Agenda item

To consider a report (copy attached) by the Locality Manager on the impact of local safeguarding arrangements and practices in Denbighshire, and the progress made in response to areas of concern raised by the Regulator in its Annual Review and Evaluation of Performance 2014-15.

11.30am – 12pm

The Head of Community Support Services introduced the report (previously circulated) to provide Members with an overview of the impact of local Safeguarding arrangements and practice and to review progress in this key area of work over the last 12 months.  Members were also to refer to data which reflected figures submitted by the Local Authority on an annual basis to the Welsh Government Data Unit.  The report also showed the progress made in response to the areas of concern raised by CSSIW in their Annual Review and Evaluation of Performance 2014-15.

He advised that the number of referrals received during 2015/16 under the Protection of Vulnerable Adults (POVA) arrangements had been similar to the number received during the preceding year.  The majority of referrals did not pass the threshold for further investigation.   However, during 2015/16 there had been a significant increase in the number of referrals made by Social Services staff, those reported within a hospital setting, and those referred by care regulators.  There had been a decline in referrals received direct from care providers.  It was emphasised that complaints on quality of care were dealt with under a separate process.  The Committee was advised that the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW) had raised concerns in its Annual Review and Evaluation of Performance 2014-15 in relation to the Council’s performance in areas of the protection of vulnerable adults.  In light of the CSSIW’s findings, a decision was made to change the approach taken in Denbighshire regarding POVA arrangements.  The changes implemented included:

·       Training more social workers to be Designated Lead Managers (DLMs) for the purpose of undertaking POVA enquiries and to chair Strategy Meetings;

·       Strengthening the Team’s capacity to meet the requirements of the POVA process, and confidence building when dealing with multi agency work;

·       Strengthening links with the Safeguarding Team at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd to enable poor quality or incomplete referrals to be effectively challenged; and

·       The appointment of a Team Manager to ensure that process deadlines were met and statistics reported on time to Welsh Government.

Council representatives had recently met with the CSSIW to discuss the measures taken to improve processes in Denbighshire.  Nevertheless, the regulators still had concerns in relation to DLMs’ confidence in chairing Strategy meetings.  It had recently emerged that similar concerns had been raised by the CSSIW in relation to the same matter across North Wales and consequently the matter would be referred to the North Wales Adults Safeguarding Board for consideration.  The Council’s capacity to deal with Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) requests, which had increased drastically in the wake of a Supreme Court Judgement in March 2014, and which would continue to increase in the future due to the requirement to review each case every 12 months, was an added pressure on the Service.  Whereas in previous years, the Local Authority would have received between 10 and 15 DoLS assessment requests annually, this had increased last year to in excess of 300 requests for DoLS assessments.  In a bid to address this demand, circa 15 social workers had been trained to undertake DoLS assessments and each trained individual was expected to undertake a minimum of 8 DoLS assessments per year in addition to their day to day duties.  In addition to the workload pressures caused by the DoLS assessments, they also entailed financial pressures on the Local Authority as they were required to pay for the mandatory medical assessments associated with the process.  In Denbighshire, this cost was anticipated to be in the region of £50,000 per annum, but no additional funding had been allocated towards this cost.  The Association of Directors of Social Services (ADSS) in England had appealed the above judgement, and the outcome of the appeal was awaited. 

Responding to Members’ questions, officers advised that:

·       they had raised concerns with the Welsh Government via ADSS Cymru and the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) on the financial implications of the DoLS Judgement on social care budgets, including the fairness of medical assessments being paid for from social care budgets;

·       figures would shortly be available that would enable comparisons to be made between North Wales Local Authorities with respect of the number of POVA referrals and DoLS assessment requests for 2015/16; and

·       it was anticipated that a number of the provisions in the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 would in the near future be subject to legal challenges and would, therefore, in due course, become case law.

At the conclusion of an in-depth discussion, the Committee:

RESOLVED that subject to the above observations and the concerns raised in relation to the additional resource and financial pressures placed upon the Social Services budget and social care staff:

(i)              to commend the excellent work and leadership undertaken by Denbighshire’s Social Services Department to date in order to protect vulnerable adults in the county and to address issues raised by CSSIW; and

(ii)             acknowledged the important nature of a corporate approach to the safeguarding of adults at risk and the responsibility of the Council to view this as a key priority area and to place it alongside the commitment and significance given by the Council to Child Protection.