Safeguarding

Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust (LSCft) as with all other NHS bodies has a statutory duty to ensure that it makes arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people and to prevent and protect vulnerable adults from abuse or the risk of abuse.

The Trust provides health and wellbeing services for a population of around 1.8 million people.

Effective safeguarding practice is everyone’s responsibility regardless of role. It is integral to quality care and supports the implementation of the LSCft strategic plans. Our arrangements for safeguarding children and adults and incorporates full implementation of the Mental Capacity Act.

The Trust can demonstrate compliance with relevant CQC Fundamental Standards of Care and key lines of enquiry for safeguarding vulnerable service users. The Executive Management Team receives an annual report on all safeguarding activities. The Trust internal Safeguarding Committee has continued to meet on a bi-monthly basis and reports to the Trust’s Quality Committee in line with the Trust accountability framework.

LSCft has a nominated Director at Board Level (Executive Director of Nursing and Quality) with responsibility for Safeguarding; this is devolved to the Deputy Director of Nursing and Quality. 

Led by the Head of Safeguarding, the Trust has a dedicated expert Safeguarding Team who are highly knowledgeable, skilled and experienced in all aspects of safeguarding.

Safeguarding Training is mandatory within the Trust to ensure the principles of safeguarding are embedded in everyday business and care delivery. Staff should have an understanding of both their role and responsibilities, and those of other professionals and organisations. This is essential for effective multi-agency and inter-agency working. Training is delivered via a range of blended learning, with online and face-to-face training options.  LSCft has a robust system in place for monitoring and ensuring compliance which is reported to quarterly via our Governance arrangements.

The organisation recognises that to effectively safeguard children and adults, robust partnership arrangements with other statutory and voluntary bodies including the Lancashire and the South Cumbia Childrens Safeguarding Partnership (CSAP) arrangements and Local Safeguarding Adults Boards. This is essential to achieve positive outcomes for all children, adults and families at risk. The organisation is committed to a partnership approach in all safeguarding functions. LSCft ensures that there are appropriate policies, procedures, and training in place and access to expert advice to ensure that those at risk are identified and when appropriate a referral is made to children or adult’s social care.

LSCft has strong systems in place in order to safeguard children and adults. Safeguarding guidance and legislation is posted on the intranet and information regarding any local and national drivers is included in induction and safeguarding training.

LSCft is also required to undertake an annual audit of its safeguarding arrangements against the NHSE/I Safeguarding Assurance Framework. Returns are submitted to the CCG’s who validate and monitor any actions required.

LSCft offers managerial, clinical and safeguarding supervision in various forms and safeguarding issues can be addressed within those arrangements. Specific safeguarding advice and supervision is available upon request from the Safeguarding Team.

Safeguarding incidents within the Trust are reported on the Trust’s incident reporting system.

Safeguarding Children

The NHS has a key part to play in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. Individual children, especially some of the most vulnerable children and those at greatest risk of social exclusion, will need co-ordinated help from a range of organisations including health, education, children’s social care and the voluntary sector. Within LSCft, safeguarding responsibilities include service users who are under the age of 18, children who are carers or parents, or are the children of services users.

Section 11 of the Children Act 2004 places a duty on every NHS Trust to have arrangements in place to ensure that the organisation and all staff working within it have regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. LSCft regularly reviews its arrangements against these requirements and declares compliance with its statutory responsibilities,

The arrangements that LSCft has in place reflect the importance of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, outlined in Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018.

Safeguarding Adults

The Care Act 2014 came into effect on the 1st April 2015, putting Adult Safeguarding on a statutory footing in line with Children’s Safeguarding. The Act introduced a person-centred approach which achieves the outcomes that people want and puts the adult’s wishes and desired outcomes at the centre of safeguarding enquiries. It supports making safeguarding a personalised (MSP) experience, aiming to achieve the outcomes identified by adults at risk of harm or abuse.

LSCft has integrated the Local Safeguarding Adults Board (LSAB) priorities and plans in determining its own strategic plans to protect adults from abuse and neglect with the networks, also incorporating plans into their business, reporting progress to LSCft Safeguarding Committee.  

The LSCft Safeguarding Team and localities continue to actively contribute to Section 42 safeguarding enquiries across designated Local Authority areas in line with the requirements of the Care Act (2014) by providing relevant information, a clinical perspective and wider contribution to assessment, care planning, risk management and mitigation strategies.

Following the publication of the Adults Intercollegiate document LSCft Safeguarding team have reviewed the Safeguarding and Mental Capacity Act training model to ensure that training is better targeted to staff according to role, knowledge and competency requirements commensurate with individual’s occupational role and responsibility: 

The principles of Making Safeguarding Personal are integrated into LSCft quality plans and vision, robust risk management arrangements are in place and the patient’s voice is captured and acted upon by our Experience Team. 

Safer Employment

The Trust meets the statutory requirements with regard to safer recruitment processes and managing allegations procedures are in place Safeguarding responsibilities are clarified within job descriptions. The Trust ensures appropriate referrals are made to DBS if the Trust has dismissed or removed a person from working with children or adults at risk because the person has behaved in a way which may have caused harm.

LSCft has a clear process for ensuring that anyone working with children/adults has had a DBS check as appropriate before they start work. Recruitment and selection training is available for appointing staff and Trust policy requires that references are checked before an offer of employment is made. LSCFT has a nominated lead for dealing with allegations relating to children and adults. They work closely with the Local Area Designated Officer (LADO) and other agency Persons in Position of Trust (PiPOT Leads if concerns arise).

As an NHS organisation, Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust (LSCFft) does not engage in profit-making activities which could trigger the reporting requirement within the Modern Slavery Act 2015. In recognition of the importance of eliminating modern slavery, the Board of Directors have prepared a voluntary statement in response to the Act.

LSCft is committed to maintaining and improving systems, processes and policies to avoid complicity in human rights violation.

We realise that slavery and human trafficking can occur in many forms, such as forced labour, domestic servitude, sex trafficking and workplace abuse.

The Trust is fully aware of the responsibilities it bears towards patients, employees and the local community and as such, we have a strict set of values that we use as guidance with regard to our activities. We therefore would expect that all suppliers to the Trust adhere to the same principles.

The Trust already exercises due diligence and checks on suppliers in line with both our internal Standing Financial Instructions and in compliance with the Public Contract Regulations and it is a mandatory criteria of selection and indeed exclusion if any supplier is not compliant with the reporting requirements of the Act. Indeed, as the Trust primary supplier of goods and consumables, NHS Supply Chain already uses a Supplier Code of Conduct with every supplier who is approved to sell its products via the NHS catalogue.

The Trust’s Procurement Procedures and the NHS standard terms and conditions of contract take into account the Act.