New national adult safeguarding board will oversee “urgent review” of legal framework for safeguarding, Government announces

In a letter published this week (22 June), Secretary of State for Health and Social Care James Murray and Minister of State for Care Stephen Kinnock wrote to the chair of the Independent Commission on Adult Social Care to update her on progress against the recommendations set out in her letter on 3 March and in her speech at the Nuffield Trust Summit on 5 March.

The ministers agreed that “decisive action” is needed to provide national oversight and scrutiny of adult safeguarding, helping to protect the most vulnerable from harm.

The letter stated: “In line with your recommendation, we have established a new national adult safeguarding board. The board is chaired by the Chief Social Worker, Sarah McClinton, reporting directly into Minister Kinnock, as the Minister of State for Care.”

According to the DHSC, the board will focus on the following initial priorities:

• “work is commencing immediately to update the Care Act statutory guidance on adult safeguarding to drive better implementation and practice across a wide range of issues, including homelessness, drugs and alcohol, and transitional safeguarding.
• the board will oversee an urgent review of the legal framework for safeguarding. This will:
  • identify any improvements needed to ensure that the legal framework is robust enough to respond to serious safeguarding risks;
  • examine the current mechanism for escalating local safeguarding concerns to national level;
  • identify what statutory powers the board might need to operate most effectively.
• the board will work to strengthen national oversight of local Safeguarding Adults Boards and improve the quality of adult safeguarding practice.”

In March this year, Baroness Casey warned that social care has never had its own “creation moment”, and highlighted the need for a national conversation and six “immediate actions” from Government.

This included asking the Government to scale up dementia trials, appoint a new ‘Dementia Tsar’, set up a new National Safeguarding Board to protect vulnerable adults, and to introduce a new fast-track, social care passport for people diagnosed with motor neurone disease.

Responding to the speech, the Department for Health and Social Care confirmed in correspondence that it would “take forward the recommendations”.

Lottie Winson