“Since 2022 the Partnership made steady progress improving key processes.” -JOINT INSPECTION OF ADULT SUPPORT AND PROTECTION 2024
Along with our partners in Police Scotland, City of Edinburgh Council and NHS Lothian, we are making significant progress on improvements to support adults at risk of harm and keep people safe according to a new joint report by regulators.
This review follows a joint inspection in 2022 that identified areas in need of improvement. The review focussed on the seven priority areas for improvement identified in the initial inspection, with our progress marked below:
| Priority areas for improvement from Phase 1 in November 2022 | Progress review findings in October 2024 |
|---|---|
| 1. The partnership should improve the quality of chronologies and risk assessments for adults at risk of harm. All adults at risk of harm who require a chronology and a risk assessment should have one. | Some progress made |
| 2. The partnership should carry out prompt adult protection investigations for all adults at risk who require them. | Significant progress made |
| 3. 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. | Significant progress made |
| 4. Social work services faced the challenge of 30 social worker vacancies in adult services. This impacted adversely on adult support and protection operations, self-evaluation, and quality assurance activity. Social work leaders should work to increase the service’s capacity to carry out adult support and protection work promptly, effectively and efficiently. | Significant progress made |
| 5. The partnership’s strategic leaders should ensure there is consistent, competent, effective adult support and protection practice that keeps adults at risk of harm safe and delivers improvements to their health and wellbeing. | Significant progress made |
| 6. 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. | Some progress made |
| 7. The adult protection committee should ensure it has direct representation from adults at risk of harm and their unpaid carers. Thus, it would benefit from their lived experience of adult support and protection. | Minimal progress made |
Pat Togher Chief Officer of the Edinburgh Integration Joint Partnership said,
“We have managed to achieve progress in almost all areas through an improvement plan and the hard work of staff working in an extremely challenging financial climate.”
Adult support and protection is everyone’s business and we value the role that our staff play in protecting some of Edinburgh’s most vulnerable people from harm and keeping them safe. This review is just part of an ongoing process, and we will continue to work to improve our ways of working as I know there is a lot more to do.”
The joint inspection review by the Care Inspectorate, Health Improvement Scotland and HMICS follows an inspection in 2022 which found that the Partnership had to improve its Adult Support and Protection Practices. Since that time and improvement plan was put into place and new direction was provided by new hires at a senior level to oversee the change and improve standards.
Examples of the what the inspection found are summarised:
- “Refreshed duty to inquire templates were implemented quickly post-inspection. These templates were now commonly used in practice and supported improved council officer practice in most areas where weak practice previously existed.”
- “While clear improvement was needed with the consistency and quality of chronologies, steady progress was evident across the other key priority areas for improvement. The partnership had supported this with refreshed tools and templates, staff briefings and a commitment to address capacity issues. New posts and approaches were created to strengthen case conference activity and well-structured operational audits oversaw the quality of frontline social work practice”
- “Since 2022, the health and social care partnership had considerably strengthened the senior social work leadership team and the adult protection committee. Key posts, including that of principal social worker, were added to the structure. These made a significant impact to adult support and protection leadership and governance within a relatively short timeframe.”
You can read a copy of the report on the Care Inspectorate Website.