Issue - meetings

To consider a report of the Head of Integrated Safeguarding.

The Committee considered a report of the Head of Integrated Safeguarding relating to the quarter 2 quarter performance report which covered key areas of adult safeguarding in Cheshire East and the measures and performance for effective recognition and intervention and eventual outcomes for the Borough’s population at risk of abuse or neglect. In addition the committee received a presentation on the nature and level of financial abuse within Cheshire East.

The report indicated that there had been fewer safeguarding referrals into the SMART teams in the first two quarters of this year compared to the same period last year.

In response to questions about whether information on referrals was gathered in such a way to enable for instance, particular spikes to be identified in specific geographical areas, Sandra Murphy explained that  the way that data was currently held enabled the Council to distil the referrals into geographical areas.

The committee noted that the statistics on performance related to the quarter 2 reporting period and that currently the  quarter 3 reporting cycle had already ended and questioned whether this would have an impact on the Red, Amber, Green(RAG) ratings in the report.

The committee was informed that the quarter 3 position was indicating that many of the matters had moved on and that the quarter 3 report would be update to reflect the latest RAG position and would subsequently reported to the committee.

Sandra Murphy then referred to the matter of financial abuse. She explained that last year there were 159 recoded incidents of financial abuse in Cheshire East but that only 7 were substantiated.

RESOLVED

(a)          That the report and presentation be noted;

(b)          That the quarter 3 report on Adult Safeguarding be submitted to the committee as soon as possible to reflect the latest RAG position;

(c)          That an item be included in the work programme to examine issues surrounding the cessation of the ‘Empower’ card;

(d)          That Sandra Murphy be requested to report back to a future meeting to provide more detailed information of the cases of financial abuse referred to in the presentation;

(e)          That Brenda Smith be requested to report back to the Committee at a future date to provide additional data on the number of adult safeguarding referrals made in Cheshire East.