Date of Request: 19/042016
Date of Disclosure: 17/05/2016
Request and Response
Please find Devon County Council’s response to each of your questions below.
- Section 42 (1) of the Care Act 2015 defines the circumstances under which a local authority must undertake an adult safeguarding enquiry.a) Has any guidance been issued by your local authority as to how to interpret eligibility under s42(1) for adult safeguarding intervention?
b) If such guidance has been issued, can you please supply a copy?
c) If adult safeguarding intervention is refused because the abuse victim is not eligible under section 42(1) has your local authority issued guidance on what response should alternatively be provided to such victims?
d) If such guidance has been issued, can you please supply a copy?
With regards to Q1 a-d please note that this information will be available to view online within the next couple of weeks (further revisions in process will be concluded and published by end of June 2016), in order to view this information please follow the publicly accessible link provided below; https://www.devon.gov.uk/devonsafeguardingadultsboard/
Because this information is due for future publication the Council is of the opinion that Section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 applies, namely subsection 1(a) ‘the information is held by the public authority with a view to its publication’ suggests that you visit the link provided at a future date to access this information.
The Council acknowledges that there is public interest in the Care Act at this point in time but is still minded that disclosure at this time is not in the public interest because, considering this information is shortly due to be published, it would cause duplication of work.
Inherent Jurisdiction of the High Court:
2. In the 12 months ending 31st December 2015 on how many occasions has your legal department applied to the High Court in relation to inherent jurisdiction in an adult safeguarding situation?
The Council can advise that the answer to this question is 0.
- If applications to the High Court have been made in relation to inherent jurisdiction, how many of these related to an inability to gain access to a person suspected of being abused?
Not applicable.
Commissioning practices:
4. When commissioning care services does your local authority have a policy to take account of the results of CQC inspections?
Yes
- a) by not commissioning places in care homes with inadequate ratings
Yes
- b) by not commissioning domiciliary care from services with inadequate ratings
Yes
- With regard to service users in places commissioned by the local authority where those services have inadequate ratings by CQC
- a) Does your local authority have any policy to provide extra monitoring or support or intervention for them?
We have a package of measures in place.
- b) If you have such a policy, can you please supply a copy?
Not applicable
- c) If you do not have such a policy, can you please advise as to what actions you take to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the service users affected.
This is tailored according to the issues presented by the provider. We work very closely with CQC so that we can act at the earliest opportunity. At the point that the CQC decision is made, we would usually have been engaged with the provider and service users (where appropriate) to take any necessary action or to assure ourselves that the provider is taking any action needed to ensure the well-being of service users. Interventions may range from information and advice, through to the active involvement our Quality Assurance and Improvement Team or Market Sector Lead to address improvement actions, to decisions of a contractual nature. Care management reviews are usually undertaken, together with action to ensure well-being of the service users – this depends on the nature of the inadequate rating and attendant risk assessments. Depending on the nature of the issues, Safeguarding may be involved. Oversight of the process is proportionate to risk but may include risk and progress reviews chaired by a senior manager.