individual should be involved in identifying how best to respond to their safeguarding situation by giving them more choice and control as well as improving quality of life, wellbeing and safety.

Age Concern will not tolerate the abuse of adults, will ensure that adults are involved in their safeguarding arrangements and each individual is dealt with on a case by case basis.  As adults may have different preferences, histories and life styles, the same process may not work for all.
 
Who do adult safeguarding duties apply to?

The Care Act 2014 sets out that adult safeguarding duties apply to any adult who:
has care and support needs, and is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse and neglect, and
is unable to protect themselves from either the risk of, or the experience of abuse or neglect, because of those needs.

Who do I go to if I am concerned?

The named responsible person for safeguarding duties for Age Concern is the DDSL (see above for contact details). All volunteers should first contact the DDSL for any concerns/queries they have in regards to safeguarding adults. They can refer to DSL, if necessary, if a query is not resolved by the DDSL. A log of the concern must be kept.

The DDSL will be responsible to make decisions about notifying adult social services if required and consider alternative actions, where necessary.
the DDSL will also ensure that the safeguarding adults policies and procedures are in place and up to date. They will ensure a safe environment is promoted for volunteers and adults accessing the service. The DDSL will ensure they are up to date with their safeguarding adults training.

What should I do if I am concerned?
Volunteers at Age Concern who have any adult safeguarding concerns should:

Respond

• Take emergency action if someone is at immediate risk of harm/in need of urgent medical attention. Dial 112 for emergency services
• Get brief details about what has happened and what the adult would like done about it, but do not probe or conduct a mini-investigation.
• Seek consent from the adult to take action and to report the concern. Consider whether the adult may lack capacity to make decisions about their own and other people’s safety and wellbeing. 
• If you decide to act against their wishes or without their consent, you must record your decision and the reasons for this.

Report

Inform the DDSL.

Record

• Complete incident form
• Records should be written using facts (no judgments or opinions), dated and signed.
• Keep records about safeguarding concerns confidential and in a location where the alleged abuser will not have access to the record. Access should not be given to any unauthorised personal for accessing confidential information including the sharing of passwords. [Data Protection Policy]

Refer

In making a decision whether to refer or not, the designated safeguarding lead should take into account:

• The adult’s wishes and preferred outcome
• Whether the adult has mental capacity to make an informed decision about their own and others’ safety
• The safety or wellbeing of other adults with care and support needs
• Whether there is a person in a position of trust involved
• Whether a crime has been committed

This should inform the decision whether to notify the concern to the following people:

• The police, if a crime has been committed and/or
• Local Social services
• Relevant regulatory bodies such as Spanish Social Services and Police 
• Family/relatives as appropriate (seek advice from adult social services)

The designated safeguarding lead should keep a record of the reasons for referring the concern or reasons for not referring. 

Incidents of abuse may be one-off or multiple and may affect one person or more. Volunteers should look beyond single incidents to identify patterns of harm. Accurate recording of information will also assist in recognising any patterns.

What are your roles and responsibilities?

All management and volunteers at Age Concern are expected to report any concerns to the DDSL. If the allegation is against one of Age Concern members or volunteers,  seek advice from the DDSL.  If the allegation is against the safeguarding lead, seek advice from the the president.

The DDSL should be responsible for providing acknowledgement of the referral and brief feedback to the person raising the original concern. Feedback should be given in a way that will not make the situation worse or breach the Data Protection Act.  If the police are involved, they should be consulted prior to giving feedback to the referrer to ensure any criminal investigation is not affected.

The local authority will decide on who will lead on a safeguarding enquiry should it progress to that stage. The named organisation should not conduct its own safeguarding enquiry unless instructed to do so by the local authority.
Volunteers should ensure that the adult with care and support needs is involved at all stages of their safeguarding enquiry ensuring a person-centred approach is adopted.

Complaints procedure

Age Concern promotes transparency and honesty when things go wrong.  All  volunteers should apologise and be honest with service users and other relevant people when things go wrong. 


If a volunteer or any other member of the organisation is unhappy with Age Concern’s decision about the safeguarding concern, refer them to our Complaints Policy and the Complaints Form. 

Age Concern is committed to ensuring that volunteers who in good faith whistle-blow in the public interest, will be protected from reprisals and victimisation.

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 is to be used when decisions on behalf of those adults with care and support needs who are unable to make some decisions for themselves.  Refer to the Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice, 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-capacity-act-code-of-practice

You will need to involve an advocate if the person lacks capacity to make decisions about the safeguarding concern.

Why is it important to take action?

It is may be difficult for adults with care and support needs to protect themselves and to report abuse. They rely on you to help them.

Confidentiality and information sharing

Age Concern expects all volunteers, trustees to maintain confidentiality at all times.  In line with Data Protection law, Age Concern does not share information if not required.

It should however be noted that information should be shared with authorities, if an adult is deemed to be at risk of immediate harm. Sharing the right information, at the right time, with the right people can make all the difference to preventing harm.  For further guidance on information sharing and safeguarding see

https://www.scie.org.uk/care-act-2014/safeguarding-adults/sharing-information/keymessages.asp

Recruitment and selection

Age Concern is committed to safe employment. Safe recruitment practices, such as Disclosure and Barring checks reduce the risk of exposing adults with care and support needs to people unsuitable to work with them.

Training, awareness raising and supervision?

Age Concern ensures that all volunteers receive basic awareness training on safeguarding adults as they may come across adults with care and support needs who may be at risk of abuse. Those adults may report things of concern to volunteers who should be equipped with the basic knowledge around safeguarding adults and be confident to identify that abuse is taking place and action is required.  All volunteers should be clear about the core values of Age Concern’s commitment to safeguarding adults.

It is also useful to discuss training with people who have attended training sessions to ensure they are embedding this in practice.

Prevent

What are the types of safeguarding adults abuse?

• Physical abuse
• Neglect
• Sexual abuse
• Psychological
• Financial abuse
• Discriminatory
• Organisational
• Domestic violence
• Modern Slavery
• Self-neglect
• Radicalisation

However, you should keep an open mind about what constitutes abuse or neglect as it can take many forms and the circumstances of the individual case should always be considered.

What are the possible signs of abuse?

Abuse and neglect can be difficult to spot.  You should be alert to the following possible signs of abuse and neglect:

• Depression, self-harm or suicide attempts
• Difficulty making friends
• Fear or anxiety
• The person looks dirty or is not dressed properly,
• The person never seems to have money,
• The person has an injury that is difficult to explain (such as bruises, finger marks, ‘non-accidental’ injury, neck, shoulders, chest and arms),
• The person has signs of a pressure ulcer,
• The person is experiencing insomnia
• The person seems frightened, or frightened of physical contact.
• Inappropriate sexual awareness or sexually explicit behaviour
• The person is withdrawn, changes in behaviour

You should ask the person if you are unsure about their well-being as there may be other explanations to the above presentation.

Who abuses and neglects adults?

Abuse can happen anywhere, even in somebody’s own home. Most often abuse takes place by others who are in a position of trust and power. It can take place whether an adult lives alone or with others.  Anyone can carry out abuse or neglect, including:
partners;
other family members;
neighbours;
friends;
acquaintances;
local residents;
people who deliberately exploit adults they perceive as vulnerable to abuse;
paid professionals; and

volunteers and strangers

Raising a safeguarding concern

• Gather information
• How does the adult wish for the concern to proceed?
• What changes/support would they like as a result of this concern being raised
  
  
  

If you are informed or become aware of possible abuse or neglect:

Take action to ensure the immediate safety and welfare of the adult (and any other person)

Consider:

Does medical attention need to be organised? (dial 112)

Is urgent police presence required? (dial 112)

RESPOND – REPORT

Has a crime been committed? If so, does it need to be reported?

Preserve forensic evidence (if any)

REFER

Decide whether to raise a safeguarding concern, and if so, take action

Do this:

Immediately where the concern is urgent and serious
Within the same working day for any other concerns

RECORD

Document the incident and any actions or decisions taken

REFER

Ensure key people are informed

For example, DDSL, relatives as appropriate, service commissioning teams

SUPPORT

Provide support or feedback for the person identifying the safeguarding concern