Updated Care Act 2014 Guidance – Published December 2016
For further information, click here
For the statutory guidance and easy read version, click here
Social workers urged to spot links between domestic abuse and adult safeguarding – Community Care June 7, 2013
‘In many areas of the country and indeed in our national policy, a culture has evolved where domestic abuse, adult safeguarding, children’s safeguarding and community safety, are all seen as individual industries, when in reality they are intertwined. Whilst this siloed approach continues, victims of abuse are crying out for cohesive interventions.
Research suggests that disabled women are twice as likely to experience domestic abuse than non-disabled women. This implies that adults who are vulnerable to abuse and neglect are more likely to experience domestic abuse. Research also tells us that one in three female suicide attempts can be attributable to past or current domestic abuse and women experiencing domestic abuse are 15 times more likely to misuse alcohol. This therefore implies that adults who experience domestic abuse are more likely to become ‘vulnerable adults’.
At the end of March(2013), the government provided us with a new definition of domestic abuse, which now includes controlling and coercive behaviour – as well as incidents of threatening behaviour or violence – and distinct definitions of these’
To read the full article by Sarah Khalil, click here:
BBC News 16th July 2014 reports, ‘Hospital failure regime extended to care homes’
‘A system of special measures designed to improve failing hospitals in England is to be extended to care homes, the government has announced.
The process was introduced by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) a year ago at 11 failing trusts. Most have since made progress – although only five have been or are being taken out of special measures.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the scheme would be introduced for care homes and home-care agencies next year. That will cover 25,000 services and could lead to the closure of those that fail to improve.
In the hospital sector, special measures has involved:
- closer scrutiny by regulators
- management changes
- “buddying” schemes with successful trusts
- an improvement director being parachuted in to oversee any necessary changes
The details of the regime for care homes are still being worked out, but is likely to involve less external support and instead rely on shorter deadlines to shock the providers into action.
CQC social care chief inspector Andrea Sutcliffe said extending the failure regime to social care would drive up standards. “I am clear that abuse, neglect and poor care will not be tolerated,” she added.
Nadra Ahmed, chairman of the National Care Association, told the BBC that anything that safeguarded vulnerable people “has got to be good”. But she said she did have concerns about how the new measures would be implemented and the financial pressures on care homes put into special measures.’
By Nick Triggle, Health correspondent, BBC News
For the full article see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-28308104
The Care Act 2014 ~ Safeguarding adults at risk of abuse or neglect
Although local authorities have been responsible for safeguarding for many years, there has never been a clear set of laws or regulations behind it. As a result, it has often been very unclear who is responsible for what in practice.
The Care Bill has recently completed its third reading House of Lords stages on 11th March 2014 and is now under consideration of amendments in the House of Lords which is the last stage before Royal Assent. The Care Act 2014 will be on the statute books shortly, leaving health and social care professionals one year to get up to speed with its provisions before full implementation in 2015.
The Bill sets out the first ever statutory framework for adult safeguarding, which stipulates local authorities’ responsibilities, and those with whom they work, to protect adults at risk of abuse or neglect and will:
- Make safeguarding adults boards (SAB) statutory
- Make safeguarding enquiries a corporate duty for councils
- Make serious case reviews mandatory when certain triggering situations have occurred and the parties believe that safeguarding failures have had a part to play, with the aim of learning lessons on how to prevent such occurrences in the future. SABs will also have the power to undertake reviews in other circumstances if they so choose.
- Place duties to co-operate over the supply of information on relevant agencies
- Abolish councils’ power to remove people from insanitary conditions under section 47 of the National Assistance Act
- Re-enact existing duties to protect people’s property when in residential care or hospital
- Place a duty of candour on providers about failings in hospital and care settings, and create a new offence for providers of supplying false or misleading information, in the case of information they are legally obliged to provide.
Detailed guidance is promised as to all the steps that can be taken in law, by government, in time for the coming into force of the Care Act 2014 (April 2015 for the safeguarding measures) Watch this space…………
Latest news on the Care Act 2014
Following agreement by both Houses on the text of the Bill it received Royal Assent on 14 May. The Bill is now an Act of Parliament (law).
Elderly care home abuse: Panorama’s shocking footage shows elderly residents being taunted and assaulted at Essex care home
The shocking state of elderly care in Britain was exposed last week by undercover footage showing patients being abused, taunted and even slapped by staff supposed to be caring for them.
Residents at a care home in Essex were physically assaulted, ignored and left in their own excrement for hours according to an investigation by BBC One’s ‘Panorama’. Mistreatment was also uncovered at another care home in South London, where two care workers were convicted of common assault for how they handled a patient.
Harrowing images captured by hidden cameras echo the abuse uncovered three years ago at Winterbourne View, a private Hampshire hospital where patients with learning disabilities were assaulted.
The fresh care scandal comes as the national regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), publishes startling figures showing that basic standards of care are not being met be a significant number of homes.
Safeguarding Adults Training 
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