Agenda item

15.1     The Chair of the Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB) introduced the report which outlined the work of the SAB for 2024-25 including progress on the strategic priorities of self-neglect; prevention and early intervention; and safeguarding and homelessness. The Chair praised the positive engagement from members of the SAB, as well as wider partners, noting a commitment to ensure safeguarding is person centred, collaborative, timely and proportionate.

15.2     The Director of ASCH thanked the Chair for her work on the SAB and commented on the Board’s approach to collate resources and knowledge to protect vulnerable adults. He also welcomed the current priorities which reflected the local population, noting the high number of single households who were at higher risk of self-neglect and current challenges with homelessness, and which built upon multi agency work to prevent abuse. The SAB allowed for system partners to continue to challenge each other to improve safeguarding.   

15.3     The Committee welcomed the report and asked questions and made comments on the following areas:

·       Safeguarding Adult Review (SAR) referrals – The Committee enquired about the reasons for fewer SAR referrals than in previous years and asked if this was reflecting fewer incidents, or a change in criteria. The SAB Chair commented that it was difficult to attribute progress to the number of referrals as this could reflect either fewer incidents, or fewer incidents being reported and it was therefore important to interrogate this data, particularly in light of staff turnover to ensure partners had good knowledge of safeguarding.

·       Self-neglect – The Committee welcomed the priority to support adults who self-neglect and enquired if loneliness and mental health issues were contributing factors to this. The Committee also commented that adults may not actively seek support and asked what approach was being taken to identify and support adults. In response the Chair of SAB emphasised the role of partners and the wider community, including councillors, to report concerns and share information, noting the need to be professionally curious and for a multi-agency approach. Targeted campaigns helped to raise awareness of self-neglect in communities and share the message that safeguarding is everyone’s business, however noted that most referrals came from services. The Chair agreed that loneliness and mental health issues could be contributing factors to self-neglect. The Director for ASCH reiterated the need for professionals to consider the wider context when in contact with individuals and raise any concerns of self-neglect.  

·       Self neglect podcast– The Committee welcomed the use of podcasts to raise awareness of self neglect and asked how many people had listened to these. The Chair of the SAB confirmed that these were publicly available and that data could be shared after the meeting.

·       Dementia – The Committee asked how the Board was responding to people at risk of self-neglect due to dementia and a lack of contact with services. The Chair commented that there were national examples of people with dementia that were not known to services due to a lack of contact with outside agencies or family and friends and that this was a challenge as support could only be provided if adults were known about, and noted other signs, such as property neglect, which could help identify adults at risk. The Chair also commented that older couples, where one adult has dementia, could also be at increased risk of domestic abuse in cases where more traditional gender roles were challenged and couples were unable to cope. There were increasing challenges where there was still mental capacity but a lack of willing to engage with services. Recent research with Durham University on dementia and safeguarding had produced learning for all partners in identifying risk of abuse.

·       Domestic abuse – The Committee recognised the challenges of supporting people with domestic abuse who refuse support. The Chair responded that there were multi agency processes in place to intervene and record concerns and commented that there would be a point where people would accept help so ensuring safe mechanisms and mitigations at the point people do contact services was vital. The Director of ASCH added that multi-agency persistence aimed to ensure adults at risk are monitored and support was available when they seek support. He also noted the importance of ensuring unpaid carers were aware of the support available to them.

·       Family carers – the Committee raised concerns about older carers (often parents) who are struggling to cope and the impact on the people they are caring for when they die. The Director acknowledged there was an increasing number of older parent carers and noted the need in these cases for a gradual increase in people accessing external support. The death of a carer could also leave people very isolated and in challenging circumstances but support from services could help to ease that transition.

·       Community cohesion – The Committee enquired about the impact of community tensions and hate speech on vulnerable people. The Chair of SAB noted that inclusion was a key focus and the SAB worked closely with Safer Communities to respond to these issues, develop awareness across the partnership and identify any health and social care needs.

·       Data recording – The Committee commented that it would be helpful to see a longer-term trajectory of safeguarding concerns detailed in the report to compare the data. It was noted that some of the data could be misleading, as the high proportion of white males recorded as perpetrators of aggression likely reflects the demographic makeup of East Sussex. The Chair of the SAB recognised the difficulties with some of the data and although this was regularly challenged at the SAB, it was hoped that development of the dashboard would improve on regular reporting. In response to a question about data in the report on partially achieved enquiries and if this related to levels of funding, the Director of ASCH clarified that safeguarding was a duty under the Care Act and priority of the Council and therefore not dependent on funding. The outcome data represented what the department was able to put in place, and the number of partially achieved mainly reflected adults with capacity making choices against the advice of ASCH and therefore only partial mitigations were put in place. 

·       Cuckooing – The Committee asked if ‘cuckooing’ would continue to be reported on now it had been incorporated into the Violence Reduction Partnership and commented on the wide ranging impacts ‘cuckooing’ had on individuals and the wider community. The Chair of SAB noted the joint working with health and social care and the police and the need for a long term strategy to support people who have been ‘cuckooed’ and to prevent future incidents.

·       Unknown deaths – Councillor Geary noted recent examples, in her work as a celebrant, of deaths in the community that had been unknown for some time and asked what was being done to prevent this. The Chair of the SAB commented that this could be due to a number of factors including more dispersed families or those not in regular contact, a lack of mobility, and in some cases older people whose children have passed away before them. Preventing this was part of a broader health and wellbeing agenda to ensure people live healthier lives for longer and to tackle loneliness.

·       Homelessness – The Committee asked for clarification on which agencies provided safeguarding data around homelessness. The Chair of SAB clarified that the Board focussed on ‘street homelessness’, based on a national picture of SARs where this was a critical factor, and that data was shared with partners on the high level dashboard. This was a new responsibility of SAB and work would continue with partners, including district and borough councils, to progress this.

·       Identification of vulnerable households – In response to a question about identifying vulnerable households in emergencies, the Chair of SAB noted that for adults living in supported living accommodation there was a clearer picture of occupants, however this was more challenging in other residential settings, particularly where residents were not known to services. The Director of ASCH commented that the creation of any kind of list was challenging as it would not reflect real time information and therefore would not be accurate. He noted that in major incidents the Council worked as part of a response to draw data from a range of partners to identify households with vulnerable people, however this was still dependent on people updating their records.

·       Hoarding – The Committee asked about rising hoarding and related health risks. The Director of ASCH confirmed an increase and outlined joint work with East Sussex Fire and Rescue and local councils to identify and support at-risk individuals, including action under environmental health legislation where there is risk of disease or infection.

15.4     The Committee thanked the Chair for their work and RESOLVED to note the report.