Our Working Arrangements

The Leeds Safeguarding Adults Board is a statutory body established under the Care Act 2014.

The Board’s objective is to work with its members and partners across the city to help and protect adults with care and support needs who cannot protect themselves from abuse, neglect or self-neglect1.

The Board does not in itself provide safeguarding services nor does it have any operational role in relation to individual safeguarding concerns, these responsibilities are held by its members and partners. In particular, the local authority holds the legal duty to undertake safeguarding enquiries, or cause them to be made, in relation to individuals at risk of abuse, neglect and self-neglect.

The Board has its own distinct role set out in legislation:

“The way in which an SAB must seek to achieve its objective is by co-ordinating and ensuring the effectiveness of what each of its members does”2.

In this respect:

“An SAB may do anything which appears to it to be necessary or desirable for the purpose
of achieving its objective”3

The Board’s coordination role extends to the provision of multi-agency safeguarding adults, policy and procedures so as to ensure effective working arrangements across each and every organisation within the city. It also includes coordinated approaches to quality assurance, learning & development, promoting awareness, learning from lived experiences, and safeguarding adults reviews.

The Board role also includes consideration of what assurances and actions are needed to ensure the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements across the city. This may include seeking specific assurances about the arrangements and practice of any of its member organisations.

Safeguarding Adults Boards have specific duties and responsibilities as set out in the Care Act. These include three core duties. Safeguarding Boards must:

1. Develop and publish a Strategic Plan setting out how they will meet their objectives
2. Publish an Annual Report
3. Commission Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SARs) for any cases which meet the criteria

Information about the Board’s work in each of these areas can be accessed via the following links:

• Leeds Safeguarding Adults Board - Strategic Plan
• Leeds Safeguarding Adults Board - Annual Reports
• Leeds Safeguarding Adults Board - Safeguarding Adults Reviews

Please refer to the links in Section 5 for details of what each of these legal duties involve.

The objective of the Safeguarding Adults Board is to ‘help and protect’ individuals who:

• [have] needs for care and support
•  is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect, and
• as a result of those needs is unable to protect himself or herself against the abuse or neglect or the risk of it4.

Key terms (1)

Adults who have care and support needs in this context are those people over 18 years of age, who require 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).

Someone who requires assistance with aspects of their day-to-day living could therefore be:

• a person with age related frailty
• a person with a physical disability, a learning disability or a sensory impairment
• someone with mental health needs, including dementia or a personality disorder
• a person with a long-term health condition
• someone who misuses substances or alcohol to the extent that it affects their ability to
  manage day-to-day living.

Key terms (2)

The Care and Support Statutory Guidance 2020 states that local authorities should not limit their
view of what constitutes abuse or neglect, as they can take many forms and the circumstances of
the individual should always be considered. The guidance however provides a range of examples:

• Physical Abuse
• Domestic Abuse
• Sexual Abuse
• Psychological Abuse
• Financial or Material Abuse
• Modern Slavery
• Discriminatory Abuse
• Organisational Abuse
• Neglect and acts of omission
• Self-neglect

Self-neglect is not referred to in the legislation above but was introduced subsequently by the statutory guidance. Where the Care Act refers to abuse and neglect, is should be interpreted as
including self-neglect where an adult is ‘unable to protect themselves by controlling their own
behaviour”5.

A person may experience more than one form of abuse, neglect or self-neglect at any one time.

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It is not a legal requirement to appoint an Independent Chair, however this has become
commonplace amongst Safeguarding Adults Boards (SAB). The role provides leadership,
independence, challenge and support to the Board in achieving its ambitions.

“The chair has a critical role to lead collaboratively, give advice, support and
encouragement but also to offer constructive challenge and hold main partner agencies
to account and ensure that interfaces with other strategic functions are effective whilst
also acting as a spokesperson for the SAB. An independent chair can provide additional
reassurance that the Board has some independence from the local authority and other
partners”6

The Independent Chair is appointed by and is accountable to the chief executive of Leeds City
Council, which is responsible for establishing the Board.

The Care Act 2014 requires the following to be members of the Board:

• Local authority – represented through Adults & Health
• The Police – represented through Leeds District Police
• Integrated Care Board – West Yorkshire

These members above are sometimes referred to as the core statutory partners. Beyond this membership can be determined locally, with a view to having right agencies to assist it achieving its strategic objectives.

Currently membership also includes:

• Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust
• Leeds & York Partnership NHS Trust
• Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust
• Leeds Probation
• Leeds Housing
• Advonet – representing the third sector
• West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service
• Executive Member for Adult Social Care
• Chair of the Mental Capacity Act Local Implementation Network (MCA LIN)

The current pattern for Board Meetings is as follows:

• Five Board Meetings
• Two Board Development Sessions, which are usually involve a ‘Listening Event’ and a
  ‘Strategic Planning session’

In Leeds the Board receives funding from each of its core statutory member organisations

• Local authority – represented through Adults & Health
• The Police – represented through Leeds District Police
• West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board

The funding allows the Board to commission an Independent Chair, a dedicated support Unit and to fund its respective workstreams. Major funding decisions are agreed at Board meetings by its collective membership. The LSAB Chair in conjunction with the LSAB Service Delivery Manager may however need to approve spending outside of meetings to expedite agreed workstreams.

The Board Strategy Unit is a small team which offers dedicated support to the Board and its respective workstreams. The Unit is hosted within the local authority but its work priorities and objectives are set directly by the Independent Chair and the Board. The Board’s Strategy Unit can be contacted: lsab@leeds.gov.uk 

These workstreams will usually take the form of standing Sub-groups, or Task and Delivery Groups in relation to specific areas of development. There are currently two standing sub-groups concerning:

• Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SARs)
• Quality Assurance & Performance (QAP)

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referred to for a more detailed account than provided here.

• Section 42 – Sets out the local authority duty to undertake safeguarding enquiries
• Section 43 – Sets out the objectives of the Safeguarding Adults Board
• Section 44 – Sets out the duty to undertake Safeguarding Adults Reviews
• Section 45 – Sets out the duty to supply information requested by Boards
• Schedule 2 – Sets out Board responsibilities in relation to membership, funding, annual
  reports and strategic plans
• Care and Support Statutory Guidance – Chapter 14: Safeguarding – includes statutory
  guidance for Safeguarding Adults Board

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) provides the public with a general right of access to
information held by public bodies, such as local government, the police, and the NHS.

Section 3 of the FOIA provides that:

(2) For the purposes of this Act, information is held by a public authority if—

(a) it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person, or

(b) it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.

The Leeds Safeguarding Adults Board however is a statutory partnership in its own right, set up
under the Care Act 2014, and is not listed as being a public body in Schedule 1 of the FOIA for the
purposes of the FOI. It is therefore exempt from the duty to provide information under the FOIA.

A Freedom of Information request can be made directly to member organisations of the Board that are public authorities. However, members in possession of documents produced by the Board are holding this information on behalf of “another person” in this case the Safeguarding Adults Board and as such they are not liable to disclosure under a FOI request.

Equally, all information submitted to the Board by a member organisation in relation to their service or their support towards a specific individual remains the property of that member organisation, the Board have access to the information for the purposes of fulfilling its statutory functions but do not own the information; as a result any request for disclosure will have to be made directly with the member organisation.

Details of how to access information from a public body can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/official-information/ 

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The main responsibility of the Independent Chair is to support and enable the board to achieve its objectives and duties, as set out in the Care Act 2014 and the Care and Support Statutory Guidance 2020.

In seeking to achieve this, the Independent Safeguarding Adults Board chair will:
 

1. Provide effective leadership to the Board, ensuring that they complete all tasks and
   responsibilities to a high standard, in a timely and proportionate manner, and in accordance
   with the requirements of the Care Act (2014) and other relevant legislation
2. Lead the board meetings including setting the agenda, approving and distributing minutes
   and following up on decisions taken by the Board
3. Ensure sound governance and due diligence is in place at all times
4. Take the lead in producing and publicising the board’s strategic plan and annual report, and
   monitoring and reviewing the effectiveness, implementation and impact of the plan
5. Where individuals meet the criteria, instigate SARs, ensuring that current guidance and
   processes are followed and that all learning is appropriately shared
6. Promote collaborative work, shared learning and a culture where the chair and partners are
   supported and enabled to hold others to account
7. Provide advice, support and encouragement to Board members and other colleagues
8. Work with any conflicts or concerns within the Board, supporting members to reach a
   positive resolution
9. Contribute to developing a culture where the prevention of abuse and neglect is paramount,
   including sharing learning from SARs within the local area, regionally and nationally (where
   appropriate)
10. Ensure that the work of the board and the outcomes from SARs inform wider training plans
    and learning and development priorities
11. Develop and maintain constructive links and effective communication with partners across
    the local area, promoting the safeguarding agenda and working together to develop best
    practice
12. Champion and promote the prevention of abuse and neglect to adults across all relevant
    agencies, contributing to the broader safeguarding preventative agenda
13. Promote equality, diversity and inclusion through the work of the Board
14. Act as a spokesperson for the Board with other agencies and the media as appropriate
15. Hold regular meetings to update the local authority chief executive and the director of adult
    social services about the board’s activities
16. Support the Board to become increasingly citizen-led, ensuring that the voices of people
    who need care and support and their families, are heard and acted upon within the board’s
    work.
17. Ensure that all partners to the board provide assurance, are accountable and challenge
    partners if required.
18. Ensure that the principles of ‘Talk to me, Hear my voice’ are embedded in all relevant
    policies, procedures, actions and plans of the board
19. Promote co-production approaches within Board workstreams and across the partnership
20. Act as the link between the Board and all relevant local, regional or national groups,
    ensuring that learning and development is shared
21. Ensure that the Board has clear policies, processes and appropriate protocols in place to
    support information sharing and that they are monitored
22. Maintain links with the National Safeguarding Adults Board Network
23. Keep themselves and the Board up to date with good practice and act upon developments in
    national policy or initiatives, case law and research.

The Independent Chair should have an understanding of:

a. Local contextual awareness of Leeds and safeguarding

b. Legal frameworks and statutory duties

c. Understanding of abuse and neglect, risk management and safeguarding

d. Management and organisational theory and practice

e. Research methods, quality assurance, planning and evaluation

f. Learning and development

g. Organisational management skills

h. Interpersonal skills

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Board members represent their organisations and must be of sufficient seniority to do so. They need to be a role and position that enables them to ensure effective safeguarding arrangements within their organisations and across partnerships.

If there is any possibility of conflict of interest, the Board constituent should declare their interests at the beginning of the Board meeting.

The main responsibility of Board Members is to support and enable the board to achieve its
objectives and duties, as set out in the Care Act 2014 and the Care and Support Statutory Guidance 2020. In seeking to achieve this, Board Members are expected to:

1. Maintain consistent and regular engagement and attendance on behalf of your own agency
   to maximise progress
2. Take collective ownership and responsibility for Board decisions
3. Take ownership and responsibility for setting and achieving citywide Board ambitions and
   objectives
4. Promote the work and ambitions of the Board within its organisation and network
5. Share responsibility for the effectiveness of Board arrangements
6. Provide collective oversight of the Board's work streams
7. Represent their organisation, taking decisions on its behalf
8. Act as a champion for safeguarding within your organisation, promoting safeguarding across
   service areas
9. Act as a champion for safeguarding on behalf of the Board, promoting safeguarding across
   wider citywide strategies, initiatives and networks
10. Advise the Board of strategic citywide safeguarding developments relating to their service
    areas; enabling the Board to influence city approaches.
11. Speak up for adults with care and support needs in Leeds, who are experiencing or at risk of
    abuse, neglect and self-neglect.
12. Promote equality, diversity and inclusion through the work of the Board
13. Provide assurances of the effectiveness of one's own organisations safeguarding
    arrangements
14. Work collaboratively across organisations, networks and wider systems to promote and
    develop effective safeguarding arrangements for the city.
15. Making collective decisions about the undertaking of Safeguarding Adults Reviews.
16. Take responsibility for ensuring that learning from Safeguarding Adults Reviews is shared
    amongst relevant practitioners and services within your organisation
17. Work within the LSAB Information Sharing Policy, in relation to safeguarding practice and
    Safeguarding Adults Reviews
18. Ensure your organisation promotes awareness of safeguarding as appropriate to your
    services
19. Ensure learning and development programmes within your organisation support and reflect
    the work of the Board.
20. Work to ensure that all staff/volunteers within your organisation receive safeguarding
    awareness training at a minimum.
21. Provide leadership, support and constructive challenge in relation to the work of the Board
    and its members, so as to achieve the Board's objectives.
22. Ensure the Board's Annual Plan and Annual Report is shared each year with your own
    Executive Boards, to support alignment of objectives and ensure awareness of the agency
    contributions and commitments
23. Ensure appropriate agency support and resources are provided to support the Board's work
    streams

This list of expectations and responsibilities were developed by and agreed with Board Members,
April 2021.

The Care and Support Statutory Guidance7, sets out the knowledge and skills expected by Board
members to fulfil the role. Board members should:

a. have a thorough understanding of abuse and neglect and its impact

b. be knowledgeable about the local area and population

c. understand the pressures facing front line practitioners

d. be experienced in the work of their organisation

e. able to explain their organisation’s priorities

f. able to promote the aims of the Safeguarding Adults Board

g. able to commit their organisation to agreed actions

h. able to present issues clearly in writing and in person

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