Action and discussion points
ONGOING:
- Action – Network: Collect examples of referrals and the feedback received (or lack thereof)
- Action – Network: Contact Heena.Butt@southwark.gov.uk with suggestions for information that would be useful to see on the Council’s safeguarding dashboard
- Action – Network: If interested in the training available as part of the Council’s suicide prevention project, please contact Layla.Glover@southwark.gov.uk and Paul.Hudson@southwark.gov.uk
- Action – Network: contact Community Southwark if you have done any work on planning for emergency situations (especially around safeguarding for volunteers), or have any ideas to share
- Action – Community Southwark: Keep item on the agenda for future meetings about planning for emergency situations and safeguarding for volunteers
- Action – Network: contact social prescribing teams for more information about training and guidance on social prescribing (North Southwark: Qhs.socialprescribing@nhs.net; South Southwark: Ihl.socialprescribers@nhs.net)
- Action – Network: check new adult safeguarding website and feedback
- Action – Network: to follow up urgent referrals with phone calls to make sure situation is addressed.
IN PROGRESS:
- Action – Community Southwark: contact London Communities Emergencies Partnership (LCEP) partners such as the Faiths Forum for further discussions on guidance and support around extremism
- Action – Community Southwark: create survey to find out which My Learning Source courses are most helpful / needed by VCS
- Action – Community Southwark: Look into creating safeguarding peer support group. Also to consider how could we better capture data on the impact of this network (e.g. could there be more training, could these network meetings happen in person to offer more opportunities for peer support)
- Action – Ross: Following up with the Chair of the council’s SSAB Board on Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers’ concerns about the treatment of some of their participants (Ross has been raising it since May, they’ve responded yesterday saying it will be any day)
- Action – Community Southwark: to follow up and request access to draft referral forms for VCS feedback
- Action – Tracy: to follow up with OPPD contact team manager (Ashley Cambridge) to see what can be done on urgent issues
- Action – Community Southwark: to support Patricia with her health and safety policies
- Action – Ahlam: to send through free basic safeguarding training suggestions and links for others to use
COMPLETED:
- Action – Community Southwark: Put Intro to Social Prescribing on agenda for next meeting, to help organisations understand process and make links
- Action – Diana: to send referral form they use to Tracy, to check it’s the correct one
- Action – Diana and network: Diana to circulate new safeguarding policies, network to feed back
- Action – Ross: to follow up on introduction to FULA, and to chat with Patricia about how Age UK manage similar issues.
NOT STARTED YET
- Action – Community Southwark: get someone to speak about free suicide prevention training for future meeting (resources here)
Network matters
- Adult safeguarding updates (Ross)
- There’s meant to be a Quality and Effectiveness sub-group meeting this week and other meeting coming up soon but no agenda or papers have been circulated yet
- Last meeting he attended was looking at business plan and priorities, new way of dealing with complex cases who are on the threshold of safeguarding but fall just below
- The VCS is supposed to be invited to multidisciplinary team meetings but this hasn’t been happening, they know it’s useful to involve the VCS and the need for co-design but haven’t done this yet and there’s no further update
- [Example discussed earlier in the meeting about co-production on referral forms, Southwark Council are in the process of redrafting the adult safeguarding referral form – this conversation started in January 2024 and there was supposed to be involvement from COPSINS (Consortium of Older People’s Services in Southwark) but eventually they said it’s too late as they already put a lot of work into it but they will share the draft, this was meant to happen in June but hasn’t happened yet]
- Child safeguarding updates (Avi – Ahlam sent apologies)
- Southwark Safeguarding Childrens Partnership Quality and Effectiveness meeting on 22/08/24
- Safeguarding discharge protocol: this was due to be presented to the board for sign-off in July, and was on the agenda for discussion at the August meeting – document shared alongside the agenda for the August meeting
- Child Death Overview Panel annual report: key findings presented, highlighting trends and patterns of child deaths and learnings identified
- Serious Violence Duty presentation: slides shared, outlining legal duties for local authorities, the police, fire and rescue authorities, specified criminal justice agencies, and health authorities to work together on, the findings of the strategic needs assessment in Southwark, and next steps. The presentation specifies that this plan is not available to the public, it’s in the initial development stage
Special topic/presentation – HealthWatch Southwark presentation
Points clarified during Q&A:
- The Integrated Care Board (ICB) website has all the info about which boroughs are covered in South London
- In the case studies shared in the presentation, feedback was shared in the case of the first two, and in the third, CQC connect were able to investigate on HealthWatch’s behalf because of the safeguarding concerns
- HealthWatch Southwark has its own pathway to escalate safeguarding concerns and access the information kept
Special topic/presentation – Southwark Social Prescribing contacts presentation
Points clarified during Q&A:
- Peer support networks are quite organic at the moment, and having a point of connection and support has been beneficial, but the social prescribing teams are looking to formalise the networks in the future
- When social prescribing teams say that they can’t support people with high levels of mental health needs, it only applies to people with severe mental health under primary care services who receive a specialised approach – if someone deteriorates within the service, then they refer to the relevant services
- They do accept homeless people e.g. sofa surfing or no access to public funds, as long as they have a Southwark registered GP
- People under the age of 18 can be referred to other similar services with the consent of parent/guardian
- No system is 100% so there will be those who fall below the radar but the social prescribing teams try to be creative as much as possible – there is no one size fits all
- For people leaving prison, the first point of call is probationary services but the social prescribing teams get referrals from and liaise with agencies such as St Giles Trust where appropriate
- Waiting times in the south of the borough is 2-3 weeks (slightly longer for the housing specialist), and a maximum of 2 weeks in the north of the borough
Read the full minutes: Agenda and Minutes – 10 Sept 2024
Next meeting
- The next network meeting will be held on Tuesday 10th December, 10am-12pm. All are welcome, please register for your free place via our website.
- The agenda for the meeting will be shared nearer the time.