Here you will find all the articles, Toolkit items and Q&As relating to Safeguarding.
Scroll down to see the articles, supporting Toolkit documents and Q&As in this section. You will find the most recent ones listed at the top.
Articles
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Alleged abuse of residents in a London care home
Holly Bridden, RadcliffesLeBrasseur, talks about the potential consequences to care providers of a criminal investigation.
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Making Safeguarding Personal
Tim Dallinger talks about the Making Safeguarding Personal outcomes framework and how this can help care providers reflect on the outcomes of a safeguarding investigation.
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Safeguarding adults update
Martin Hodgson looks at two recent reports on safeguarding adults and the implications for social care providers.
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Free article: The CQC's role in safeguarding adults
Martin Hodgson looks at the CQC’s new guidance on safeguarding.
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Free article: Demystifying safeguarding: has the playing field levelled?
Jenny Wilde looks at changes to safeguarding adults under the Care Act 2014.
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Free article: A closer look at the duty of candour
Martin Hodson examines what the duty of candour means for adult social care providers.
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Safeguarding and the new inspection regime
Sheila Reynolds gives an overview of how the CQC will be looking at safeguarding under the new inspection regime.
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Free article: Falls
This article looks at how care providers can best protect their service users by minimising the risk of falls and putting suitable falls prevention strategies in place.
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Transforming care – the final report on Winterbourne View
Martin Hodgson highlights the key findings in the final report on Winterbourne View.
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Whistleblowing
Martin Hodgson looks at how social care organisations can protect whistleblowers and expose malpractice.
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Safeguarding vulnerable adults from financial abuse
How recognising some common indicators of financial abuse and implementing preventative measures may help you stamp out this shocking practice.
Toolkit
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Policy – Missing service users (care homes nursing homes)
To download the document, click on the link:
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Checklist – Safeguarding and safety (domiciliary care, care homes, hospitals and hospices)
To download the document click on the link:
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Checklist - Responsibilities for safeguarding and safety (all providers)
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Policy - Service user equal opportunities (care homes and nursing homes)
To download this document click on the link:
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Policy - Service user equal opportunities (domicilliary care)
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Form - Audit for compliance with fundamental standard Regulation 13: Safeguarding service users from abuse
To download this document click on the link:
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Form - Audit for compliance with fundamental standard Regulation 12: Safe care and treatment
To download this document click on the link:
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Spreadsheet - Safeguarding referrals analysis (all providers)
To download this document click on the link:
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Form - Safeguarding adults competency assessment action plan (all providers)
To download this toolkit, select 'read more' and click on the link:
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Form - Safeguarding adults competency assessment (all providers)
To download this toolkit, select 'read more' and click on the link:
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Factsheet - Safeguarding adults: multi-agency guidance
To download this toolkit, select 'read more' and click on the link:
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Policy - Safeguarding adults and preventing abuse
To download this toolkit, select 'read more' and click on the link:
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Checklist - Evidence checklist for safeguarding and safety
To download this toolkit, select 'read more' and click on the link:
Q&A
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Q. With the increasing use of digital records, how do we retain evidence that we have undertaken Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks on our staff?
A. The CQC guidance on DBS checks was last updated in October 2019. The guidance says that care providers do not need to retain original DBS certificates for the purposes of inspection. In fact, the CQC has an agreement that, for social care services, the top third of the DBS certificate can be retained for 12 months or until inspectors have seen it. Keeping this part of the certificate is evidence that a certificate has been obtained, and this must be destroyed after the CQC has seen it.
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Q. We recently had a case in our care home where a service user’s spouse wanted to remove them from the care home as they felt that they would be safer in the family home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our staff felt that the service user would be at risk if they went home. The service user’s spouse complained to the local authority and this resulted in a safeguarding referral being made about our care home. How could we have resolved this matter sooner?
A. This comes down to your initial assessment process. In this, you should have identified whether the service user had made a Lasting Power of Attorney for Health and Welfare. This would have set out who could make decisions of this type on behalf of the service user. If the service user had mental capacity at the time that their spouse wanted to take them home, then they should have been supported to make their own decision about this.
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Q. We have been told that our policy and procedure on prevention of abuse should now be called a safeguarding policy and procedure. Is this true, and why is this?
A. Referring to this area as ‘safeguarding’ will comply with legislation and best practice.