Adult safeguarding boards in North West England: the power of positive linking

Published date15 August 2011
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/14668201111177914
Pages203-212
Date15 August 2011
AuthorMargaret Flynn,Shirley Williams
Subject MatterHealth & social care,Sociology
Adult safeguarding boards in North West
England: the power of positive linking
Margaret Flynn and Shirley Williams
Abstract
Purpose – Adult Safeguarding Boards are the means by which local authorities in England and Wales
seek to work collaboratively to protect adults at risk of abuse. The last two years have heralded the
emergence of the role of Independent Chairs. This paper seeks to outline the experience of Adult
Safeguarding Boards from around North West England.
Design/methodology/approach – A general review of the seven Independent Chairs and 15 employed
chairs (typically Directors of Adult Social Services) in North West England endorsed the importance of
having a virtual network to work on a shared portfolio of interests.
Findings – The review highlighted concerns regarding the independence of Independent Chairs, the
challenges to partnership working created by the turnover of managers, the governance of Adult
safeguarding Boards, and their performance and practice.
Originality/value – The paper confirms that diversity is the dominant characteristic of Adult
Safeguarding Boards in North West England.
Keywords Independent Chairs, Governance, Regional network, Partnership, Inter-agency practices,
Outcomes
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
This work originated in a series of discussions between the authors as the Independent
Chairs of Adult Safeguarding Boards, the Deputy Directorof Adult Social Care, Department of
Health (2009), NW, the Programme Manager of the NW Joint Improvement Partnership and
the Strategic Director,Health and Communities, Halton Borough Council. These discussions
resulted in a NW JIP specification of work for tender, as agreed with the Strategic Director
Health and Communities as the Association of Directors of Social Services (ADASS)
safeguarding lead.
Against a backdrop of uncertainty in adult safeguarding, not least as the outcome of the
Department of Health’s (2008) adult safeguarding consultation was unknown, we shared an
interest in nurturing essential alliances for TransformingAdult Social Care and saw the merits
of developing a network of Independent Chairs of Adult Safeguarding Boards within the
Region. We promptly extended this to embrace all Chairs as the group shares a common
purpose. The emergence of Independent Chairs is fairly new, even though there is no
compelling practice or research case for their creation (ADASS, 2005; Commission for Social
Care Inspection (CSCI, 2008); Reid et al., 2009; Julien and Penhale et al., 2009). However,
adult safeguarding tiptoes uncertainly in the footprints of children’s safeguarding
(Lord Laming, 2009), albeit within a different legal landscape (Brammer, 2009). Once our
work began, the relationship between Adult Safeguarding Boards and Children’s
Safeguarding Boards was flagged as a subject requiring particular exploration.
DOI 10.1108/14668201111177914 VOL. 13 NO. 4 2011, pp. 203-212, QEmerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1466-8203
j
THE JOURNAL OF ADULT PROTECTION
j
PAGE 203
Margaret Flynn is the
Independent Chair of
Lancashire County
Council’s Adult
Safeguarding Board,
Preston, UK and is also
based at CPEA Ltd,
Liverpool, UK.
Shirley Williams is the
Independent Chair of
Blackburn with Darwen’s
Adult Safeguarding Board,
Blackburn, UK and is also
a Director at Social Care
Can Do Associates,
Stockport, UK.
The authors extend warm
thanks to the NW Joint
Improvement Partnership for
funding this work and to
Dwayne Johnson and Sue
Ramprogus for their
encouragement, guidance, and
comments on an earlier draft of
this briefing. They also give
thanks to Mike Banks and
Carole Shaw of Lancashire and
Blackburn with Darwen,
respectively,for sharing the role
of respondents where they are
chairs.
The title is from a 1989 G. Allan
Roeher Institute publication
(York University,Toronto,
Canada) about empowering the
family caregivers of people with
learning disabilities through
mutual support.

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