East Dunbartonshire is making good efforts to safeguard vulnerable adults, according to a new inspection report.
East Dunbartonshire was selected as one of six partnership areas to take part in a ground-breaking joint inspection of Adult Support and Protection (ASP) in Scotland in October last year. The Care Inspectorate, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland and Healthcare Improvement Scotland met with service users, carers, staff and managers, and read the records of adults who had received ASP services. They wanted to find out what we were doing to protect, support and keep safe adults at risk of harm. They also wanted to see how successful we were at doing this.
The report of the review has been published today (Tuesday 3 July). It contains an overview of adult support and protection activity in Scotland as well as a focussed evaluation of each partnership area’s activity in three specific themes. These were the outcomes achieved for adults at risk of harm, key processes and leadership and governance. East Dunbartonshire’s partnership was found to have important strengths in each of these three areas. There were also some areas for improvement.
Agnes Harvey, Independent Convenor of East Dunbartonshire Adult Protection Committee said:
“It is ten years since the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 came into being and this report shows the strides that local partners have made to work well together and keep adults safe in East Dunbartonshire. I am pleased to see that the inspectors found that adult support and protection actions have had a positive impact in every case they looked at, and think this is testament to the skill and dedication of staff in dealing with issues which could touch all of us at some point of our lives.
“As the report acknowledges, partners know we need to get better at gathering and reporting adults’ views on the outcomes of ASP intervention into their lives, but I am sure we will be able to achieve this thanks to the strong leadership and commitment to continuous improvement exercised by the Adult Protection Committee.
“The report comments on the more advanced nature of child protection practice in Scotland as a whole, and I hope that the Scottish Government will continue to invest in adult support and protection developments at national level to enable us to catch up with our child protection colleagues.”
Paolo Mazzoncini, Chief Social Work Officer, East Dunbartonshire Council said:
“I am delighted that East Dunbartonshire participated in the first inspection of this kind in Scotland, and I’m really encouraged by the Inspectors’ findings about the state of adult support and protection both in East Dunbartonshire and across the country.
“The Inspectors found that partners were respecting the views of adults and unpaid carers and took action when there was no appropriate alternative, which is in keeping with the founding principles of the Act. I am really pleased that the action we did take to keep people safe was effective in most cases, and importantly that this included both support to the individual to recover from what must have been a traumatic situation for them, and targeted intervention with the perpetrator.
“We recognise that we do need to support and protect young people in transition between children’s and adult services better. We will work with the Care Inspectorate to implement their recommendation that partners ensure social workers prepare well-balanced, valid chronologies to underpin effective identification and management of the risks faced by adults. We will continue to work with health colleagues, Police Scotland and other partners to make sure that adults at risk of harm are supported and protected.”
Chief Inspector Gerry Corrigan, Police Scotland said:
“The report reflects the close and productive working relationships between Police Scotland and other partners to keep vulnerable citizens safe in East Dunbartonshire, as well as the work done at a national level by Police Scotland to improve its response to adults at risk of harm through the introduction of the concern hubs.
“Preventing financial harm of vulnerable adults caused by bogus callers and other scammers is a major priority for East Dunbartonshire partners, including Trading Standards, and I am pleased that the efforts we have put in to foiling this kind of activity have been recognised in the report.”
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