Why this is so important:

The Care Act 2014 challenged Safeguarding Adults Boards and its members to work in person-centred ways that involve listening to the person at risk, ensuring they are involved within decisions about their own safety and wellbeing, and seeking the changes they want wherever possible.  Establishing this as a strategic ambition sets the model for how the Board needs to work, and the expectations for how individual services must work to provide individuals with help and protection across the city.

The approach was first established within the Leeds Citizen-Led multi-agency policy and procedures in 2019 which includes the advice of nine citizen groups as to how they wish to be involved and supported. The phrase ‘Talk to me, hear my voice’ arises from these engagements, which has become adopted as our key citizen-led message. Each year the Board aspires to take further steps towards being truly citizen-led in its work.

This year:

• We have captured our commitment to the citizen-led approaches within our revised Working Arrangement. These set out our values, our ways of working and our commitment to be putting people at the centre of all we do.                                                                                                                                       
• We have evaluated our Citizen Reference Group that has been advising and commenting on the work of the Board, and with this learning we plan to introduce new arrangements next year.                                                                                                                                                            
• We have undertaken public consultations on our Strategic Plan and provided a means for continual feedback during the year via website consultations and virtual network                                                        
• We have held an annual listening event for organisations to meet with the Board in relation to key priorities. This year the focus was in relation to multi-agency working, with wider organisations attending to help us focus on how we can best work together for individuals at risk. Those wider organisations who supported and contributed to this event are also mentioned in Appendix One.

Why this is so important:

It is recognised that awareness and understanding of safeguarding and the support available to people is not always well understood. This is not unique to Leeds. Members of the public will not automatically know how to gain support unless the message is promoted by the Board and member organisations. Similarly, we need to continue to support organisations across the city to understand their responsibilities to provide help and protect those at risk. 

This year, for members of the public:

• We have been working with Voluntary Action Leeds, Safer Stronger Communities and the Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership to develop a new approach to engagement with ethnically diverse communities in Leeds.  This approach is inspired by learning from research and engagements with community representatives. These proposals are to be considered and taken forward in 2024/25 and would involve a community first model – putting the needs of communities at the forefront of how we work together to provide help and support.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
• We have been working with Safeguarding Adults Boards and Safeguarding Children Partnerships across West Yorkshire and West Midlands to co-produce safeguarding guidance for faith communities. This will involve working with different faith communities to provide guidance that is explained in terms sensitive and relevant to their faith. This will be completed during 2024/25 and result in guidance aimed principally at Islamic, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu and Sikh faiths – each will be available as a resource on the Board website.                                                                                                                                                                                  
• We have provided a programme of awareness sessions for community and citizen groups in Leeds. The Board invests in the post of LSAB Engagement Officer so as to be able to reach out and engage with community groups in this way. Examples of sessions include those undertaken with Wharfedale View Extra Care Living, Association of Blind Asians, Parkfield Court Retirement Living complex, St. Mary’s Close Retirement Living complex, Farrar Lane Retirement Life Housing, Rothwell Tenants and Residents Association, Wetherby in Support of the Elderly (WiSE)                                                                                                                                                                                        
• We have provided and promoted public information view our posters and view our leaflets, including displaying these at Leeds Market and other advertising points in the city during West Yorkshire Safeguarding Week 2024.                                                                                                                                                          
• We have promoted our public information click here to view our short film, which are also available in BSL, Mandarin, Romanian, Arabic, Tigranya.                                                                                                                                                         
• We have been active on social media with a valuable Facebook presence and 1800 followers on X (formerly known as Twitter). This is used to promote awareness of local, regional and national safeguarding related resources and events.                                                                                                                                                                                                             
• We have been promoting our Board Bulletin.  With approximately 900 recipients now, this is used to provide local, regional and national updates on safeguarding adults information and resources.                                                                                                                                                            
• We have been providing information stalls about safeguarding at events and conferences, including Leeds Public Health Conference and AVSED Community Café (Aireborough)                                                                   
• All this activity above, is in addition to that undertaken by individual member organisations to promote awareness for people who access their services.                                   

This year, for practitioners and services:

• We led on coordinating a regional West Yorkshire Safeguarding Week for 2023, involving each Safeguarding Adults Board, Safeguarding Children Partnership and Community Safety Partnership in the region. This involved a programme with sessions hosted by each district but available to all.  Special thanks are owed to West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service, Disclosure & Barring Service and West Yorkshire Financial Exploitation and Abuse Team (WYFEAT) who facilitated sessions on behalf of the Board. Hundreds of practitioners attended and benefitted for these talks.                                                                                               
• We have been exploring how we share and coordinate training opportunities within the city. This has led to learning and development links across organisations sharing knowledge of briefings, seminars and events enabling them to be accessed by more people. Approx. 25 such opportunities have been shared in the period, and some members have also been able to share their own internal training programmes with wider partners. From this work plans are being developed for a Leeds Safeguarding Week in late 2024 – with citywide sessions facilitated by individual organisations from their core training programmes.                                                                                                                            
• We have supported and extended our Friends of the Board Network – there are now 29 organisations/services that work with us to give advice, support workstreams and help us to promote safeguarding awareness. This included a workshop facilitated by the Board in relation to referral processes with Adults & Health. Our Friends of the Board are all listed within Appendix One.

This year, for everyone:

• We have invested heavily in the development of a new Board website, which will go live during the summer of 2024. This will enable us to provide specific information for both members of the public and professional within easily navigable and accessible sections. This will result in us providing better information for each audience, and in different languages.

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Why this is so important:

The core function of the safeguarding adults board is to coordinate the work of members so as to have effective safeguarding arrangements in Leeds.  This means working with and across organisations and other partnerships to develop a common understanding of issues and effective responses.  Many areas of focus are drawn from our Safeguarding Adults Review learning, thus supporting change and development in the areas that will have the biggest impact for citizens in Leeds.

This year:

• We have remained committed to our Citizen-led multi-agency safeguarding adults policy and procedures established in 2019 and updated in 2021. The multi-agency policy and procedures provide the framework around how all organisations in Leeds must work together and with the adult at risk, when a person is experiencing or at risk of abuse, neglect or self-neglect.  The Leeds approach to its policy and procedures was unique in its time, as it was co-produced with the input of nine citizen groups, ensuring that Leeds citizen voices were at the centre of our safeguarding procedures. Their message, Talk to me, hear my voice emerged from this work and has become a Leeds practice principle.  The Leeds Safeguarding Adults Board continues to be regulary asked to talk to other Safeguarding Boards or networks about this approach and how it was developed. Appendix 2 provides a safeguarding activity summary report on the use of these policy and procedures.                                                                                                                                                          
• We have worked to embed the Leeds Self-neglect Strategy. Developed in relation to learning from the deaths of seven individuals in Leeds, the Strategy takes forward out ambition to help and protect individuals experiencing self-neglect.  The strategy includes actions for the Board, but it recognises that a citywide understanding and approach is required, and so during this period the Board has reached out to wider strategic partnerships such as Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership and Safer Stronger Communities to work together. This work will continue into 2024/25 with wider strategic bodies also being consulted and with a conference event being planned.                                                                                                                                                                           
• We have been working across sectors to co-produce an approach to improving multi-agency working in Leeds. This has involved partnering with SCIE, a leading sector improvement organisation to facilitate our learning and to help identify enabling factors that promote multi-agency working. As we move into 2024/25 this work will continue with a Spine of Enabling Factors being used to support the development of new approaches.                                                                                                                                                                
• We have continued to provide an Exceptional Risk Forum (ERF). Established in 2021 the forum can accept referrals in relation to any adult aged 18 years or over who requires assistance with aspects of their day to day living as a result of a physical or mental impairment or illness (including a mental health condition or substance misuse), and who live in circumstances of exceptional risk to themselves despite the best efforts of individual agencies and multi-agency approaches to mitigate those risks. Monthly multi-agency forum meetings provide an opportunity to explore possible further avenues of help and support.  14 people were discussed at the forum during 2023/24. An in-depth evaluation undertaken in November 2023 highlighted its value, the importance of its role and support to frontline practitioners.                                                                                                                                                                             
• Worked to engage housing associations with the work of the Board.

As housing associations have such a vital role within the multi-agency partnership, there has been a commitment by Housing Leeds to strengthen the connection between the Board and Housing Associations. Housing Association partners have nominated an appropriate manager and deputy to be a member of the Safeguarding Housing Association Network, which meets twice per year. This is providing a forum to both hear and understand the issues faced by Housing Association and in turn to share our learning, our guidance, our policies and ambitions.

This year this has involved the completion of a Safeguarding Self-Assessment to consider, how robustly they are meeting their safeguarding responsibilities, to demonstrate their awareness of the work of the Safeguarding Children and Adult Boards, and to identify areas for improvement. The returns demonstrated that there is much positive work taking place and that the network approach is proving useful for providers. To quote some of the feedback “There are [now] lots of resources for us to tap into”; “We are sharing links to the resources through our internal internet system.”

• Improve understanding and use of the Mental Capacity Act

The Mental Capacity Act Local Implementation Network (MCA LIN) is a multi-agency forum for sharing and developing best practice with regard to mental capacity act practice. The Chair of which is a member of the Safeguarding Adults Board. Collectively their work with and in support of organisations in the city has involved: 

1. Delivery of awareness sessions with regards to the Mental Capacity Act IMCA advocacy awareness training 
2. Production of information for carers
3. A widespread programme of training with regards to the development of MCA knowledge in practice.
4. A learning and development framework has been developed to enable managers to identify levels of training needed for different staff roles.
5. A community Deprivation of Liberty Safeguard (DOLs) oversight tool has been developed
6. Guidance has been created to support practitioners to use the MCA in practice.
7. MCA toolkits have been updated in line with changes in case law.
8. A monthly Best Interest Assessor (BIA) forum is planned to support the development of best practice. The Adults & Health, DoLS team has increased it’s staffing capacity by 50%, as a result the team is now also able to provide an mental capacity act advice service.  

• Trauma Informed Professional Movement

Wider related work that should be recognised, is the City’s Trauma Informed Professional Movement, which is so central to our developing approaches to supporting adults from abuse and neglect.  This movement has now been in place for over 3 years. The membership has broadened and grown and it’s purpose is to ensure that professionals uphold a set of values and beliefs to ensure that trauma informed practice is meaningful and is seen as a priority by the City. The movement continues to act as a practice development resource with expert speakers talking about topics in relation to how to embed trauma informed practice, how to lead a relational system, how to manage mistrust and how to implement trauma informed leadership within the workplace. 

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