NISB Work Plan 2018-19
The National Board’s 2018-19 work plans has a strong sense of continuity with its previous work programme – which gave significance to the Social Services and Well-being Act 2014 and to the best understanding of the National Board’s members. This work plan has faith in hopeful ideas and fresh approaches. It has a long-term perspective and gives emphasis to the importance of ways of communicating to better serve the twin goals of
- preventing children and adults from becoming at risk of abuse. neglect and harm and
- protecting children and adults who are at risk of abuse, neglect or other kinds of harm.
There are many people deeply engaged in the common efforts of prevention and protection from harm and the National Board envisages that its work plan will complement their work.
NISB’s Work Plan for 2018/19 contains four themes:
- Safeguarding Basics
- Listening and Engaging
- Safeguarding Learning
- Safeguarding Outliers
Margaret Flynn, Keith Towler, Simon Burch, Ruth Henke, Jan Pickles, Rachel Shaw
| A. Safeguarding Basics | ||
| Themes and rationales | Scope and methods | Outcomes |
| 1. Developing On our doorstep learning - a resource of significant Welsh cases and inquiries Practitioners involved in safeguarding children and adults may be overwhelmed by the task of learning from criminal trials and inquiries. The National Board is keen that the lessons of significant Welsh cases are known. | The National Board has identified the key cases and inquiries which received a lot of media coverage. These include judges’ summing up at criminal trials and the media coverage It will consider how such a resource might be sustained and developed in the future. | A National Board resource of significant Welsh cases and inquiries which addresses the question: if these individuals were to embark on their criminal careers now, what would be different? |
| 2. Getting a grip on the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 Attendance at Regional Safeguarding Boards and the collation of their annual reports has revealed the necessity of complementing the safeguarding information which features on Social Care Wales’ website to enhance “legal safeguarding literacy”. | The NISB has commissioned a “pocket guide” to the Social Services and Well-being Act 2014 and associated legislation. | A basic practitioners’ guide setting out statutory safeguarding duties under Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014. |
| 3. Providing support and advice to safeguarding boards This is one of the principal duties of the National Board. | Five members of the National Board attend and participate in the meetings of the Regional Safeguarding Boards. This ensures grounding in Regional Boards’ experience and familiarity with their work programmes Board members’ are contributing to the development of safeguarding standards in social care and nursing The National Board meets every month and Board members’ work elsewhere in the UK plays an important part in its assessment of opportunities, constraints and distillation of lessons. | Examples of the support and advice provided are reflected in meetings with Ministers and Regional Board Chairs and in the National Board’s Annual Report. |
| 4. Reporting on the adequacy and effectiveness of arrangements to safeguard children and adults and making recommendations to Welsh Ministers as to how those arrangements could be improved These are two of the principal duties of the National Board. | Sharing experience of participation in Regional Board meetings is a valuable source of safeguarding intelligence. National Board members are attuned to the congruence between the Regional Boards’ plans and work programmes and between expectations and performance The National Board meets with the Minister on a quarterly basis. | Examples of effective safeguarding at the “micro” and “macro” levels are reflected in the National Board’s meetings with Regional Board Chairs, Annual Report and in its social media activities. |
| 5. Responding to queries/ issues, engaging with stakeholders. | The Board receives enquiries as a result of its work. The Board’s remit extends to providing advice and assistance. | The Annual Report will summarise this work. |
| B. Listening and Engaging | ||
| 6. Developing a national safeguarding awareness campaign One of the functions of the Safeguarding Boards is to “raise awareness throughout the Safeguarding Board area of the Board’s objectives and how these might be achieved.” Also, the National Board is required to “enhance its understanding of and extend its experience of safeguarding and protection in Wales”. | The National Board will invite Ministers, Welsh Government, the Regional Safeguarding Boards, housing providers, third sector organisations, junior safeguarding forums, youth forums, self-help organisations, and carers’ groups to identify, share and reinforce positive safeguarding messages The National Board is running a Pass it on: Safeguarding Message each month for onward dissemination The National Board’s website will post emergent awareness raising themes within and across Regional Board Areas On at least four occasions during 2018-19, the national and local press will be invited to highlight scenarios that have involved the general public and which resulted in life-saving outcomes. These will give coverage to what the public might do if they believe individuals may be at risk. | Local, regional and national discussions about being protected, feeling safe and staying safe Networks of interested individuals and organisations reflecting on locally and nationally reported events The form and content of local, regional and national news reporting that is supportive of safeguarding initiatives and interventions. |
| 7. Inspiring Voices Listening to people is foundational to communication and to being and feeling safe. The Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 takes into account the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UN Principles for Older Persons and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – all of which emphasise the importance of people’s voices being heard. | The National Board promotes interacting with people over time - rather than occasionally extracting information from them. The National Board will promote real examples of effective and imaginative practice in listening and building trust acting on what is heard developing two way, jargon-free communication involving advocacy engaging with families The National Board will consider the direct and indirect impacts of “inspiring voices”. | “Ends” and “means” examples which start from (i) the experiences of individuals in being heard and in speaking out and (ii) the topics which snag media interest. The examples will go beyond sharing information. |
| 8. Sponsoring safeguarding awards The purpose is to recognise, reward and give national coverage to valued practice in Wales, that is, the work of individuals, teams and organisations which have fresh ideas about delivering services. | The Board has sponsored two awards (i) Effective approaches to safeguarding at the Social Care Wales’ Accolades and (ii) recognise excellence in nursing practice re safeguarding at the Royal College of Nursing The Board will explore the sponsorship of awards with other professional bodies and seek other sponsors for the RCN Wales awards after 2018. | These awards will raise the profile of heart-lifting safeguarding successes along with celebrating the individuals associated with them. |
| 9. Leader Events The Leadership Summit of 2017 confirmed that safeguarding leadership is distributed across individuals and organisations at all levels. | Ministers and other leaders such as the Chief Executive NHS Wales, the Future Generations Commissioner, the Older People's Commissioner, the Police and Crime Commissioners, Children's Commissioner, the Auditor General, and the CEs of third sector and private sector organisations for example will be invited to contribute their ideas and analyses of safeguarding to Leader Events. | Meetings with the Chairs, members of Regional Boards and others for (i) frank discussions about the state of safeguarding in Wales (ii) assessments of the opportunities and constraints on Regional strategies for achieving better safeguarding and (iii) lever or develop greater effectiveness and efficiency in safeguarding practice. |
| C. Safeguarding Learning | ||
| 10. Abstracting themes from Child Practice Reviews CPRs (and APRs) are available for limited periods on the Regional Boards’ websites. This makes it difficult to ‘read across’ them and abstract learning which is relevant to safeguarding practice. | The National Board will commission an overview of Child Practice Reviews since April 2016. This will complement the thematic review of Wales’ Adult Practice Reviews, Domestic Homicide and Mental Health Homicide Reviews. Once the themes and learning have been agreed, the Regional Safeguarding Boards will be invited to try out different ways of disseminating the learning A social media campaign (see 6. above) will complement the regional dissemination activities. | All Child/ Adult Practice Reviews published since April 2016 will be published on the NISB’s website Other, alternative repositories will be identified The commonly occurring themes set out with regard to settings and implications of relevance to safeguarding practitioners, other professionals and the public Ideas about promising ways of learning from reviews which embed ideas for improvements. |
| 11. Contributing to safeguarding events Achieving principled change is political. The National Board knows how important it is to construct coalitions and networks of leaders – which include people who use services. There is merit in contributing to documented planned events, the learning from which is disseminated Hosting a Summit about measuring the impact of safeguarding Assessing the effectiveness of safeguarding is a complicated task. Referrals to safeguarding from particular sources and what happens to referrals are familiar but very limited measures – what do they mean? | The National Board will work with the Welsh Government, the Regional Boards and others to explore areas of interest with a view to reflecting regional safeguarding area interests, for example, preparing annual reports; the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards; and the use of restraint and seclusion (see 13..below) The National Board’s summit ‘Making Safeguarding Count’ considered the information sources which may allow the Regional Safeguarding Boards and the National Board to report on the adequacy and effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements It invited Regional Boards to test, modify and develop emergent ideas. | Events planned and delivered with the Regional Boards Briefings from the events disseminated. The National Board’s continuing work with the Chairs’ of Regional Boards and Welsh Government officials to agree a set of data that will better articulate safeguarding effectiveness. |
| 12. Exploring with Cardiff University, other Welsh Universities, Nesta (Y Lab – Public Services Innovation Lab for Wales) and Safelives, potential innovations in safeguarding practice and “intelligence”. | The National Board will nurture “coalitions for safeguarding progress.” These will involve partnerships, innovations - potentially commissioning “machine learning” - that is, using computer systems that can learn from and make data-driven decisions by looking at patterns and trends. | Promising ideas for safeguarding processes and interventions to be circulated to the Regional Boards. |
| D. Safeguarding Outliers | ||
| 13. Questioning restraint and seclusion in care Having discussed the risks associated with use of restraint and seclusion in care and in secure settings for children and adults with Welsh Government, the National Board will identify partners with an interest in reducing these practices. | The National Board will invite Healthcare Inspectorate Wales and the Equality and Human Rights Commission to share their learning. The EHRC is developing a framework on human rights and restraint which will apply in a range of settings. It is envisaged that the framework will become the legal benchmark for regulating the use of restraint in England and Wales The National Board will seek to collaborate with the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s process; and identify data concerning the use of restraint and seclusion in Wales’ service provision Engage with people who have been subject to restraint and seclusion in Wales’ services. | An account of what is known about the use of these practices in Wales and how they are experienced; also how the use of the methods may be limited. |