Agenda item

This report introduces the Kent and Medway Safeguarding Adults Board’s (KMSAB) Annual Report for April 2020–March 2021. The Annual Report sets out the responsibilities and structure of the Board and details how the multi-agency partnership delivered against its priorities for the year. The report also provides information pertaining to Safeguarding Adults Reviews, funding arrangements and safeguarding activity information

7           Kent and Medway Safeguarding Adults Board (KMSAB) Annual Report 2020-2021

Discussion:

The Independent Chair of the Kent and Medway Safeguarding Adults Board (KMSAB) introduced the Board’s Annual Report for April 2020 - March 2021, which set out the responsibilities and structure of the Board and detailed how the multi-agency partnership delivered against its priorities for the year. The report also provided information pertaining to Safeguarding Adults Reviews, funding arrangements and safeguarding activity information.

The following issues were discussed:

·       Safeguarding Review Cases – the point was made that all the cases referred to in the report highlighted a lack of communications between the services involved, such as between social care and housing. This showed a need for the system to work together better and for high risk groups to be the responsibility of all involved. The Independent Chair agreed and commented the Board was looking at improving collaboration and had invited Housing to be part of Safeguarding Group.

·       Training – in response to a query about training staff in mental health services on safeguarding, the Independent Chair confirmed that all staff working with adults were required to undertake safeguarding  training. In addition, the Board’s website offered guidance on how to make referrals. With regard to training provided by the Board, the Independent Chair advised that the statutory partners who contributed to the Board financially had access to training, but not other partners. The Board now ran training webinars and would like to expand training to all agencies and charities. The Assistant Director – Adult Social Care commented that any care provider had to provide training to their staff, as this was part of CQC requirements and the Council audited this to ensure all providers were trained. The CQC would also look at this during inspections. This was in addition to training from Board.

·       Domestic Abuse – why levels of domestic abuse in the home were so high in Medway and why so many allegations were not dealt with were queried. The Independent Chair responded that he did not know why levels were so high but the densely populated nature of much of Medway may explain this as it was more likely to be heard by a neighbour and reported. In addition, an increased level of reporting may be due to increased awareness and good local services. Interventions to prevent cases of repeat victims was vital. In response to a point that male victims did not receive as much attention as women, the Independent Chair commented all incidents of domestic abuse were abhorrent, whether the victims were men or women.  He felt the priority should be on supporting women as the overwhelming number of offences, both in volume and severity, were committed  against women, which also often impacted on children.

A point was made that budgetary constraints prevented theCrown Prosecution Service (CPS) from pursuing prosecutions where the evidence was not clear cut. The Independent Chair added that the CPS was measured in terms of successful court outcomes and often in domestic abuse cases it was one person’s word against another’s In addition private prosecutions were rare as accessing legal aid was difficult.

Decision:

The Committee noted the Annual Report and agreed to forward its comments to the Health and Wellbeing Board when it considers the Annual Report.