Joint Inspection of Adult Support and Protection in Aberdeen
The report of the joint inspection of Adult Support and Protection in Aberdeen was published on the Care Inspectorate website on 21st June 2022. The report can be found here: Joint inspection of adult support protection in the Aberdeen City partnership (careinspectorate.com)
The inspection focused primarily on the reading of specified case file records across Social Work, Health and Police, as well as two Focus Groups.
The Key Findings of the inspection were:
- Our Key Processes are effective, with areas for improvement which are outweighed by clear strengths supporting positive experiences and outcomes for individuals;
- Our Strategic Leadership is very effective, demonstrating major strengths in supporting positive experiences and outcomes for individuals.
In relation to the latter, ours is only the second partnership to receive this ‘rating’ in the current phase of inspections, and should be seen as ‘a feather in the cap of the partnership’, according to the Lead Inspector.
Strengths
- In October 2021 the Aberdeen City Adult Support and Protection Partnership merged the adult protection unit and the duty social work team and introduced an adult protection social work team. They carried out screening, triage and inquiry work collaboratively and effectively.
- There was effective communication and information sharing between agencies at every stage of adult support and protection activity. The quality of risk assessment work was central to improvements in nearly every adult’s safety and protection.
- The partnership was committed to joint training and development and a recently implemented framework was in place to ensure this was delivered and governed effectively.
- The partnership’s vision was well embedded and supported by a strong culture of strategic change and improvement.
- Working relationships across the strategic leadership team had strengthened during the last few years. They worked closely together to address priority areas of work collaboratively and effectively.
- The partnership had recently implemented a refreshed engagement strategy and accompanying initiatives with adults at risk of harm and unpaid carers at the heart of protection processes. It was too early to determine the full impact of the measures and ongoing work was needed to ensure they made a positive difference.
Priority areas for improvement
- While the partnership’s tools and templates were well designed, the quality of chronologies and protection planning was mixed.
- Some adult support and protection investigations and initial case conferences took too long to be initiated or conclude. This exposed a few adults to ongoing risk. There was room for improvement in these important areas of practice.
- Health staff played a key supporting role in adult protection work but were not consistently or accurately recording this in their records. Increased oversight should be introduced to ensure the necessary change.
- More adults at risk of harm needed access to independent advocacy. This will ensure adults subject to protection processes have their views represented.
- The partnership’s strategic leadership team should develop their multi-agency evaluation approach. Ways of better involving staff in the subsequent change and improvement work should be implemented.
It should be noted that the ‘areas for improvement’ had in the main been previously identified locally through quality assurance and self evaluation work, and related activity had been incorporated into the Adult Protection Committee (APC) Improvement Plan. The Plan is being refreshed in light of the inspection findings, and has to be submitted to the Care Inspectorate by 3rd August.
Inspection overview reminder
The inspection focused on key processes and leadership (see national quality indicator framework). The key activities included:
- submission of a ‘short position statement’ (maximum 20 pages);
- submission of ‘supporting evidence’ under specific themes (maximum 20 documents);
- a case file audit – of Social Work, Health and Police files;
- two focus groups, one for senior leaders and one for front-line staff; and
- a staff survey.
The case file audit reviewed records from Social Work, Health and Police. Guidance and information about the methodology can be found on the Care Inspectorate website.
A huge THANK YOU to all who work so hard day-in-day-out to support and protect adults at risk of harm in Aberdeen, as well as to those involved in the specific work relating to this inspection. This very positive inspection report is testament to all, and has put us in a good place to continue our improvement journey.