Our Year 2022 to 2023

The April PSAP meeting was themed under the strategic priority of Partnership, with a well-received presentation by Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service safeguarding team and related discussion. In addition to rolling agenda items such as data monitoring and business updates, matters discussed included:

• Local operational multi-agency work to support the Homes for Ukraine agenda, including wellbeing support visits for refugees and checks on host applications.
• Multi-agency adult safeguarding training figures and plans for future delivery.
• Updates on the Engagement project and plans for promotional materials
• Strengthening and development of links to other City partnership boards
• Feedback on support for and engagement with the community safety partnership’s Safer Plymouth week in March
• Feedback from the National SAR Library that the South West region was one of the few to contribute 100% of its reviews

The partnership meeting in July was themed under the strategic priority of Engagement, with a presentation from Living Options Devon on their work for the commissioned engagement project, including updates on the work to collect feedback from people’s lived experience of the safeguarding process. In addition information was received and discussed regarding:

• Updates on the development of the promotional videos to raise the profile and understanding of adult safeguarding.
• Rebranding of the Development sub group to the Assurance Group and the inclusion of police colleagues to give a wider perspective.  
• Updates to the Business plan, including identified lead partners for each section to provide updates

• Positive feedback on the use of the SCIE SAR Quality Marker checklist in decision making for SAR referrals.
• Rebranding of Clinical Commissioning Groups to Integrated Care Boards and national or local implications.
• Briefing on the focus for the next audit, to look at the quality of safeguarding concerns raised to the Local Authority and their journey through the safeguarding process.

October’s PSAP meeting was themed under the strategic priority of Learning, with attendance from representatives of local Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations who gave a frontline perspective, and related discussions. Other areas of focus included:

• Presentation on the development and work of the city’s Health and Wellbeing Hubs.
• An update on the local perspectives from the Learning from Lives and Deaths - People with a Learning Disability and autistic people (LeDeR) Annual Report  
• Planning for the multi-agency communication strategy for National Adult Safeguarding Awareness Week in November.
• Updates on the review and development of the Risk Management, Self-neglect and Hoarding Policy and practice guidance, and the PSAP Constitution
• Update on the information video project to raise public and professional awareness

The January 23 PSAP meeting was held under the strategic priority of Assurance, informed by a summary of assurance activity throughout the year, with a themed discussion that highlighted the mechanisms which provide assurance and those used by partners. Other areas of focus included:

• Reporting of success at the second National Safeguarding Adults Boards’ Excellence Awards in November, with the local authority’s Senior Practitioner Complex Lives, Lydia Libby, winning the highly nominated Partnership Champion award.
• Update on a Children’s Social Care learning review into the death of a young man transitioning to adulthood

• Preparation work for the CQC Assurance Framework Programme. 
• A briefing on the Predatory Marriage campaign and information to be disseminated to staff.
• Information on webinars relating to homelessness and safeguarding.  
• A briefing on the National Policing Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme (VKPP) and links to the Community safety Partnership, Safer Plymouth

• Summary of the self-neglect audit and action plan
• Update on the quality of referrals audit
• Update on the accessibility audit for the Engagement project

• Proposal to update the first of our four strategic themes, Partnership, to that of Prevention to include partnership elements.
• Development of the formal business review calendar to aid with reviewing policies and documents.
• Briefing on the ICB Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF)

The PSAP Business Plan 2021-24 continues to be used as an organic, developmental document, able to react to issues highlighted by partners or identified by data monitoring. It forms the work plan of the Assurance sub group, and informs the agenda of the Executive Group meetings and recommendations to PSAP. In relation to the Future Plans from the 2021-22 Annual Report, the headlines include:

The PSAP has a strategic plan based on 4 adult safeguarding themes - Prevention, Engagement, Learning and Assurance. During the year each one of the four partnership meeting looks in depth at one of the themes, culminating in January of each year with the Assurance theme. Following that meeting the PSAP publishes an Assurance Audit Statement to outline the steps it has taken to assure itself that the adult safeguarding system is working effectively.

A variety of interventions are used, collectively known as the “assurance toolbox”, to get as wide a view as possible of how the safeguarding system is working. Actions and recommendations from individual interventions are fed back to relevant partners and the monitored by the partnership. Throughout the year the full partnership, its Executive Group, Engagement sub group, SAR sub group and Assurance sub group work together to ensure work on assurance is current and achievable.

Annual system audit

Each year PSAP identifies a specific part of the safeguarding system that will be audited. Analysis of information from the PSAP data dashboard, wider data sources and feedback from partners determines the subject and scope of the audit. The 2022/23 audit was a review of referrals into the local authority safeguarding team to investigate why and what happened to referrals that did not meet the criteria for a statutory safeguarding response. This was prompted by a wish to understand how PSAP could promote more preventative ways of working. An independent reviewer undertook the audit and a PSAP hosted task and finish group asked partners to develop an action plan based on the conclusions of the audit. 7 system service improvements were identified, related work is underway and ongoing.

Partners assurance assessment

PSAP partners were involved in developing and the regional model for self-assessment, partly based on their safeguarding performance and partly based on their engagement and involvement in the PSAP business plan. The design for next version of an assurance assessment is in progress, and will be based on completed analysis of those used by 8 other SABs, following consultation.   

PSAP Business Plan

The business plan has been developed with the input of all partners, and is designed to be an organic document, capable of responding to issues raised by partners or identified by data monitoring. It groups issues of note under each of the strategic themes, and provides a real-time check on progress, monitored on a monthly basis by the Assurance sub group. It has 14 aims with action required, expected impact, known achievements, current updates and lead partner or sub group clearly identified. A partner representative leads for each section and is responsible for providing updates, particularly where items may fall outside of the formal remit of PSAP but are important for the effective functioning of the safeguarding system.

PSAP risk register

Revised and updated this year and formally adopted in March, this document links known risks to the Business Plan and is monitored monthly by the Assurance sub group.

Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SARs)

SARs provide valuable assurance to the Partnership based on in depth research into an individual safeguarding case. PSAP uses both independently researched and authored investigations and multi-agency learning events to understand the critical issues and pinch points in the system. See Learning From SARs section

Partner feedback

Throughout the year partners have been asked to give feedback about any challenges experienced by their agencies that may impact on their safeguarding performance. This information has been fed into the Business Plan, which gives it a wider and richer view of the safeguarding world beyond the legal Care Act definition.

Individual interviews

As part of the PSAP Engagement Project, Living Options Devon continue to be contracted to undertake a regular and ongoing series of interviews with people who have been through the safeguarding process. This has provided some feedback which is actionable but also powerfully tells the stories of people where safeguarding has been part of their lives. Living Options Devon presented update reports on this and other work streams to the Engagement themed partnership meeting, providing the opportunity to consider assurance from our citizens’ perspectives.

Engagement roadmap

The second part of the Engagement Project undertaken this year has been the development of an engagement road map. It will lay out in clear and simple terms what PSAP will do over the following 3 years to effectively engage with local communities and local voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector organisations. The targeted actions are based on information drawn from the PSAP data dashboard.

Business calendar

The Assurance sub group have designed a business review calendar that lists all the PSAP documents, policies and related groups’ terms of reference, which sub group or individual is responsible for reviewing them and timescales. This provides the Partnership with a new governance and assurance tool for 2023 and beyond.

PSAP Business Plan 2021-24 reference: 1.5 - PSAP has financial stability and sufficient resources to support the safeguarding system

The statutory partners, Plymouth City Council, NHS Devon and Devon & Cornwall Police financially support the PSAP; this includes expenditure to deliver statutory functions associated with Care Act 2014:

• Section 43: Safeguarding Adult Boards: Each local authority must set up a Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB). The main objective of a SAB is to assure itself that local safeguarding arrangements and partners act to help and protect adults in its area. The SAB has three core duties:
• it must publish a strategic plan for each financial year that sets how it will meet its main objective and what the members will do to achieve this.
• It must publish an annual report detailing what the SAB has done during the year to achieve its main objective and implement its strategic plan.
• It must conduct any safeguarding adults review (SAR) in accordance with Section 44 of the Act.
• Section 44: Safeguarding Adult Reviews: SABs must arrange a SAR when an adult in its area dies as a result of abuse or neglect, whether known or suspected, and there is concern that partner agencies could have worked more effectively to protect the adult.

Other expenditure includes:

• Training delivery, learning and development sessions for staff
• Engagement project and feedback activity
• Audit work and administration costs
• The PSAP holds a reserve to fund specific projects, for example in the past year it funded the development of three adult safeguarding awareness videos, to raise awareness and understanding.