A Forum for those interested in inclusion, rights, choices and safety

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.......................Safeguarding NEWS.......................

NEW!

Safeguarding Adults DVD and Trainers Guide

The 8 dramas and guide can be used to facilitate training from basic awareness through to more advanced and specialists training on safeguarding adults from abuse.

ORDER YOUR COPY NOW

See the flyer below…….

Coming soon!

Training Pack to accompany the DVD and Guide

Includes all the materials/resources you would need to deliver a detailed awareness training session on abuse covering:

Rights and Responsibilities

Recognition

Responding

Reporting

Recording

Join Age UK campaign against malnutrition in hospitals.  Age UK are calling for:

•  All hospital wards to effectively implement our seven steps to end malnutrition
• The Government to require hospitals to publish malnutrition data in a form the public can understand

Take action by emailing Andrew Lansley MP. Please follow this link.

People with dementia short changed out of £100 million and must be better protected says Alzheimer's Society.  The charity estimates that up to 112,500 (15 per cent) people with dementia have been victims of financial abuse such as cold calling, scam mail, or mis-selling. Its new report 'Short changed: Protecting people with dementia from financial abuse', calls for people with the condition to be better protected. Visit alzheimers.org.uk/shortchanged for more information.

Legal Guide – This guide is aimed primarily at practitioners working in various settings for organisations involved in safeguarding. But it may also be useful for volunteers, family. It aims to equip practitioners with information about how to assist and safeguard people. Knowing about the legal basis is fundamental, because the law defines the extent and limits of what can be done to help people and to enable people to keep themselves safe. This guide is intended to serve as a pointer to the law and to how it can be used. It tries to explain the law in reasonably simple terms, so it is selective and does not set out full details of each area of law covered. To download the guide go to: http://www.scie.org.uk/publications/reports/report50.asp

NHS whistleblowing helpline to be extended to social care staff The whistle-blowing helpline for NHS staff is being extended to staff and employers in the social care sector from 1 January. There is also a new number for the service, which encompasses all of the elements of the current helpline service and is free, independent and confidential.  The new helpline number will be 08000 724 725.

The helpline will operate on weekdays between 08.00 and 18.00 with an out-of-hours answering service available at weekends and on public holidays. A web-based service is also being developed.

The Department of Health has ordered a probe into the Care Quality Commission following significant criticisms of its leadership from board member Kay Sheldon. Please follow this link to view the article.

CQC have just published 5 reports of the 150 learning disability services inspected after Winterbourne View scandal. Only one was OK.

Winterbourne View - 10 people charged  by Avon and Somerset Police in connection with ill treatment and neglect offences under the Mental Health Act.

They face a total of 40 charges against five victims.

Three men aged 25, 27 and 41, who have also been arrested on suspicion of causing ill treatment under the Mental Capacity Act, remain on police bail, pending further enquiries.

A 14th person – a 40-year-old man – who was arrested on suspicion of common assault has been released without charge.

You are reminded that proceedings are active and to be aware of the Contempt of Court Act

A daughter’s view of home care for her elderly parents - Diane Harris says the provision of home care for her elderly parents has been at times incompetent, unreliable and dangerous. Her 86-year-old father, Les, who suffers from diabetes, is looked after most of the time by her mother, 83-year-old Joan. However the care service – towards which they pay £100 a week – is supposed to offer four half-hour slots of personal help seven days a week. Instead, Diane says carers have not turned up, meals have not been made and in one instance her father was left unwashed for a week. "I don't blame the carers. They are on minimum wage. But the behind-the-scenes management has been atrocious," she says.  To read the full article please follow this link.

Short-notice care home closures: a guide for local authority commissioners This guide helps commissioners, particularly local authority staff, to manage care home closures at short notice in situations that may be unexpected and therefore unplanned. It should also be useful to care home staff, residents and relatives. All commissioners and providers should have procedures for managing planned closures where they have more than three months' warning that the service is being shut down. please follow this link

The enquiry into the home care system in England reveals disturbing evidence that the poor treatment of many older people.  The equalities and Human Rights Commission report 'Close to home: older people and human rights in home care', says hundreds of thousands of older people lack protection under the Human Rights Act and calls for this legal loophole to be closed. It questions commissioning practices that focus on a rigid list of tasks, rather than what older people actually want, and that give more weight to cost than to an acceptable quality of care.

The enquiry revealed many examples of physical or financial abuse, disregarding their privacy and dignity, failing to support them with eating or drinking, treating them as if they were invisible, and paying little attention to what they want. Some were surprised that they had any choice at all as they thought they had little say in how their care was arranged.

The Commission supports the Law Commission recommendations that adult safeguarding boards be placed on a statutory footing and led by local authorities, the government should ensure that there are clear lines of accountability when agencies other than local authorities conduct investigations. As part of this legislative change, consideration should also be given to strengthening and broadening the role of Directors of Adult Social Services in relation to adults not receiving publically funded community care services who may be at risk of harm.  To read more go to http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/  to download the full report please follow this link.

Care Quality Commission announce more inspections on dignity and nutrition in 2012 They will be inspecting a further 50 NHS hospitals and 500 adult social care services.  The original Dignity and Nutrition Review took place between March and June 2011 and they reviewed 100 NHS hospitals The 50 NHS hospitals that will be inspected next year will be a combination of hospitals that raised concerns during the original review and a new sample of other locations.

They will also look at dignity and nutrition in 500 care homes around the country. These inspections will start early next year and they hope to involve people with experience of these services. A national report is planned for the autumn.

The families of two autistic men have won a High Court case over cuts to social care by Isle of Wight Council. A judge ruled the council's new eligibility criteria were unlawful and should be quashed by the court.  Under the plans only vulnerable adults assessed as critical or at risk of becoming critical would qualify.  Lawyers for the men said it was a "landmark judgement". Isle of Wight Council said the changes were in response to cuts in government funding. The council said 32 people who have had already had changes made to their care are being offered a reassessment. Campaigners said up to 2,000 people could have been affected by changes.please follow this link

Equality and human rights guidance for our inspectors - CQC have produced guidance on the equality and human rights aspects of the essential standards of quality and safety. to view the guidance please follow this link.

Are LA decisions unlawful if they make decisions more on budgetary considerations than on a real assessment of care needs and a proper evaluation of the cost of those care needs? Are budget-driven cuts in care funding made by local authorities tantamount to institutional financial abuse? Lawrence Tudin reports.  To read the full article please follow this link.

Proposed Amendments to the NHS Constitution will they help NHS staff feel more confident about whistleblowing on abuse and neglect? Since the serious failings at Mid-Staffordshire Foundation Trust and the recent inspections of 100 hospitals which highlighted in some hospital poor care, abuse and neglect, whistleblowing has become increasingly viewed as an important lever for improving safeguarding. To read more or to download the DH Consultation document go to our Safeguarding and the NHS Forum.

A providers view of Winterbourne View - In a response to the Winterbourne View case, autism and mental health hospital manager Mark Goldsborough discusses some of the challenges of safeguarding adults in hospital settings and how they can be overcome. to read the full article please follow this link.

Care home staff 'feel untrusted' by adult safeguarding system - this Community Care article reflects the view of care providers who often feel under pressure, not trusted and left out of the loop. to read more go to.... http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/19/10/2011/117628/Care-home-staff-39feel-untrusted39-by-adult-safeguarding.htm

Abuse in Hospitals? – Not according to the Care Quality Commission  - who despite witnessing practices that were variously illegal, cruel or heartless, they took no immediate action to guarantee the safety of the patients affected. Instead, the hospitals with the poorest record of care were often given 28 days to devise a plan and then were not monitored until many months later. the CQC report on Dignity and Nutrition in Hospitals can be downloaded from the Safeguarding and the NHS Forum. 

 Involve Me resource aims to increase the involvement of people with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) in decision making and consultation. The resource is the result of a three year project, supported by the Renton Foundation and run by Mencap in partnership with the British Institute of Learning Disabilities (BILD).  http://www.mencap.org.uk/involveMe

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