Foreword
I am very pleased to welcome you to the Annual Report for Leeds Safeguarding Adults Board.
This is an important time of the year for Safeguarding Adult Boards who have a legal duty to produce an Annual Report and a Strategic Plan for the year ahead. I would encourage anyone who reads one, to also read the other. Together they help set out the journey that the Board is on. Our achievements to date sit best within the context of our direction and our ambitions. Rarely is anything ever complete and finished, and rightly so. What we do each year just provides the basis on which to build higher during the year ahead. I look forward to the Annual Report however for two main reasons:
Firstly, it is opportunity to pause, to reflect and to take stock of our achievements. This year I feel we have started to really ‘own’ our collective responsibility to ensure the effectiveness of our partnership work. This is most evident within our developing approaches to quality assurance and how we are embedding learning from Safeguarding Adults Review processes, but as always, this journey will become increasingly prominent over time and features heavily within our plans for 2024/25.
Secondly, it affords me with an opportunity to thank everyone for their work to help and protect adults in Leeds. This I can say often, and I do, to members of the Board. Through their commitment and that of their colleagues the Board continues to take important strides forward. Less often do I get a chance to thank all those committed individuals who go the extra mile each and every week to support the Board’s various workstreams – these are often the people who ‘make it happen’.
It is with regret however, that I rarely get the opportunity to thank in person frontline workers across the city for all they do to support individuals in Leeds to be safe and to feel safe, but I hope that many get the chance to read this and know that I mean them. It is important we recognise that it is only with the support of our frontline teams, services and practitioners that we achieve our ambitions of Leeds being a Safe Place for Everyone.
As a Board we regularly hear about how fortunate we are to have the frontline practitioners and services that we do. Sometimes this praise flows from the work of the Exceptional Risk Forum (ERF) and their recognition of individuals and teams exploring every opportunity in difficult circumstances, to help and minimise the risk to people they support. On other occasions this has comes from our multi-agency audit work that have come across some simply amazing examples of practice. More recently, I heard this feedback from the Social Care Institute of Excellence (SCIE) who have been working closely with us to enhance our multi-agency working approaches. Their first comments to me, and the Board following workshops they have been holding on our behalf, was how very impressed they were by the practitioners they met and how committed and enthusiastic practitioners were to helping and protecting people in Leeds.
In practice we can only move forward together, and so I owe a huge thank you to you all regardless of your role, as together we are making a difference.
Richard Jones CBE, LSAB Independent Chair
Leeds Safeguarding Adults Board is an independent statutory body with a strategic responsibility to work with its members and partners to protect and support adults with care and support needs from abuse, neglect and self-neglect in Leeds.
The Board’s vision is for Leeds to be: A safe place for everyone
To achieve this, the Board and its members work together to:
- Prevent harm and reduce the risk of abuse or neglect to adults with care and support needs
- Stop abuse or neglect wherever possible
- Address what has caused the abuse or neglect
- Safeguard adults in a way that supports them in making choices and having control about how they want to live
- Promote an approach that concentrates on improving life for the adults concerned
- Raise public awareness so that communities as a whole, alongside professionals, play their part in preventing, identifying and responding to abuse and neglect
- Provide information and support in accessible ways to help people understand the different types of abuse, how to stay safe and what to do to raise a concern about the safety or well-being of an adult
Care and Support Statutory Guidance, Section 14.11 Aims of Safeguarding
Safeguarding Adults Boards are established under the Care Act 2014 with a role that is distinct from its member organisations. Whilst member organisations provide safeguarding services and will support individuals in need of help and protection, the Board itself works strategically across its membership and with wider organisations to ensure there are safe arrangements in the city.
This role is 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”.
The Board’s coordination role includes:
- Provision of multi-agency safeguarding adults, policy and procedures so as to ensure are working together effectively and with the person at risk
- Quality assurance processes around multi-agency working
- Identifying and sharing citywide learning,
- Promoting awareness of safeguarding amongst the communities of Leeds
- Learning from lived experiences
- Learning from best practice as well as situations where it could have been better
The Board’s role also involves gaining assurances from its members about effective arrangements being in place, this may involve:
- Multi-agency and single agency audits
- Assurances about learning from reviews
- Assurances about embedding board priorities and learning
Care Act 2014; Section 43 (3)
A wide range of organisations are represented on the Safeguarding Adults Board in Leeds. This includes senior representatives from:
- Leeds City Council: Adults & Health
- West Yorkshire Police
- West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
- Leeds and York Partnership NHS Trust
- Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust
- Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust
- HMPPS: Probation Service
- West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service
- Leeds City Council: Housing
- Advonet, representing the third sector
The Board appointed Richard Jones CBE to be its Independent Chair, whose role involves providing leadership, challenge and support to the Board in achieving its ambitions.
The Board’s work is focused around four key ambitions that capture our areas of development.
- Developing citizen-led approaches to safeguarding
- Improve awareness of safeguarding across all communities and partner organisations
- Develop city-wide approaches to safeguarding practice
- Learn from experience to improve how we work
Each are explained in the following sections:
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.
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 organsiations 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:
- Delivery of awareness sessions with regards to the Mental Capacity Act IMCA advocacy awareness training
- Production of information for carers
- A widespread programme of training with regards to the development of MCA knowledge in practice.
- A learning and development framework has been developed to enable managers to identify levels of training needed for different staff roles.
- A community Deprivation of Liberty Safeguard (DOLs) oversight tool has been developed
- Guidance has been created to support practitioners to use the MCA in practice.
- MCA toolkits have been updated in line with changes in case law.
- 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.
Safeguarding Adults Reviews are held to ‘promote effective learning and improvement action to prevent future deaths or serious harm occurring again’. The criteria for a Safeguarding Adults Review is set out in Section 44 of the Care Act 2014, and in summary these are held when:
- an adult at risk of abuse dies as a result of abuse, neglect or self-neglect or
- has experienced serious neglect or abuse, and
- there is concern about how organisations worked together to protect them.
This year:
- We have concluded one Safeguarding Adults Review
- We have established new processes, such that even if we do not assess the legal criteria for a Safeguarding Adults Review to be met, we will nonetheless consider seeking individual agency assurances around practice learning.
- We have produced an Annual Analysis of our SAR learning
- Checked back on our actions from some previous reviews
Safeguarding Adults Boards have specific legal obligations to report learning from Safeguarding Adult Reviews within their annual reports. The headings 1-4 below are reporting requirements set out in Schedule 2 of the Care Act 2014:
- We must tell you the findings of any Safeguarding Adults Reviews which have concluded during 2023/24
There was only one concluded review within this period. Ms I is a young woman with a learning disability who had been subjected to a serious sexual assault by a care worker in a position of trust. Ms I did not have the mental capacity to consent or the ability to alert others to what had happened and so this abuse only became apparent when she was found to be pregnant. The care worker was subsequently convicted and imprisoned for their offence.
During the Safeguarding Adults Review scoping exercise it was identified that that there had been previous concerns raised about the care worker. The decision to undertake a Safeguarding Adults Review was based upon the need to understand if there were opportunities to improve how we work together to prevent such incidents occurring in the future.
The report will be published in full on the Leeds Safeguarding Adults Board website and so the detail of the report are not repeated here.
2. We must tell you what has been done during that year to implement the findings of reviews
The review identified opportunities to strengthen working together arrangements between the Police and Social Work Services in relation to information sharing. As a result a new inter-agency information sharing protocol has been developed and implemented, and an action plan around ensuring it remains embedded in practice is due to be considered by the Safeguarding Adults Board in the next reporting period. Initial feedback from both organisations is that this is valuable development that is supporting practice.
The review also identified learning in relation to how both the Police and Social Work Services engaged with the family at a time of great crisis, and how this could have been managed more carefully and sensitively. Again, learning has been taken forward within both organisations, with the family providing some direct inputs into training to help professionals understand how this could have been managed differently from their perspective. This is just a summary, the full report will be accessible on the Board’s website.
3. We must tell you about Safeguarding Adults Review that are ongoing at the end of that year
On this occasions however, there are no ongoing Safeguarding Adults Reviews being undertaken by Leeds at the time of this report.
4. We must tell you about decision to not take forward a Safeguarding Adults Review recommendation, and the reasons for this.
The final action plan from the Ms I review will not be considered by Board until after this reporting period. As the principle actions have already been taken it is not envisaged that any recommendations around embedding these changes will not will not be agreed. If this were the case, it would be reported in next year’s annual report.
Checking back on our learning on reviews from previous periods, included the Thematic learning review of the experiences of people living a street-based life in Leeds, that was completed in 2020. Coinciding with the 5-year anniversary of the Leeds Street Support Partnership the Board (September 2023) sought an update and assurance around system developments achieved during the intervening period. It was noted that it is now the ambition was that:
- Anybody rough sleeping or at risk, is identified and is offered helped (Prevention)
- Nobody in temporary accommodation returns to the streets (Intervention)
- Everybody receives an appropriate offer of support (Recovery)
System and practice developments during this period are much too extensive to capture within this report, but for example these include the Leeds Rough Sleeping Delivery Plan and the Leeds Homeless and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2023-2028. The development of new multi-agency practice forums (the Multi-agency Solutions Panel (MASP) and Exceptional Risk Forum (ERF)), as well as investment in a new Safeguarding & Risk Manager posts that has been influential in supporting services and achieving improved outcomes for individuals.
This year:
- We have undertaken a Quality & Impact Self-assessment. This asks all member organisations how they have taken forward Board learning, resources and its ambitions during the previous 12 months. An Annual Conversation event will be held later in the year focusing on a key element of the self-assessment so as to both share and develop best practice.
- We have produced an Annual Quality Assurance Dashboard – inclusive of all member agency data / intelligence to inform our work and priorities, and identifies areas to be addressed within the Quality & Impact Self-assessment.
- We have undertaken a multi-agency audit programme on the theme of self-neglect, which identified some areas of outstanding practice that was fed back to relevant teams and services.
- We have undertaken a practitioner survey about practice knowledge and use of Board resources
- We have agreed a new approach for the year ahead involving single and multi-agency audits, practitioner surveys, and an appreciative inquiry on the subject of Health & Care Settings. We have also agreed a revised data set to give a more in-depth picture of practice within the city.
Our Annual Report provides a snap shot of our progress in Leeds, our Strategic Plan provides details of how we intend to build upon these in the year ahead. This summary highlights some key objectives, but a fuller summary will be available on our website.
Developing citizen-led approaches to safeguarding
• We aim to find new ways to understand people’s experiences of being supported within our multi-agency safeguarding adults policy and procedures.
• We aim to introduce a new approach to including citizen voices within the work of the Board.
Improve awareness of safeguarding across all communities and partner organisations
- We aim to publish a new website with sections for the public and practitioners
- We aim to provide a toolkit for faith communities, and
- We aim to pilot a community first approach that seeks to learn from ethincally diverse communities as to how organisations can provide accessible services.
Develop citywide approaches to safeguarding
• We aim to learn from practitioners as how the system can better support multi-agency working in Leeds.
• We aim to link our work on self-neglect with that of related strategic bodies so as to develop a true citywide approach of support.
Learn from experience to improve how we work
• We aim to introduce a new coordinated approach to multi-agency and single agency audits
• We aim to enhance our assurances processes around Safeguarding Adults Reviews.
The Care Act 2014 requires Safeguarding Adults Boards to outline what each member has done during that year to implement the strategy that was set out at the beginning of the year. The Board has a range of workstreams that are taken forward via Sub-groups, Task & Finish Groups and Champion Roles. This summary indicates the commitment and involvement of member organisations in realising the Board’s strategy (with the support of wider partners).
Quality Assurance & Performance Sub-group
This sub-group is responsible for developing the Board’s quality assurance and performance processes, as well as the Board’s policy and procedures. It meets monthly. Its core membership is listed below, but wider members may take part within specific meetings.
- Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (Sub-group Chair)
- Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust
- Leeds & York Partnership Foundation NHS Trust
- Leeds City Council: Housing
- Adults & Health: Commissioning
- Adults & Health: Social Work Services
- West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
- LSAB Strategy Unit
Safeguarding Adults Review Sub-group
This sub-group oversees all Safeguarding Adults Review (SAR) processes on behalf of the Board. This will include the seeking of assurances of both change and learning in situations where an SAR was not deemed to be required.
- Independent Chair (Sub-group Chair)
- The Chair of the Quality Assurance & Performance Sub-group
- The Board’s Learning & Development Champion
- Adults & Health
- West Yorkshire Police
- NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
- Advonet
- Leeds City Council: Legal Services
- LSAB Strategy Unit
Learning & Development Champion and Links
The NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board have held a lead role in relation to the Board’s Learning & Development for periods of this year. The champion position is vacant at the time of this report. Task & Finish Group are established from the Learning & Development Links across member/partner organisations. These links are outlined below:
- Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
- Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust
- Leeds & York Partnership Foundation NHS Trust
- Leeds City Council: Housing
- Adults & Health: Commissioning
- Adults & Health
- NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
- Voluntary Action Leeds
- Leeds Probation
- Department of Work & Pensions
- Advonet
Leeds Self-neglect Strategy Group
The Leeds Self-neglect Strategy Group have both developed the strategy and are working to promote and embed this within Leeds. Membership comprises:
- Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (Group Chair)
- Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust
- Leeds & York Partnership Foundation NHS Trust
- Leeds City Council: Housing
- West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service
- Adults & Health: Commissioning
- Adults & Health
- NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
- Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership
- Safer Stronger Communities
- LSAB Strategy Unit
Exceptional Risk Forum (ERF)
The Exceptional Risk Forum was developed to support practitioners when working with people living within situations of exceptional risk. It is established by the Board but the advice given is that of its member organisations. Core membership includes the following, with additional representation included where relevant to a particular case discussion:
- Adults & Health (Forum Chair)
- Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
- Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust
- Leeds & York Partnership Foundation NHS Trust
- Leeds City Council: Housing
- Forward Leeds
- NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
Multi-agency working Steering Group
This steering group has been working to understand how to improve multi-agency working in Leeds. It involves sector leads as well as SCIE as an independent partner with expertise. It comprises:
- Independent Chair (Steering Group Chair)
- Social Care Institute of Excellence (SCIE)
- Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
- Leeds City Council: Housing
- NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
- Adults & Health: Social Work Services
- St Anne’s Community Services
- Forward Leeds
- Leeds & York Partnership Foundation Trust
- Voluntary Action Leeds (VAL)
- LSAB Strategy Unit
Safeguarding within ethnically diverse communities
This working group is seeking to develop a community first model of working with communities, to find accessible ways for people to be able and feel able to access safeguarding services. Membership currently includes:
- LSAB Independent Chair (Working group Chair)
- Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership
- Safer Stronger Communities
- Voluntary Action Leeds
- LSAB Strategy Unit
Friends of the Board
The Friends of the Board are a network of supportive services/organisations that are willing to provide us with advice, support and to help us promote awareness of safeguarding adults. They meet with the Independent Chair and the Board’s Engagement Officer at least annually each year.
• Leeds Jewish Welfare Board
• Leeds Irish Health & Homes
• Leeds Sikh Elders
• Touchstone
• Leeds Hearing & Sight loss service
• Leeds Mind
• Barca Leeds
• Holbeck Together
• Richmond Hill Elderly Action
• Angels of Freedom
• LCC Mental Health Hubs
• Carers Leeds
• Women’s Health Matters
• Hamara Centre
• Swarthmore Centre
• Health & Wellbeing Hub
• OPAL
• Belle Isle Tenant Management Organisation
• Citizen Rep
• Burmantofts Community Friends
• Armley Helping Hands
• AVSED
• Fix your future
• Basis
• Association of Blind Asians
• LCC Employee Disability Network
• LCC Employee LGBT Network
• LCC Race Equality Staff Network
LSAB Multi-agency working event
This Board listening event in February 2024 focused on learning from practitioner workshops facilitated by SCIE and the views and contributions of member organisations and wider services. Find our Member organisations here. Wider attendees/contributors included:
- St Annes Community Services
- Forward Leeds
- Gipsil
- 54 North Homes
- Anchor Housing
- Touchstone
- Basis Yorkshire
- Voluntary Action Leeds
- Anchor Housing
- Leeds Federated Housing Association
- Housing21
Use of the Leeds Citizen-led multi-agency safeguarding adults policy and procedures during 2023/24
Whilst it is the Safeguarding Adults Board that produces the multi-agency safeguarding policy and procedures, it is the local authority who then lead and coordinate the work of partners to help and protect an individual from abuse, neglect and self-neglect. This responsibility is given to them under Section 42 of the Care Act 2014. The following information provides a brief overview of their work, with partners, to safeguard people in Leeds:
Safeguarding Concern raised:
There were 13,213 safeguarding concerns raised with the local authority over the last 12 months. This is a small decrease of 313 from 2022/23. Prior to this the number of safeguarding concerns raised had been increasing year on year, and so this will need to be monitored to see if a new pattern is emerging.
Safeguarding Enquiries:
When a safeguarding concern is received, the local authority will need to decide whether to undertake a safeguarding enquiry. This decision will be made based upon the legal criteria set out within Section 42 of the Care Act 2014. Although the number of safeguarding concerns raised with the local authority decreased slightly, the number of safeguarding enquiries that needed to be undertaken increased to 4110 during 2023/24. This is 849 more than in the previous year.
On occasions when a safeguarding enquiry was not required, other forms of support, advice, information or other services will have often been provided dependent upon the nature of the risks, the specific concerns and the person's particular needs.
The nature of the concerns:
During 2023/24 safeguarding enquiries concerned the following types of possible abuse.
- Neglect and acts of omission: 34.7%
- Physical abuse: 26.3%
- Financial or material abuse: 11.3%
- Psychological abuse: 10.2%
- Self-neglect: 7.1%
- Domestic abuse: 3.7%
- Sexual abuse: 4%
- Organisational abuse: 1.8%
- Sexual exploitation: 0.6%
- Discriminatory abuse: 0.2%
- Modern slavery: 0.2%
This pattern of safeguarding concerns is consistent with recent years. It is important to note that a safeguarding enquiry may involve a person at risk of more than one type of abuse.
The support needs of people at risk:
Safeguarding works to help adults with care and support needs who are unable to protect themselves without support. The type of social services being provided to the adult at risk at the time of the incident/concerns is outlined below:
- Physical Support: 19.1%
- Sensory Support: 0.13%
- Support with Memory & Cognition: 11.4%
- Learning Disability Support: 11.7%
- Mental Health Support: 9.9%
- Social Support: 1.8%
- No support reason: 43.6%
These figures relate to a person’s primary support reason and as such it is important to note that a person may have more than one form of support need. ‘No support reason’ means that the individual was not receiving, nor did they need, any social services support at the time of the safeguarding incident.
The ethnic diversity of people at risk:
During 2023/24 the ethnicity of those supported was:
- White: 84.9%
- Mixed / Multiple: 1%
- Asian / Asian British: 2.9%
- Black / African / Caribbean / Black British: 2.8%
- Other ethnic group: 0.6%
- Undeclared/unknown: 7.8%
According to census records for 2021, 79% of the Leeds population are White and so this group may be slightly over-represented within safeguarding enquiries. Conversely some minority ethnic communities under-represented. For these reasons the Board is currently undertaking a project to work with diverse communities to make support more accessible (See Ambition 2).
Location of safeguarding concerns
Safeguarding concerns may arise within very different situations and circumstances. Whilst most commonly these concerns arise within people’s own homes (41.7%) a significant proportion occur within health and care settings as illustrated below:
- Own Home: 41.7%
- In the community (excluding community services): 3.5%
- In a community service: 2.5%
- Care Home – Nursing: 6.7%
- Care Home – Residential: 32.4%
- Hospital - Acute : 6.9%
- Hospital - Mental Health: 2.3%
- Hospital – Community: 1%
- Other: 3%
For these reasons the Board is taking forward a quality assurance focus for 2024/25 with regard to safeguarding enquiries within health and care settings.
Outcomes of safeguarding enquiries
Support provided within the multi-agency policy and procedures should always be with recognition of the person's desired outcomes and with the objective of reducing risk to that person's safety and well-being.
- Desired outcomes:
During 2023/24 these desired outcomes were Fully or Partially achieved in 94% of occasions, this is the same as in 2022/23. It should be noted however that it is not always possible to achieve someone's desired outcomes, these can sometimes be unachievable, or actions may be required for the safety of others contrary to the person's wishes.
- Risk reduced or removed:
During 2023/24 the risk experienced by the person was reduced or removed in 89% of safeguarding enquiries, this is a slight increase from 87% in the previous year. Sometimes people may choose to live with risk or it may remain with strategies in place, and so it is again necessary to look at individual cases to understand why a risk may remain.
This and subsequent data relate to concluded Safeguarding Enquiries during 2023/24