Swindon Safeguarding Partnership

Swindon Local Safeguarding Adults Board

Further details about adults safeguarding is also available on the Safeguarding Adults webpage.

The Care Act 2014 has placed adult safeguarding on a statutory footing and requires Local Safeguarding Adults’ Boards (LSAB) to be in place. Swindon already had a Board so the legislation has strengthened the partnership work already in existence and now has the authority to hold agencies to account. The primary purpose of the Board is to protect adults in need of care and support from abuse or neglect or the risk of it.

Safeguarding duties apply to:

• an adult who has needs for care and support, whether or not the authority is meeting any of those needs
• an adult who is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect, and as a result of those needs is unable to protect himself or herself against the abuse or neglect or the risk of it 

The role of the LSAB includes:

• Co-ordinating and ensuring the effectiveness of work undertaken by local individuals and organisations in relation to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of adults. The Board is not accountable for their operational work as each Board partner has their own existing lines of accountability for safeguarding. The Board does not have the power to direct other organisations so must work to identify and challenge areas of concern.
  Ensuring that policies and procedures are in place and are working
• Ensuring that where abuse or neglect is suspected (or where an adult in need of care support is at risk of abuse or neglect), local authorities make (or cause to be made) whatever enquiries it thinks necessary to enable it to decide whether any action should be taken in the adult’s case if so, what and by whom (section 42). The Board must be satisfied that enquiries take place in a proportionate way
• Ensuring that arrangements are in place to carry out Safeguarding Adult Reviews when, for example, an adult in need for care and support dies in its area, and “there is reasonable cause for concern about how the LSAB, members of it or other persons with relevant functions worked together to safeguard the adult”