Agenda item

Purpose: To present the West of Berkshire Safeguarding Adults Board Annual Report for 2020/2021.

The Chairman noted that due to a clash of meetings, there was no-one from the Safeguarding Adults Board available to present its Annual Report (Agenda Item 13). Some case studies were cited in the report, where incidents had required full reports or practice learning notes. Members were encouraged to visit the Partnership’s website if they wished to know more about these case studies, which were drawn from the whole of Berkshire. If Members felt that there was anything within the report that merited further discussion, then a representative from the Board could be invited to attend a future meeting.

Councillor Lynne Doherty highlighted the 50% increase in safeguarding concerns across the partnership, but noted that the increase in West Berkshire was much less at 13%. She expressed concern that issues in West Berkshire would not receive as much attention as those in other local authorities that had higher incidences. She suggested that the Board should consider the West Berkshire situation in more detail.

Councillor Martha Vickers raised two issues:

      i.        On page 61 the report said that the Performance and Quality Subgroup investigated the increase in no support reason in 2019/20, which was attributed to West Berkshire Council and confirmed that the increase was correct, and that Reading Borough Council and Wokingham Council had reviewed their recording practices to ensure that they were consistent with NHS digital guidance. She asked whether West Berkshire Council needed to review its processes, or if it was already compliant with NHS Digital Guidance.

    ii.        On page 62 she noted a comment that the Safeguarding Board was not complying with its Quality Assurance Framework due to a lack of capacity.  

The Chairman proposed that a paper be brought to the next meeting to consider the West Berkshire implications arising from the Annual Report and for a member of the Partnership to be invited to attend the meeting.

Garry Poulson stated that he was the voluntary sector representative on the Safeguarding Adults Board. He noted that reporting mechanisms had been greatly improved, which would have affected the numbers. This was a good thing, as it meant that there was awareness of issues that needed to be resolved. He explained that the Safeguarding Adults Board had just appointed Professor Keith Brown as the new Independent Chair. He was also Chairman of the NHS England Adults Network. He suggested that it would be a good time to raise any areas of concern that needed further investigation.

Emily Evans stated that that she had previously been the Detective Chief Inspector for Protecting Vulnerable People and had worked in safeguarding for most of her career right across Berkshire. She indicated that the reason for this being a Berkshire West document was that most of the partners worked across the three local authorities of West Berkshire, Reading and Wokingham, and in order to understand the West Berkshire situation, this would need input from West Berkshire people. She explained that a conscious decision had been made to share learning from serious case reviews across Berkshire rather than waiting for something to happen locally. She agreed that West Berkshire received less attention because crime rates were lower than in other parts of Berkshire. She noted that children involved in serious incidents had often lived in other local authorities so it was important to promote shared working. She indicated that the Police could provide adult safeguarding data for West Berkshire.

Paul Coe was invited to respond to the points made. He confirmed that he was unable to comment on compliance with NHS Digital guidance. With regard to case numbers, he explained that each local authority had slightly different recording practices, but he agreed that there had been an increase in activity within his team. He indicated that in Appendix F there were reports for each of the three local authorities. He suggested that West Berkshire Council’s Safeguarding Manager be invited to speak to a future HWB meeting. He also noted that a quarterly report was taken to Corporate Board, which took a great interest in safeguarding and deprivation of liberty work.

Action: The West Berkshire Safeguarding Manager to prepare a report for the next Health and Wellbeing Board to provide a local perspective on the SAB Annual Report.

The Chairman noted that when West Berkshire Council had a safeguarding incident relating to a care provider, they might treat every individual in the care home as a case, but another local authority might treat this as one case.