To serve and protect - new responsibilities for providers under the Care Act

Social landlords that have care arms will be exceedingly familiar with issues of adult safeguarding - the obligation to protect vulnerable adults from abuse and harm.

The Care Act 2014 and its related statutory guidance will overhaul the social care system to meet the mounting demands caused by an ageing population. It also aims to improve quality of care by bringing a range of social care regulation and guidance under one legislative framework.

In the aftermath of the Mid Staffordshire and Winterbourne View scandals, the act is being used as an opportunity to bring in more robust safeguarding duties, which will have a range of potential consequences for social landlords and housing support providers.

Everyone’s business
‘Safeguarding is everyone’s business’ is the take-home message from the safeguarding clause, which replaces the 2000 Department of Health ‘No Secrets’ statutory guidance on protecting vulnerable adults. It aims to address the barriers to effective partnership working and end a culture of buck-passing that has been flagged up as a factor in many recent abuse and neglect investigations.

The implications for the way social housing providers operate could be vast and wide ranging. Their take-up and success will determine whether the act is likely to achieve its aims of protecting vulnerable adults. Whether or not it brings greater power, it certainly brings great responsibility.

From next April there will be several new duties for landlords. For the first time local authorities will have a statutory duty to make enquiries, or ensure others do so, if they believe an adult is experiencing or is at risk of abuse or neglect.

They must also co-operate with each of their relevant partners, including housing, and those partners must co-operate with the local authority, to protect adults in their care. It will also be compulsory for every council to have a safeguarding adults board.

Historically, these multi-agency boards have struggled to obtain sufficient resources from councils, with support from other agencies, and to engage all the key agencies. The act establishes their core structure and responsibilities.

‘Previously safeguarding and the protection of vulnerable adults has been policy-led, underpinned by legislation, but with no substantive legal framework in place,’ explains Eve Piffaretti, a partner at law firm Blake Morgan and specialist in safeguarding.

‘The Care Act 2014 places safeguarding adults boards, safeguarding adult reviews and local authority duties to make enquiries on a statutory footing with the aim of providing greater clarity to all, including the housing sector.’

Serious problem
The draft statutory guidance, published in June and out for consultation until mid-August, has been broadly welcomed by the housing sector and safeguarding experts, who have long argued that housing has been shut out of decision-making when it comes to making a real difference in adult safeguarding. Research by adult safeguarding consultant Imogen Parry into the role of housing providers in serious case reviews concluded that the lack of regulatory incentives for landlords to engage in safeguarding contributed to endemic under-reporting of abuse and neglect by housing workers.

Ms Parry sees the Care Act as providing ‘a huge step forward’ in terms of involving the entire housing sector in safeguarding, whereas ‘No Secrets’ only applied to sheltered and supported housing providers.

Her study showed that 30% of publicly available adult serious case reviews concern social housing tenants, of whom half lived in general needs accommodation and half in specialist housing.

‘There are lots of vulnerable people in general needs housing who are at risk of neglect and abuse,’ she explains.

The act provides a really good opportunity for housing to become an explicit partner in adult safeguarding

Domini Gunn, director of health and well-being at the Chartered Institute of Housing

The beefed-up duties put adult safeguarding on a parallel with children’s safeguarding, says Domini Gunn, director of health and well-being at the Chartered Institute of Housing.

‘With some minor amendments, the act provides a really good opportunity for housing to become an explicit partner in adult safeguarding,’ she says. ‘It names housing as a key source of information and states that it should be involved where appropriate to do so.’

Current involvement of housing in safeguarding ‘really depends on local partnerships and perceptions as to who is a relevant partner,’ she adds.

Not far enough
There is disappointment, however, that the government rejected concerted lobbying by Ms Parry, the National Housing Federation and the Chartered Institute for Housing for the inclusion of housing as a statutory safeguarding adults board member.

Despite written assurances that it expects the board to draw on the housing sector for input, collaboration and advice, Ms Gunn says further clarity is needed.

‘There is some concern around local interpretation,’ she says.

Housing representatives do sit on the boards in some areas. Jake Eliot, policy leader for the National Housing Federation, says the act provides the impetus to better understand how housing fits with a safeguarding adults board and to develop more effective approaches.

The statutory guidance also states that housing and housing support providers will need to ensure that they have clear operational policies and procedures in adult safeguarding, and that all staff are trained in recognising the symptoms of abuse and are able to respond to adult safeguarding concerns.

One positive step forward is the growing body of good practice that is being collated and shared through the Housing and Safeguarding Adults Alliance - a network that was launched in May and brings together representatives from housing organisations including Peabody, Sutton Housing Partnership and Together Housing. It is co-chaired by Ms Parry.

Ms Piffaretti warns that, without adequate staff training, proper scrutiny, and review of policy and procedure, many social landlords could fall short. She explains that the trend in social housing providers getting involved in a range of care services and other highly regulated activities has led to their increasing involvement in safeguarding investigations.

In the worst cases staff have either had no training or can be ‘pretty poor’ at putting safeguarding training into practice.

‘Social housing providers often have detailed procedures and policies in place but all too often staff implementation is not properly reviewed, monitored or enforced,’ she says.

The housing associations Inside Housing spoke to felt to some degree this was fair comment.

Part of the job
Sue Lewis, group head of supported housing at 35,000-home Together Housing Group, says: ‘There is a lot of good practice in the sector. Associations such as Together Housing are trying to improve safeguarding. But I think it’s fair to say that the housing sector overall has a way to go. We all need to try harder and stop this culture of passing the buck. The Care Act is helping us to understand its seriousness.’

Stuart Fort, operations director at 2,200-home Axiom Housing Association and home care subsidiary Axiom Crossroads Care, says: ‘There has been a tendency for the social housing sector to see safeguarding as more of a care or policing issue.

‘This will help to raise recognition that it is part of their job,’ he adds.

If a housing provider delivers care and support then safeguarding will be on the agenda, Mr Fort believes.

‘You already have the Care Quality Commission statutory guidelines. But, if you are in the general housing sector, safeguarding is likely to be lower down the chain in terms of policies and procedures.’ Mr Fort, who sits on the Peterborough safeguarding adults board and is the supported safeguarding officer across Axiom, says that having clear procedures and putting all staff through safeguarding training means they can be ‘the eyes and ears’ for those most vulnerable to abuse and neglect.

‘Recently, one of our extra care scheme staff raised an alert after talking with a resident about what she was having for dinner and learned that the daughter looked after the money.’

It was found that the resident had insufficient food in her house, which led the care home staff to intervene.

‘They were alert to the potential for financial or emotional abuse in this situation,’ says Mr Fort.

Inevitably, such organisational changes have an impact on resources, but Ms Lewis believes the main investments required are more in time and effort.

‘It doesn’t need vast amounts of money but it needs a commitment from the top,’ she asserts.

Paul Griffiths, care and support standards manager at 64,000-home Circle Housing, agrees.

‘It’s really important to have high-level leadership. At Circle we have an executive director who is a senior safeguarding champion,’ he says.

‘This really empowers managers and staff to take forward awareness in the rest of the team. We have also got safeguarding leads at a local level.’

Circle recently held its first safeguarding awareness week, which included workshops on vulnerability issues such as dementia and domestic violence, and practical sessions on how to raise a safeguarding referral.

Prevention cure
The safeguarding clause is as much about prevention of abuse as it is about clamping down on perpetrators. It represents an opportunity for the housing sector to play to its strengths in community working.

‘As housing associations, one of our real strengths is working in communities and having a good relationship with tenants,’ says Ms Lewis. ‘What we can do more of is raising awareness of safeguarding among the community, which ties in with housing’s wider role in supporting well-being.’

The final statutory guidance is expected in the autumn, but many in the housing sector are positive of the role housing professionals can play.

‘It is an opportunity to gain recognition by statutory agencies of housing associations’ wider role in prevention,’ Mr Griffiths adds. ‘It will help us to have a more meaningful role in the community.’