Executive Strategy Process
Introduction
Darlington Safeguarding Partnership (DSP) is the statutory body that sets the strategic direction for safeguarding and is responsible for protecting adults who are experiencing, or who are at risk of abuse or neglect living in Darlington. Everyone has a responsibility to take a ‘Think Family’ approach, which requires all agencies to consider the needs of the whole family from working with individual members of it, making sure that support provided by children, adults and family services is coordinated and takes account of how individual problems effect the whole family.
The Care Act 2014 created a new legal framework for Adult Safeguarding, this included a focus on concerns of Organisational Abuse. The Care and Support Statutory Guidance outlines that safeguarding is not a substitute for:
- providers’ responsibilities to provide safe and high quality care and support
- commissioners regularly assuring themselves of the safety and effectiveness of commissioned services
- the Care Quality Commission (CQC) ensuring that regulated providers comply with the fundamental standards of care or by taking enforcement action
- the core duties of the police to prevent and detect crime and protect life and property
The statutory guidance also states that one of the aims of safeguarding is to clarify how responses to safeguarding concerns derived from the poor quality and inadequacy of service provision, including patient safety in the health sector, should be responded to.
This procedure sets out the framework in Darlington for dealing with serious safeguarding concerns on a multi-agency basis whilst maintaining the focus on the adult(s) experiencing or, at risk of abuse or neglect.
This procedure was last reviewed and refreshed in August 2023.
ADASS Good Practice Guide
In addition to this procedure and process, a good practice guide been published (August 2024) by the North East Association of Directors for Adult Social Services (ADASS) which Darlington contributed to. The guide outlines the principles and support for local authorities as the lead agency for dealing with concerns relating to organisational abuse processes.
ADASS - Organisational Abuse Regional Toolkit [PDF Document]