Safeguarding Adults Board

It has been acknowledged by central and local government that the voluntary and community sector has a key role to play as a strategic partner, in developing policies and procedures to safeguard adults from abuse. A comprehensive set of national standards for good practice, designed to further the development of safeguarding adults work, was launched in 2005. The national framework reiterates the importance of establishing a multi-agency partnership to lead on the ‘safeguarding adults’ work.

Since the publication of ‘No Secrets’ in 2000, Manchester has had a multi-agency steering group, whose role has been to lead on the development of adult protection work. MACC has participated in the work, as have other voluntary organisations, but without any clear mandate from the local voluntary and community sector. Manchester City Council has developed a new structure and the group that will drive the work, has a new name: the Manchester Safeguarding Adults Board.

Accountability for leading the creation and maintenance of this partnership is located with City Council and endorsed by and linked to the Manchester Partnership (via the Crime and Disorder Partnership and the Health and Well-Being Overview and Scrutiny Committee). The Board is chaired by Caroline Marsh, the Director of Adult Social Care.

MACC, Age Concern Manchester and the Black and Minority Ethnic Consultation Forum (BMECF) were asked to comment on the new structures and nominate representatives to the Board. All the agencies represented on the Board have been asked to develop ‘sub groups’, who will meet with their Board ‘representative’ on a regular basis. Unlike statutory agencies, MACC and BMECF are accountable to a very diverse sector of individual voluntary organisations and community groups.
Though we were not asked to ‘represent’ the ‘sector’, it is part of the role of MACC to bring together networks of voluntary and community sector organisations, who share a common purpose of reducing inequalities in health and social care.

Consequently, in an attempt to improve accountability, we suggested at MACC that we begin to develop a mechanism for a two-way information flow through a sub-group from the Health and Social Care Network of VCS organisations and groups. The groups of adults targeted by the policy documents are those who are eligible for community care services and within that group, those who are unable to protect themselves from significant harm. The ‘No Secrets’ document refers to this group of people as ’vulnerable adults’.

The Partnership should include service users and carers as ‘key partners’ too. An older person has been nominated from the Valuing Older People Board and we have suggested that the Council look for representatives from other groups (as defined by social care policy) such as organisations supporting people with mental health, physical and learning disabilities.