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Welcome to the summer edition of the South Gloucestershire Safeguarding Adults Board newsletter.
This issue includes contributions from South Gloucestershire Healthwatch and the Probation Service. You can also read a summary of Stop Adult Abuse Week held in June and an overview of the new Safeguarding website launched in August, jointly for the Safeguarding Adults Board and the local Safeguarding Children Board. If you have an item you would like included in the newsletter or have ideas as to what you would like to see please contact Simon Smith at simon.smith@3tcs.co.uk
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Healthwatch South Gloucestershire and Adult Safeguarding
Quality, dignity and safeguarding are closely related, and for Healthwatch South Gloucestershire there are systems designed to safeguard the interests of people who may be in the most vulnerable situations. This includes people Healthwatch may work with who have learning and physical disabilities, people with mental health problems and older people, but is not confined to these groups. Lessons from inquiries such as Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust and Winterbourne View have highlighted the need to make safeguarding integral to the way Healthwatch operates.
Safeguarding within Healthwatch South Gloucestershire has two main dimensions:
- proactive safeguarding, for instance ensuring that services are of sufficient quality to protect people’s dignity and rights, that people know how to keep themselves safe and how to get help if they need it and
- responsive safeguarding, for instance that people know how to alert safeguarding specialists if there are concerns about harm and abuse to individuals or groups.
Healthwatch South Gloucestershire can make a significant contribution to the activities of the Safeguarding Adults Board in both of the above aspects and in fostering user involvement in these areas at an individual and a strategic level. Effective engagement on these issues requires Healthwatch to develop good working relationships with the local Safeguarding Adults Board, particularly in its work in identifying and pooling concerns about the quality and safety of services.
Healthwatch has the opportunity to share and discuss safeguarding issues identified with the Health and Wellbeing board (where Healthwatch has a volunteer representative), with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) with whom Healthwatch meet with quarterly to share issues and with Healthwatch England where all the issues we hear are escalated. Issues are also shared with the local area team of NHS England (BNSSSG) Quality Surveillance Group and with The Care Forum complaints advocacy service.
Healthwatch promotes dignity, quality and safeguarding through a number of its functions, including:
- the information and signposting function undertaken by Well Aware
- Enter and view visits, for which Disbarring and Safeguarding checks and proper protocols and training are given to Healthwatch volunteers who undertake these visits
- Training for Healthwatch staff and volunteers includes updating on specific legislation, which encompasses safeguarding issues.
The local authority is the first contact for Healthwatch to share identified safeguarding concerns with. Healthwatch has clear guidelines for its staff and volunteers in raising any concerns that they observe or hear about when undertaking work on behalf of Healthwatch South Gloucestershire.
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