Rochdale adult care: working towards outcome focussed safeguarding practice

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to share the experience of a Local Authority in their attempt to embed a personalised approach to Safeguarding. In 2013, Rochdale Adult Care took part in a three-month Making Safeguarding Personal improvement work pilot to facilitate a shift in emphasis from process to a commitment to improve outcomes for individuals at risk of harm. Design/methodology/approach -New safeguarding referrals to an established Safeguarding Team were used to capture "outcomes" from the start of an enquiry. A work plan was developed, which included the creation of a pro forma to help frame a conversation between professional and individual. This facilitated recording and collating to help devise a menu of outcomes for reporting to the Local Safeguarding Adult Board. The pilot also helped to formalise and standardise "outcomes" practice and introduced an "outcome focussed" interview at the start and end of the safeguarding to identify and measure outcomes with the individual. Findings -By involving workers throughout the pilot, they were able to identify their own practice improvements, understand the benefits to individuals who were reported to be more engaged with the safeguarding enquiry and suggest changes to processes that were a departure from the regimented requirements of "No Secrets" (Department of Health (DH), 2000). Originality/value -This approach has enabled a group of social workers to now act as champions to embed MSP throughout the adult care service following a local restructure.

10,000 Voices: service users’ experiences of adult safeguarding

“…Redley et al (2015), in their review of MSP, identified differing views of what constitutes a “good outcome” among Adult Safeguarding Leads (ASL) and between ASL and service users. Butler and Manthorpe (2016) and Timson et al (2015), found that early discussions around desired outcomes were valued by both service users and staff. Whilst, in this survey the large majority of respondents offered positive feedback in relation to outcomes, where it was offered, negative feedback focussed on concern that the real issue had not been addressed and that the outcome was inconclusive.…”

An evaluation of adult safeguarding outcomes’ focused recording in the context of Making Safeguarding Personal

“…ASCOF acknowledges the importance of the person feeling empowered in the process and outcomes of safeguarding. Timson et al's (2015) work identifies the importance to this process of asking how safe the person felt at the end of the enquiry having reviewed outcomes at the end as well as the start. Critical to this succeeding is the importance of seeking not just the person wishes to achieve but what help make the person feel in control.…”

“…Recording the outcomes of the case and having to confront the original wishes of the person places greater emphasis on person centred goal setting by starting with what the person actually wants to achieve (Timson et al, 2015). Sometimes the limits of the person being fully enabled to exercise choice was evidenced as "outcomes not achieved" which may have related to the citizen being unrealistic or inhibited by employment or legislative mandates beyond the control of the person or worker:…”

“…The growing body of MSP literature identifies the need for system change being to move away from process centred safeguarding to one of being outcomes focused (LGA Ogilvie and Williams, 2010;Crawley, 2015;Timson et al, 2015;Lawson et al, 2014, Cooper et al, 2014 with the 2008/9 No Secrets Consultation containing several references to people feeling 'done to' by safeguarding processes driven by professionals (Williams, 2013), 'with too great a focus on process and procedure' (Cooper et al, 2015: 154). Personalised safeguarding which starts with the citizen is more likely to make the person feel involved and collaborate to own and produce their own solutions (Crawley, 2015;Cooper et al, 2015).…”

Putting people at the centre: facilitating Making Safeguarding Personal approaches in the context of the Care Act 2014

“…This paper reports on and discusses the work of a Professional Standards Safeguarding Team (PSST) in co-ordinating a making safeguarding personal (MSP) pilot in central London in 2015. As previous papers in this journal have described (Cooper et al, 2015;Manthorpe et al, 2014;Timson et al, 2015), the MSP initiative arose in response to concerns from adult safeguarding quality assurance activities that there was too great a focus on process and procedure. In the three London boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster (currently working together with many shared functions as Tri-borough) there were indications that whilst adults at risk appreciated the work of individual staff, some felt they had been through a "process" of safeguarding.…”