Concerned about an adult?

01454 868007 ‐ Monday to Friday 9am ‐ 5pm

01454 615165 ‐ Out of hours and at weekends

In an emergency please ring 999

Concerned about a child?

01454 866000 ‐ Monday to Thursday 9am ‐ 5pm

01454 866000 ‐ Friday 9am ‐ 4.30pm

01454 615165 ‐ Out of hours and at weekends

In an emergency please ring 999

Roles and duties of the Safeguarding Adults Board

adults-board

The role of the SAB

The overarching purpose of an SAB is to help and safeguard adults with care and support needs. It does this by:

  • assuring itself that local safeguarding arrangements are in place as defined by the Care Act 2014 and statutory guidance
  • assuring itself that safeguarding practice is person-centred and outcome-focused
  • working collaboratively to prevent abuse and neglect where possible
  • ensuring agencies and individuals give timely and proportionate responses when abuse or neglect have occurred
  • assuring itself that safeguarding practice is continuously improving and enhancing the quality of life of adults in its area.

Core duties

SABs have three core duties. They must:

  • develop and publish a strategic plan setting out how they will meet their objectives and how their member and partner agencies will contribute
  • publish an annual report detailing how effective their work has been
  • commission safeguarding adults reviews (SARs) for any cases which meet the criteria for these.

The six safeguarding principles

  1. Empowerment: people being supported and encouraged to make their own decisions and give informed consent
  2. Prevention: it is better to take action before harm occurs
  3. Proportionality: the least intrusive response appropriate to the risk presented
  4. Protection: support and representation for those in greatest need
  5. Partnership: local solutions through services working with their communities – communities have a part to play in preventing, detecting and reporting neglect and abuse
  6. Accountability and transparency in safeguarding practice

Making Safeguarding Personal

Developing a safeguarding culture that focuses on the personalised outcomes desired by people with care and support needs who may have been abused is a key operational and strategic goal. SABs, therefore, may want to consider the role they can play in embedding the ‘Making Safeguarding Personal’ approach across agencies by establishing and developing:

  • a broader participation strategy
  • accessible information to support participation of people in safeguarding support
  • a focus on qualitative reporting on outcomes as well as quantitative measures
  • advocacy
  • person-centred approaches to working with risk
  • policies and procedures that are in line with a personalised safeguarding approach
  • strategies to enable practitioners to work in this way, by looking at the skills they need and the support they are getting to enable this shift in culture.