Requirement to have safeguarding adults board to be mandatory, says minister
All local authorities will be required to have a Safeguarding Adults Board as part of a drive to strengthen the laws protecting vulnerable people, the Care Services Minister has confirmed.
The announcement by Paul Burstow comes a week after the Law Commission recommended that such boards be put on a statutory footing, with councils given the lead role in establishing and maintaining them.
The Department of Health said that while adult safeguarding boards already exist in each local authority, they are not mandatory and their effectiveness was variable.
Making the boards mandatory would send “a strong signal” about their importance and the need to work in partnership with collective accountability to local communities, it added. However, the DH said boards’ freedom to operate in locally flexible ways would be maintained.
The Department has also published new guiding principles on safeguarding, which set out the government’s policy objective of preventing and reducing the risk of harm to vulnerable people.
The statement of government policy calls on local authority social services and housing, health, the police and other agencies to use six principles to underpin and benchmark their arrangements:
- Empowerment – supporting people to make decisions and have a say in their care
- Protection – support and representation for those in greatest need
- Prevention – it is better to take action before harm occurs
- Proportionality – safeguarding must be built on proportionality and a consideration of people’s human rights
- Partnership – local solutions through services working with their communities, and
- Accountability – safeguarding practice and arrangements should be accountable and transparent.
The statement also describes in broad terms the desired outcomes for adult safeguarding, for both individuals and agencies.
It is intended to build on No Secrets, which will remain as statutory guidance until at least 2013.
Paul Burstow said: "I am determined that we strengthen the law to protect the most vulnerable people in our society. By making Safeguarding Adults Boards mandatory, we aim to make them more effective and ensure those at risk of harm or exploitation will be safer.
“I want to see local agencies use the six principles as a basis to develop and test their own actions to ensure that vulnerable people receive the protection they need regardless of where they live."
The statement of government policy on adult safeguarding canb e downloaded here.
Philip Hoult
