A joint inspection of adult support and protection measures in the City of Edinburgh has found some strengths in ensuring adults at risk of harm are safe, protected and supported.
However, inspectors also identified substantial areas for improvement.
Key strengths were:
- Police Scotland and health staff made an invaluable contribution to identifying adults at risk of harm and worked well with partners to improve their safety and wellbeing.
- Third and independent sector providers delivered vital support to adults at risk of harm.
- The partnership’s strategic leaders effectively oversaw the maintenance of business continuity for adult support and protection during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Key areas for improvement were:
- Strategic leadership should deliver consistent, effective adult support and protection practice that ensures adults at risk of harm are safe, supported, and protected.
- The partnership should improve the quality of chronologies and risk assessments for adults at risk of harm. And all adults at risk of harm who require a chronology and a risk assessment should have one.
- The partnership should carry out a prompt adult protection investigation for all adults at risk of harm who require one.
- The partnership should take steps to improve the quality of adult protection case conferences. It had undertaken improvements by creating additional posts for minute takers. It was too early to tell the impact of this.
- Social work services had a large number of social worker vacancies in adult services. Social work leaders should work to increase the service’s capacity to carry out adult support and protection work promptly, effectively and efficiently.
- The partnership should prioritise recommencement of multi-agency audits of adult support and protection records, quality assurance, and self-evaluation activities for adult support and protection.
- The adult protection committee should ensure it has direct representation from adults at risk of harm and their unpaid carers. Their lived experience of adult support and protection would benefit the committee.
Kevin Mitchell, the Care Inspectorate's Executive Director of Scrutiny and Assurance said:
“While our inspectors found some strengths in the partnership’s approach, they found significant areas for improvement in practice and strategic leadership of adult support and protection.
“It will be important that an improvement plan takes into account the findings of this joint inspection and that areas for improvement are progressed without delay.”
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Notes to editors
The full report can be read here.