‘Working in Partnership with No Secrets’ ‐ a whole system approach to consultation
| Pages | 33-39 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14668203200200005 |
| Date | 01 February 2002 |
| Published date | 01 February 2002 |
| Author | Shelagh Doonan |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Sociology |
The Journal of Adult Protection Volume 4 Issue 1 • February 2002 © Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) Limited 33
key words
abstract
Introduction and background
In common with other local authorities and their partner
agencies across the country, West Sussex has for some time
been addressing the complex challenges of developing adult
protection policy and procedures. The challenge lies in
developing policy and procedures that are both multi-agency
in content and arrived at through collaborative multi-agency
processes, so that the ‘product’ is agreed and owned by a
number of stakeholders. Beyond this, once the document is
developed, there starts a long journey of implementation, or
‘continuous implementation’ (Sheffield Adult Abuse Policy
Co-ordinator, 1996) across a number of agencies.
In the summer of 2000, we were in the process of
establishing both a multi-agency adult protection management
committee (MAMC), and a multi-agency policy sub-group.
The focus of early discussions in these groups included issues
of:
■engagement – which stakeholders? How can engagement
be maximised? Are members clearly mandated and
recognised ‘champions’ of adult protection in their own
organisations?
■roles and responsibilities – existing agreements and
unresolved or conflictual areas in relation to roles,
responsibilities and accountability of agencies in the overall
adult protection process
■timescales – some concern over the timescales imposed by
the No Secrets requirements, and the need to appoint a
dedicated worker to co-ordinate the development of the
multi-agency policy and procedures.
‘Working in Partnership
with
No Secrets’
– a whole
system approach to
consultation Shelagh Doonan
Joint Training and Development Officer, West
Sussex Joint Training Initiative
Practicepaper
multi-agency
policy and procedures
participation/consultation
whole systems event
In working to develop multi-
agency adult protection policy and
procedures in West Sussex, we were
looking for ways to increase
engagement and ownership across
agencies, agree roles and
responsibilities and consult in a
collaborative way on the draft policy
and procedures.A large-scale event
was organised with a ‘whole system
approach’, as distinct from a
traditional conference. Here we
describe the origins, purpose,
process and lessons from this
approach.
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