Safeguarding Children,

Young People and Adults

at Risk in the NHS:
Safeguarding
Accountability and
Assurance Framework

NHS England and NHS Improvement

Safeguarding Children, Young People and Adults at Risk in the NHS:
Safeguarding Accountability and Assurance Framework

Updated: August 2019

First published: March 2013

Publishing Approval Reference: 000392

2
Contents
1 Foreword ............................................................................................................ 5
2 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 6
Purpose of the document ........................................................................... 6
Scope ........................................................................................................ 7
3 Legislation and mandatory reporting .................................................................. 7
Safeguarding – the context ........................................................................ 8
Disclosure and barring service .................................................................. 8
Fit and proper persons tests ...................................................................... 8
Duty of candour ......................................................................................... 9
Information sharing .................................................................................... 9
3.5.1 Information sharing specific to safeguarding children ................... 9
3.5.2 Information sharing specific to young people .............................. 10
3.5.3 Child protection - information sharing (CP- IS)............................ 10
3.5.4 Information sharing specific to adults .......................................... 10
3.5.5 Female genital mutilation (FGM) ................................................. 10
3.5.6 Allegations against staff involving child abuse - Local Authority
Designated Officer ................................................................................... 10
3.5.7 Allegations against staff involving abuse or neglect - adults ....... 11
4 Roles and responsibilities ................................................................................ 11
NHS England ........................................................................................... 11
NHS Improvement ................................................................................... 11
Health and care providers ........................................................................ 11
4.3.1 Provider leadership ..................................................................... 11
Named professionals ............................................................................... 12
4.4.1 Mental Capacity Act Lead ........................................................... 13
CCGs and other place based system leadership ..................................... 13
Statutory reviews ..................................................................................... 15
4.6.1 Rapid reviews ............................................................................. 15
4.6.2 Child safeguarding practice review ............................................. 15
4.6.3 Child Death Review (CDR) ......................................................... 16
4.6.4 Learning Disability Mortality Review (LeDeR) programme .......... 16
4.6.5 Domestic Homicide Reviews ....................................................... 16
4.6.6 Safeguarding Adults Reviews ..................................................... 17
4.6.7 Other statutory reviews ............................................................... 17
Parallel investigations .............................................................................. 17
Designated professionals ........................................................................ 17
4.8.1 Designated professionals for children: ........................................ 18
4.8.2 Designated professionals for children in care: ............................ 18
4.8.3 Designated professional for safeguarding adults: ....................... 19
4.8.4 Designated MCA lead ................................................................. 19
4.8.5 Named GPs/named professionals .............................................. 19
5 Commissioning and assurance ........................................................................ 21
NHS England ........................................................................................... 21
5.1.1 NHS England system leadership ................................................ 21
5.1.2 NHS England support for safeguarding professionals ................ 21
NHS England - direct commissioning ...................................................... 22
5.2.1 Direct commissioning for young people transitioning into adults . 22

3
 NHS England assurance of CCGs ........................................................... 22
Local authority commissioning ................................................................. 23
6 Regulators and safeguarding partners ............................................................. 23
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) ....................................... 23
Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted)
24
6.2.1 Inspections of local authority children’s services (ILACS)
framework ................................................................................................ 24
6.2.2 Joint targeted area inspections (JTAIs) ....................................... 24
Public Health England (PHE) ................................................................... 24
Care Quality Commission (CQC) ............................................................. 24
6.4.1 Child safeguarding and looked after children inspection
programme .............................................................................................. 25
Professional regulatory bodies................................................................. 25
Quality surveillance groups ...................................................................... 25
Health Education England (HEE)............................................................. 26
Multi-agency safeguarding arrangements ................................................ 26
6.8.1 Safeguarding children partnerships ............................................ 26
6.8.2 Community Safety Partnerships .................................................. 27
6.8.3 Safeguarding Adult Boards (SAB) ............................................... 27
7 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 28
8 APPENDIX I ..................................................................................................... 29
How NHS England maintains oversight of safeguarding ......................... 29
The NHS National Safeguarding Steering Group (NSSG) ....................... 29
NHS England regions .............................................................................. 30
Safeguarding – annual assurance ........................................................... 30
9 APPENDIX II .................................................................................................... 31
National Network for Designated Healthcare Professionals (NNDHP) .... 31
10 APPENDIX III ................................................................................................... 32
Safeguarding Adults National Network (SANN) ....................................... 32

4
1 Foreword

Dear colleagues,

It gives me great pleasure to present the first joint NHS England and NHS Improvement
Safeguarding Accountability and Assurance Framework (SAAF). This framework
builds on its predecessor by strengthening the NHS commitment to promoting the
safety, protection and welfare of children, young people and adults.

This framework has been developed in partnership with other arm’s length and
professional bodies. It is intended to clarify the roles and responsibilities of those we
work with in a system that is developing rapidly. In addition, it provides the flexibility
needed at local level to support professional practice and the partnerships needed to
promote healthy behaviours to keep individuals and communities safe from harm.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have contributed to the
development of the revised SAAF and all who work with passion and professionalism
to safeguard the health and wellbeing of the most vulnerable and at risk.

Ruth May
Chief Nursing Officer, England

5
2 Introduction
This document replaces Safeguarding Vulnerable People in the Reformed NHS –
Accountability and Assurance Framework issued by the NHS Commissioning Board in
July 2015. This section gives an overview of the importance of this document, which
we now refer to as the Safeguarding Accountability and Assurance Framework
(SAAF).

Purpose of the document

The purpose of this document is to set out clearly the safeguarding roles and
responsibilities of all individuals working in providers of NHS funded care settings and
NHS commissioning organisations. This SAAF aims to:

• identify and clarify how relationships between health and other systems work at
both strategic and operational levels to safeguard children, young people and
adults at risk of abuse or neglect;
• clearly set out the legal framework for safeguarding children and adults as it
relates to the various NHS organisations, in order to support them in discharging
their statutory requirements to safeguard children and adults;
• outline principles, attitudes, expectations and ways of working that recognise
that safeguarding is everybody’s business and that the safety and well-being of
those in vulnerable circumstances are at the forefront of our business;
• identify clear arrangements and processes to be used to support practice and
provide assurance at all levels, including NHS England and NHS Improvement
Board, that safeguarding arrangements are in place.
• promote equality by ensuring that health inequalities are addressed and are at
the heart of NHS England’s values.

This framework aims to provide guidance and minimum standards but should not
be seen as constraining the development of effective local safeguarding practice
and arrangements in line with the underlying legal duties. The responsibilities for
safeguarding form part of the core functions for each organisation and must
therefore be discharged within agreed baseline funding.

Throughout the development of this document we have:

• Given due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment and
victimisation, to advance equality of opportunity, and to foster good relations
between people who share a relevant protected characteristic (as cited under
the Equality Act 2010) and those who do not share it.
• Given regard to the need to reduce inequalities between patients in access to
and the experience of and outcomes from healthcare services, and in securing
that services are provided in an integrated way where this might reduce health
inequalities.

6
 Scope
Effective safeguarding arrangements seek to prevent and protect individuals from
harm or abuse, regardless of their circumstances. In the UK, the foundations of
safeguarding legislation are held within the United Nations Convention on the Rights
of the Child for children, and for adults, the European Convention on Human Rights
and to that effect, must underpin core business. The arrangements set out within this
SAAF will apply whenever a child, young person or adult at risk, is at risk of abuse or
neglect, regardless of the source of that risk.

This framework has been structured to identify where there are core duties across the
lifespan of safeguarding and also to identify where there are unique functions specific
to children, young people transitioning into adults, children in care and adults.

This framework will be updated annually to reflect pending legislative reforms currently
in parliament.

3 Legislation and mandatory reporting

Responsibilities for safeguarding are enshrined in international and national legislation.
Safeguarding for both children and adults has transformed in recent years with the
introduction of new legislation, creating duties and responsibilities which need to be
incorporated into the widening scope of NHS safeguarding practice. Regardless of the
developing context, all health organisations are required to adhere to the following
arrangements and legislation.

Legislation for all

The Crime and Disorder Act 1998
Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003
Mental Capacity Act 2005
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2006
Mental Health Act 2007
Children and Families Act 2014
Modern Slavery Act 2015
Serious Crime Act 2015

Safeguarding legislation Safeguarding legislation Safeguarding legislation

specific to children specific to young specific to adults
people transitioning
into adults, including
children in care
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
1989

Children Act 1989 and 2004 The Care Act 2014

Promoting the Health of Looked After Children

Statutory Guidance 2015

Children and Social Work Act 2017 Care & Support Statutory
Guidance- Section 14
Safeguarding

7
 Working Together to Safeguard Children Statutory
Guidance 2018

Safeguarding Children Looked After Children: Adult Safeguarding: Roles

and Young People: Roles Knowledge, skills and and Competencies for
and Competencies for competences of health Health Care Staff 2018
Healthcare Staff 2019 care staff 2015

Safeguarding – the context

Safeguarding is firmly embedded within the core duties of all organisations across the
health system. However, there is a distinction between providers’ responsibilities to
provide safe and high-quality care, and commissioners’ responsibilities to assure
themselves of the safety and effectiveness of the services they have commissioned.

The context of safeguarding continues to change in line with societal risks both locally
and nationally, large scale inquiries and legislative reforms.

Fundamentally, it remains the responsibility of every NHS-funded organisation, and

each individual healthcare professional working in the NHS, to ensure that the
principles and duties of safeguarding children and adults are holistically, consistently
and conscientiously applied; the well-being of those children and adults is at the heart
of what we do.

Every NHS funded organisation needs to ensure that sufficient capacity is in place for
them to fulfil their statutory duties; they should regularly review their arrangements to
assure themselves that they are working effectively. Organisations need to co-operate
and work together within new demographic footprints to seek common solutions to the
changing context of safeguarding and developing structural landscape needed to
deliver the NHS Long Term Plan (LTP).

Disclosure and barring service

The statutory scheme for vetting people working with children, families and adults is
administered by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). This system provides
checks on people entering the workforce and maintains lists of individuals who are
barred from undertaking regulated activity with children and adults. It is however only
a snapshot of intelligence that is known at the time of the check. A satisfactory DBS
check does not guarantee that the employee does not pose a risk. Following the
Lampard Inquiry 2015 recommendations were made that all NHS trusts must
undertake DBS checks on their staff and volunteers.

Providers must refer to Schedule 3 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated
Activities) Regulations 2014 which stipulates what information is required for people
employed or appointed for the purpose of regulated activity.

Fit and proper persons tests

There are two ‘fit and proper’ persons tests that are separated within the Health and
Social Care Regulations:

Regulation 19 - Which outlines the requirements for the fit and proper persons test for
persons employed.

8
Regulation 5 - Which outlines the requirements for Directors to be fit and proper
persons.

Duty of candour
Safeguarding requires openness, advocacy, transparency and trust. The publication
of the Francis Inquiry report recommended that a statutory duty should be introduced
for healthcare providers to be open with people when things go wrong; this Duty is
regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The duty of candour is triggered by a ‘notifiable safety incident’, for any ‘unintended or
unexpected incident that has occurred in respect of all service users during the
provision of a regulated activity’. A safeguarding incident might be as a result of a
clinical procedure or practice that could have contributed to death, physical or
psychological harm.

Information sharing
Robust information-sharing is at the heart of safe and effective safeguarding practice.
Information sharing is covered by legislation, principally the General Data Protection
Act 2018 (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. The GDPR and the Data
Protection Act 2018 introduce new elements to the data protection regime,
superseding the Data Protection Act 1998. Practitioners must have due regard to the
relevant data protection principles which allow them to share personal information. The
GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 place greater significance on organisations being
transparent and accountable in relation to their use of data. All organisations handling
personal data need to have comprehensive and proportionate arrangements for
collecting, storing, and sharing information. The GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018
do not prevent, or limit, the sharing of information for the purposes of keeping children,
young people and adults safe.

Professionals should refer to specific advice from their professional body regarding
information sharing, for instance, the General Medical Council’s (GMC’s) Ethical
Guidance for Child Protection or section 5 of the NMC Code 2015. There is a
requirement for professionals to contribute, participate and share information for the
purpose of statutory reviews, please see Section 4.6 for more information.

Such guidelines are further supported by the Caldicott Principles, updated in 2017.
Principle Seven states that the duty to share information can be as important as the
duty to protect patient confidentially. It is crucial to understand that sharing information,
when there is a need to share it, and a lawful basis for doing so, and maintaining its
security and confidentiality, are compatible activities.

3.5.1 Information sharing specific to safeguarding children

Information must be shared to protect children, or to prevent or detect a crime. In
addition, there are some specific statutory provisions that will require information
sharing, for example relating to the operation of local safeguarding children’s
partnerships and relating to the statutory vetting and barring process for staff.

9
3.5.2 Information sharing specific to young people
A child may be safeguarded and protected under the Children Act 1989 until their 18th
birthday. However, medical consent, mental capacity, and consent to sexual activity,
are lawful from the age of 16. A Gillick Competency Assessment may be used to
determine a child’s capacity to consent to medical treatment or intervention before the
age of 16. The Assessment was designed to test whether a young person prior to their
16th birthday, had sufficient capacity, without parental intervention, to make decisions
regarding their own medical treatment. The Fraser Guidelines were developed
specifically in relation to consent for contraceptive or sexual health advice and
treatment. Child protection procedures should always be instigated however when
child exploitation is suspected, even if the child or young person is deemed competent.

3.5.3 Child protection - information sharing (CP- IS)

The Child Protection Information Sharing (CP-IS) programme is linking the IT systems
used across health and social care to securely share basic information via a child’s
NHS number for children and unborn children who are subject to Child Protection Plans
or Children in Care. It is endorsed by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and is
included in the key lines of enquiry during CQC inspections. It is also included in the
2019 NHS Standard Contract for providers of NHS unscheduled care. This programme
will be moving into its second phase in 2019 and will include NHS scheduled care
settings.

3.5.4 Information sharing specific to adults

Information should be shared to help protect an adult who may be subject to or
potentially at risk of harm or abuse, or to prevent or detect a crime. In addition, there
are some specific statutory provisions for sharing information in relation to the
operation of the local Safeguarding Adult Board (SAB).

3.5.5 Female genital mutilation (FGM)

Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 (as amended by the Serious Crime Act 2015)
stipulates the mandatory reporting of FGM. The legislation requires regulated health
and social care professionals and teachers in England and Wales to make a report to
the Police where, in the course of their professional duties, they either:
• are informed by a girl under 18 that an act of FGM has been carried out on her;
or
• observe physical signs which appear to show that an act of FGM has been
carried out on a girl under 18 and they have no reason to believe that the act
was necessary for the girl’s physical or mental health or for purposes connected
with labour or birth.

3.5.6 Allegations against staff involving child abuse - Local Authority

Designated Officer

Working Together to Safeguard Children stipulates that information must be shared

with the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) where it is considered that a

10
member of health staff poses a risk to children or might have committed a criminal
offence against one or more children.

3.5.7 Allegations against staff involving abuse or neglect - adults

It is a requirement of the Care Act 2014 that SABs should establish and agree a
framework and process for any organisation to respond to allegations against anyone
who works (in either a paid or an unpaid capacity) with adults with care and support
needs. These individuals are known as People in a Position of Trust (PiPoT). That
framework and process applies to all the SABs partner agencies including health, so
that the SAB responds appropriately to allegations. Where there is an allegation that a
member of staff in a CCG or primary care services has abused or neglected an adult
in their personal life, the designated professional for safeguarding adults in the CCG
should be informed.

4 Roles and responsibilities

Safeguarding children and adults at risk of abuse or neglect is a collective
responsibility. All employees are reminded of their professional duty of care as a
registrant regardless of which NHS contract is used to deploy the functions they work
too. This section provides greater clarity around the individual roles and responsibilities
within the system. These are summarised and mapped to the health commissioning
system in Appendix I.

NHS England
NHS England’s safeguarding role is discharged through the Chief Nursing Officer
(CNO), who has a national safeguarding leadership role. The CNO is the Lead Board
Executive Director for Safeguarding and has a number of forums through which
assurance and oversight is sought. The system wide National Safeguarding Steering
Group (NSSG) coordinates these forums and gains assurance on behalf of the CNO.
See Appendix I for more information.

NHS Improvement
NHS Improvement (NHSI) is responsible for overseeing foundation trusts and NHS
trusts, as well as directly commissioned independent providers that provide NHS-
funded care. Providers are supported to give patients consistently safe, high quality,
compassionate care within local health systems that are financially sustainable. By
holding providers to account and, where necessary, intervening, NHSI helps the NHS
to meet its short-term challenges and secure its future.

It is worth noting at the time of writing this SAAF, NHS England and NHS Improvement
were transitioning to come together to act as a single organisation.

Health and care providers

4.3.1 Provider leadership
Health providers are required under statute and regulation to have effective
arrangements in place to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and adults at
risk of harm and abuse in every service that they deliver. Providers must demonstrate
safeguarding is embedded at every level in their organisation with effective governance

11
processes evident. Providers must assure themselves, the regulators, and their
commissioners that safeguarding arrangements are robust and are working. These
arrangements include:

• Identification of a named nurse, named doctor and named midwife (if the
organisation provides maternity services) for safeguarding children.
Identification of a named nurse and named doctor for looked after children/
children in care. Identification of a named lead for adult safeguarding and an
MCA lead – this must include the statutory role for managing adult safeguarding
allegations against staff. In the case of ambulance trusts, this could be a named
professional from any relevant health professional background.
• Safe recruitment practices and arrangements for dealing with allegations
against staff.
• Provision of an Executive Lead for safeguarding children, adults at risk and
Prevent.
• An annual report for safeguarding children to be submitted to the trust board.
• A suite of safeguarding policies and procedures that support local multi-agency
safeguarding procedures.
• Effective training of all staff commensurate with their role and in accordance
with the Intercollegiate Document for Safeguarding Children, Intercollegiate
Documents for Looked after Children and the Intercollegiate Document for
Safeguarding Adults.
• Safeguarding must be included in induction programmes.
• Providing effective safeguarding supervision arrangements for staff,
commensurate to their role and function (including for named professionals).
• Developing an organisational culture where all staff are aware of their personal
responsibilities for safeguarding and information sharing.
• Developing and promoting a learning culture to ensure continuous
improvement.
• Policies, arrangements and records to ensure consent to care and treatment is
obtained in line with legislation and guidance such as the Mental Capacity Act
2005.

Named professionals
Named professionals have a key role in promoting good professional practice within
their organisation, supporting the local safeguarding system and processes, providing
advice and expertise for fellow professionals, and ensuring safeguarding supervision
and training is in place. Named professionals should also attend regular supervision
sessions. They should work closely with their organisation’s safeguarding lead,
designated professionals in the CCGs and the local safeguarding children’s
partnership and SABs.

This SAAF recognises the critical role that maternity services play with regards to
safeguarding and the Think Family agenda. From work with the maternity
transformation programme, NHS Safeguarding has a newly established national
network of Named Safeguarding Midwives who will provide system leadership and
oversight on maternity through a contextual safeguarding lens.

12
4.4.1 Mental Capacity Act Lead
All NHS providers are required to have an MCA Lead. This role is responsible for
providing support and advice to clinicians in individual cases, and supervision for staff
in areas where these issues may be particularly prevalent and/or complex. They should
also have a role in highlighting the extent to which their own organisation is compliant
with the MCA through undertaking audit, reporting to the governance structures and
providing training. GP practices are required to have a lead for safeguarding and MCA,
who should work closely with named GPs and the Adult Safeguarding Lead.

CCGs and other place based system leadership

Currently, CCGs are responsible in law for the safeguarding element of services they
commission. As commissioners of local health services, CCGs need to assure
themselves that organisations from which they commission have effective
safeguarding arrangements in place. It is worth acknowledging the changing
landscape of place-based system leadership with the introduction of Integrated Care
Systems (ICSs) and Primary Care Networks (PCNs). Safeguarding must be
considered in these new integrated systems, however, currently the responsibility to
provide safeguarding services still sits with CCGs.

CCGs need to demonstrate that their designated experts (for children, children in care
and adults), are embedded in the clinical decision-making of the organisation, with the
authority to work within local health economies to influence local thinking and practice
and the capacity to do so.

The NHS Long Term Plan states that ICSs will have a key role in working with LAs at
‘place’ level. Through ICSs, commissioners will make shared decisions with providers
on population health, service redesign and Long Term Plan implementation. PCNs will
be at the centre of these ICSs; building on the core of current primary care services
enabling greater provision of proactive, personalised, coordinated and more integrated
health and social care systems.

Integral to the development of these networks is the support, guidance and peer review
that can be provided for safeguarding children, children in care, adults at risk and for
the development of robust Mental Capacity Act processes. Local safeguarding leaders
must work in collaboration with their local ICS, PCN and GPs to ensure safeguarding
and Mental Capacity Act legal requirements are integral to their networks.

CCGs are required to undertake regular capacity reviews to ensure that there is
sufficient safeguarding expertise available via the designated professionals. The
requirements for CCG designated capacity are outlined in the Intercollegiate
Documents which are built upon the legislative requirements for safeguarding -
Intercollegiate Document for Safeguarding Children, the Intercollegiate Documents for
Looked after Children and the Intercollegiate Document for Safeguarding Adults.

It is crucial that designated safeguarding professionals play an integral role in all parts
of the commissioning cycle, from procurement to quality assurance, if appropriate
services are to be commissioned that support children, young people and adults at risk
of abuse or neglect, as well as effectively safeguarding against abuse and neglect.

Safeguarding forms part of the NHS Standard Contract (Service Condition 32) and
commissioners will need to agree with their providers, through local negotiation, what

13
contract monitoring processes are used to demonstrate compliance with safeguarding
duties. These will be measured using the Safeguarding Commissioning Assurance
Toolkit (Safeguarding CAT) which is due to be prototyped in specific regions by August
2019. See section 5.3 NHS England assurance of CCGs for more information.

CCGs must gain assurance from all commissioned services, both NHS and
independent healthcare providers, throughout the year to ensure continuous
improvement. Assurance may consist of assurance visits, Section 11 audits, SAB
audits and attendance at provider safeguarding committees.

CCGs are also required to demonstrate that they have appropriate systems in place
for discharging their statutory duties in terms of safeguarding. These include:

• A clear line of accountability for safeguarding, properly reflected in the CCG

governance arrangements, i.e. a named executive lead to take overall leadership
responsibility for the organisation’s safeguarding arrangements.

• Clear policies setting out their commitment, and approach, to safeguarding,

including safe recruitment practices and arrangements for dealing with allegations
against people who work with children and adults, as appropriate.

• Training their staff in recognising and reporting safeguarding issues, appropriate

supervision, and ensuring that their staff are competent to carry out their
responsibilities for safeguarding.

• Equal system leadership between LA children’s services, the police and the CCG
is now required under the Working Together to Safeguard Children Statutory
Guidance 2018

• Effective inter-agency working with LAs, the Police and third sector organisations,
including appropriate arrangements to co-operate with LAs in the operation of
safeguarding children’s partnerships, Corporate Parenting Boards, SABs and
Health and Wellbeing Boards.

• Ensuring effective arrangements for information sharing.

• Employing the expertise of designated professionals for safeguarding children,

children in care, safeguarding adults and a designated paediatrician for Sudden
Unexpected Deaths in Childhood (SUDIC).

• Effective systems for responding to abuse and neglect of adults.

• Supporting the development of a positive learning culture across partnerships for

safeguarding adults, to ensure that organisations are not unduly risk averse.

• Working with the Local Authority to ensure access to community resources that can
reduce social and physical isolation for adults.

• CCGs need to demonstrate that their designated professionals are involved in the
safeguarding decision-making of the organisation, with the authority to work within
local health economies to influence local thinking and practice.

14
• For children in care, CCGs have a duty to cooperate with requests from LAs to
undertake health assessments and help them ensure support and services to
looked-after children are provided without undue delay.

• CCGs should ensure that adult and children's services work together to
commission and provide health services that ensure a smooth transfer for young
people and children in care, including a planned period of overlap to avoid the
abruptness of a sudden change in clinicians, culture, frequency of appointments
and environment.

Statutory reviews
All NHS agencies and organisations that are asked to participate in a statutory review
must do so. The input and involvement required will be discussed and agreed in the
terms of reference for the review. Broadly, this will involve meeting regularly with
colleagues and attending panels or review group meetings throughout the investigative
phase. All health providers, including GPs, are required to provide and share
information relevant to any statutory death review process.

NHS England, via the designated professionals, may support panel chairs where
lessons learned have wider implications and need co-ordinated national action, and/or
where there are obstacles to full NHS participation that require a range of relationship,
contractual and professional influences.

4.6.1 Rapid reviews

The purpose of rapid reviews for serious child safeguarding cases, at both local and
national level is to identify improvements to be made to safeguard and promote the
welfare of children. Serious child safeguarding cases are those in which abuse or
neglect of a child is known or suspected and the child has died or been seriously
harmed.

The safeguarding partners should promptly undertake a rapid review of the case in line
with any guidance published by the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel (the
Panel). The aim of this rapid review is to enable safeguarding partners to:
• gather the facts about the case, as far as they can be readily established at the
time,
• discuss whether there is any immediate action needed to ensure children’s
safety and share any learning appropriately,
• consider the potential for identifying improvements to safeguard and promote
the welfare of children,
• decide what steps they should take next, including whether or not to undertake
a child safeguarding practice review.

4.6.2 Child safeguarding practice review

The responsibility for how the system learns the lessons from serious child
safeguarding incidents lies at a national level with the Child Safeguarding Practice
Review Panel (the Panel) and at local level with the local safeguarding children’s
partnerships. A child safeguarding practice review should be considered for serious
child safeguarding cases where:

15
• abuse or neglect of a child is known or suspected,
• and a child has died or been seriously harmed.
This may include cases where a child has caused serious harm to someone else.

4.6.3 Child Death Review (CDR)

Children Act 2004 requires CCGs and LAs (child death review partners) to make local
arrangements to undertake statutory Child Death Review (CDR) processes. The CDR
process relies on inter-agency cooperation and information sharing. These
arrangements should result in the establishment of a Child Death Overview Panel
(CDOP), or equivalent, to review the deaths of all children (under the age of 18 years
and for all children regardless of the cause of death) normally resident in the relevant
LA area, and if they consider it appropriate the deaths in that area of non-resident
children. The review should then be carried out by a CDOP, on behalf of CDR partners,
and should be conducted in accordance with Child Death Review: Statutory and
Operational Guidance 2018 and Working Together to Safeguard Children Statutory
Guidance 2018.

4.6.4 Learning Disability Mortality Review (LeDeR) programme

The Learning Disabilities Mortality Review (LeDeR) programme is run by the
University of Bristol and commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement
Partnership (HQIP) on behalf of NHS England. It aims to make improvements in the
quality of health and social care for people with learning disabilities, and to reduce
premature deaths in this population.

The major role of the LeDeR programme is to support local areas in England to
review the deaths of people with learning disabilities aged 4 – 75 at the time of their
death. All deaths will be reviewed, regardless of the cause of death or place of death,
in order to:

• Identify potentially avoidable contributory factors to the deaths of people with

learning disabilities.
• Identify differences in health and social care delivery across England and
ways of improving services to prevent early deaths of people with learning
disabilities.
• Develop plans of action to make any necessary changes to health and social
care services for people with learning disabilities.

The following process map describes how the LeDeR can interface with other mortality
reviews such as the CDR. When notified of the death of a child or young person aged
4 -17 years who has learning disabilities or is very likely to have learning disabilities
but not yet had a formal assessment for this, the local CDR Partners should report that
death to the LeDeR programme. As stated in the Child Death Review: Statutory and
Operational Guidance (2018) the CDR partners should then ensure that the LeDeR
programme is represented at the meeting at which the death is reviewed.

4.6.5 Domestic Homicide Reviews

A Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) convened by the local community safety
partnership, is a multi-agency review of the circumstances in which the death of a

16
person aged 16 or over has, or appears to have, resulted from violence, abuse or
neglect by a person to whom they were related or with whom they were, or had been,
in an intimate personal relationship, or a member of the same household as
themselves.

4.6.6 Safeguarding Adults Reviews

Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SARs) are required under the Care Act and convened
by a SAB when an adult has died from, or experienced, serious abuse or neglect, and
there is reasonable cause for concern about how agencies and service providers
worked together to safeguard the person, as per the Social Care Institute for
Excellence Quality Markers .

4.6.7 Other statutory reviews

Mental health homicide reviews, multi-agency public protection arrangements
(MAPPA), serious case reviews and learning disability mortality reviews are carried out
under separate arrangements but may, depending upon the circumstances, need to
link to a safeguarding statutory review. Such reviews may run parallel to LA
safeguarding inquiries and Serious Incident investigations.

Parallel investigations
At times, the safeguarding of children and/or adults in a health setting may feature in
a wider multi-agency statutory review commissioned for other purposes, for example
a DHR or a mental health investigation. In these circumstances, a separate
safeguarding practice review may be deemed appropriate. NHS organisations should
be prepared therefore, to share information and cooperate with the parallel practice
review panel. Duplication of effort should be avoided where possible with each review
informing the parallel process.

Designated professionals
Designated professionals are experts and strategic leaders for safeguarding. As such
they are a vital source of safeguarding advice and expertise for all relevant agencies
and other organisations, but particularly to health commissioners in CCGs, the LA and
NHS England, other health professionals in provider organisations, Quality
Surveillance Groups (QSGs), regulators, the Safeguarding Children Partnership
Arrangements, Corporate Parenting Boards, SABs and the Health and Wellbeing
Board.

Where designated professionals (most commonly, designated doctors) continue to

undertake clinical duties in addition to their designated safeguarding responsibilities, it
is important that there is clarity about the two roles, particularly with regards to time
and capacity to undertake designated duties. The CCG will require input into the job
planning, appraisal and revalidation processes. Designated doctors may liaise with the
Regional Medical Director on those occasions that need solely medical professional
consideration.

Clear accountability and performance management arrangements are essential for

designated professionals to prevent professional isolation and promote continuous
improvement. Designated professionals are required to:

17
 • To attend reflective/restorative supervision meetings regularly. These
supervision meetings must be formally documented and should be
professionally facilitated if possible.
• Have direct access to the CCG Executive (Board level) lead, to ensure that there
is the right level of influence of safeguarding on the commissioning process.
The CCG Accountable Officer (or other executive level nominee) should meet
regularly with the designated professionals to review child, children in care and
adult safeguarding in the local area.
• To coordinate practice reviews / learning reviews and management reviews on
behalf of health commissioners. They are also responsible for quality assuring
the health content and disseminating the lessons learnt.
• To provide expert advice to Health Education England (HEE) and Local
Education and Training Boards.

4.8.1 Designated professionals for children:

• Will automatically qualify as members of the National Network for Designated
Healthcare Professionals for Safeguarding Children (NNDHP). See Appendix II
for further information. CCGs should support designated professionals to
participate in NNDHP events, and particularly those designated professionals
who have been elected as Network Regional Leads and National Officers.
• Must accompany their CCG members of the local safeguarding children
partnerships to ensure up to date professional expertise is effectively linked into
the local safeguarding arrangements.
• Must be consulted and able to influence at all points in the commissioning cycle
from procurement to quality assurance. This will ensure that all services
commissioned meet the statutory requirement to safeguard and promote the
welfare of children.
• A designated doctor for child deaths must be a senior paediatrician, appointed
by the CDR partners, who will take a lead in coordinating responses and health
input to the CDR process, across a specified locality or region.

4.8.2 Designated professionals for children in care:

• Will advise commissioning bodies’ on training needs and the delivery of training
for all health staff across the health community including those GPs,
paediatricians and nurses undertaking health assessments and developing
plans for children in care.
• Will provide advice on monitoring of elements of contracts, service level
agreements and commissioned services to ensure the quality of provision for
children in care including systems and records to:
• ensure the quality of health assessments carried out meet the required
standard,
• ensure full registration of each child in care – and all care leavers – with
a GP and dentist and optometric checks undertaken,
• ensure that sensitive health promotion is offered to all children in care
and young people,
• ensure implementation of health plans for individual children, and

18
 • ensure an effective system of audit is in place.
• Will work with CCGs to ensure there are robust arrangements to meet the health
needs of children in care placed outside the local area and ensure close working
relationships with LAs to achieve placement decisions which match the needs
of children.

4.8.3 Designated professional for safeguarding adults:

• Will automatically qualify as members of the virtual Safeguarding Adults
National Network (SANN). See Appendix III for further information. CCGs
should support designated professionals to participate in SANN events, and
particularly those designated professionals who have been elected as Network
Regional Leads.
• The designated professional will offer support and advice to the Board member
responsible for adult safeguarding and ensure the regular provision of training
to staff and Board of the CCG.
• The designated professional will have a broad knowledge of healthcare for older
people, those with dementia, learning disabilities, mental health issues and/or
care leavers. Including Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS), Liberty
Protection Safeguards (LPS) and Court of Protection work.
• Provide a health advisory role to the SAB, attending and supporting the CCG
SAB member. To also take a lead for health in working with the SAB on
safeguarding adult reviews, and to take forward any learning for the health
economy.

4.8.4 Designated MCA lead

CCGs are required to have a designated MCA lead, responsible for providing support
and advice to clinicians in individual cases, and supervision for staff in areas where
these issues may be particularly prevalent and/or complex. They should also
demonstrate how their own organisation, and the services that they commission, are
compliant with the MCA through audits, effective reporting, and provision of
appropriate training.

4.8.5 Named GPs/named professionals

Named GPs/ named professionals for children and adults have a key role in promoting
good professional practice, providing advice and expertise to professionals, and
ensuring appropriate safeguarding training is in place. Training, experience and
qualification requirements for named GPs/named professionals are set out in the
children’s and adults intercollegiate documents and should be complied with. The
named GP/named professional capacity commissioned locally needs to reflect local
needs as set out within the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) and in
discussion with local safeguarding boards/partnerships which will include, the
population capacity per named GP session.

19
4.8.5.1 Named GP for children’s safeguarding

• To provide specific expertise on child health and development, and on children

who have been abused or neglected, as well as in the care of families in
difficulty;
• To liaise with provider organisations and other partners e.g. local councils, on
local primary care arrangements for safeguarding children;
• To promote, influence and develop relevant training for GPs and their teams
• To advise and support GPs in writing the general practice components of
safeguarding children practice reviews and/or independent management
reviews, Section 11 and other multi-agency audits

A role description specific to named GPs is found within the RCGP/NSPCC

Safeguarding Children Toolkit 2014 and a competency framework is set out in
Guidance and Competences for the Provision of Services Using Practitioners with
Special Interests (PwSIs) Safeguarding Children and Young People.

On-going training and personal development for practitioners with a special clinical
interest is important and will require supervision from the Designated Doctor for Child
Safeguarding, specialist education as well as access to relevant peer support. It is
crucial that if named GPs for safeguarding children are to fulfil their role effectively,
they have a clear line of management accountability and responsibility with the
designated doctor and CCG safeguarding lead.

4.8.5.2 Named GP for adult safeguarding

The role of a named GP in adult safeguarding is evolving but the principle function is
to promote within General Practices the provision of effective primary care services to
safeguard adults at risk and to improve their outcomes; to facilitate GPs and practice
staff to understand their roles and fulfil their responsibilities towards the protection and
safeguarding of adults. Other functions of a named GP for safeguarding adults include:
• To support and advise the CCG Governing Body board about safeguarding
adults.
• To develop a role in quality monitoring and audit in terms of primary care
performance in relation to safeguarding adults.
• To undertake the Independent Management Review (IMR) for General Practice
when there is a SAR, as requested by the designated nurse for safeguarding
adults and SAB.
• To work with designated professionals when learning lessons reviews related
to General Practice and Primary Care are undertaken by the local SAB.

CCGs must secure the services of a named GP for adult safeguarding to ensure that
primary care services can meet their obligations to both adults and children and
support contextualised safeguarding.

20
5 Commissioning and assurance

NHS England
The general function of NHS England is to improve the health outcomes for all children,
young people and adults at risk in England by promoting a comprehensive health
service. NHS England discharges its responsibilities by:

• allocating funds to, guiding and supporting CCGs, and holding them to account;
• directly commissioning specialised health services, and health care services for
those in secure and detained settings, and for serving personnel and their
families, and some public health services.

5.1.1 NHS England system leadership

NHS England ensures that the health commissioning system as a whole is working
effectively to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, young people and adults.
NHS England is the policy lead for NHS Safeguarding, working across health and
social care, including leading and defining improvement in safeguarding practice and
outcomes. Its key duties are to:

• provide leadership support to safeguarding children, children in care and adult

professionals – including working with HEE on education and training of both
the general and the specialist workforce;
• ensure the implementation of effective safeguarding assurance arrangements
and peer review processes across the health system, from which assurance is
provided to the Board via the National Safeguarding Steering Group (NSSG);
• provide specialist safeguarding advice to the NHS;
• encourage a culture that supports staff in raising concerns regarding
safeguarding issues;
• ensure that robust processes are in place to learn lessons from cases where
someone has died or are seriously harmed, and abuse or neglect is suspected;
• ensure that NHS England teams are appropriately engaged in the local multi-
agency safeguarding partnerships, SABs and Health and Wellbeing Boards to
raise concerns about the engagement and leadership of the local NHS.

5.1.2 NHS England support for safeguarding professionals

NHS England has also established safeguarding peer-groups and forums, with access
to an online community of practice to support system leaders to:

• underpin system accountability through peer review-based assurance and other

sources of intelligence, to identify local safeguarding improvements for children,
children in care and adults;
• identifying and share good practice initiatives across the local health system;
• analysing the health implications of, and learning from, local incidents including
practice reviews and individual management reviews and developing local
action plans as appropriate;

21
 • ensuring the commissioning of appropriate education and development for
designated and specialist professionals, through engagement with the Local
Education and Training Boards;
• maintaining an up-to-date risk register and an appropriate escalation
mechanism.

NHS England - direct commissioning

NHS England ensures that safeguarding duties are met in relation to the services that
it directly commissions. NHS England is responsible for commissioning primary care,
specialised services, health care services in justice, health services for armed forces
personnel and their families, and some public health services.

5.2.1 Direct commissioning for young people transitioning into adults

Joint commissioning procedures and partnership working standards will safeguard
young people suffering from mental health disorders from sudden, unplanned
withdrawal of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) or refusals or
delays by adult mental health provision to take up the mental health responsibility for
young people, especially care leavers. Equity, accessibility and safeguarding are key
transitional issues.

NHS England is responsible for the direct commissioning and assurance of health
services and facilities for young people who are detained in secure accommodation or
youth offender institutions (YOI). Transitional planning is important for young people
transferring to adult offender institutions, to ensure that their health and development,
mental health and care outcomes are equivalent to young people in the wider
community.

The NHS England commitment to quality and health improvement and reducing health
inequalities is vitally important for young people who have experienced adverse
childhood experiences leading to reduced life chances.

Under the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS Safeguarding have secured funding for a
programme of work to research the challenges facing children in care, critique the
unwarranted variation of transition services and establish best practice guidance notes
for the NHS and care system leaders. The NHS, together with safeguarding partners
at a national and local level, will commit to improve outcomes for our most at risk
children and young people.

NHS England assurance of CCGs

NHS England has a statutory requirement to oversee assurance of CCGs in their
commissioning role. This involves formal assurance reviews carried out quarterly, in
line with the published framework and technical guidance. Safeguarding system
leaders have co-developed the Safeguarding CAT (due to be prototyped in September
2019) to support all local commissioners to optimise the 2019 NHS Standard Contract.
This toolkit will provide an element of assurance supported by other local and regional
mechanisms with qualitative measures i.e. thematic learning from deaths/ peer review.

22
 Local authority commissioning
NHS England, via national membership networks and regional safeguarding
leadership will support designated professionals and named professionals to have
adaptive and collaborative conversations with LA commissioners to ensure that
effective local safeguarding arrangements are in place.

As with all organisations which are subject to the Children Act 2004 Section 11 duty,
LAs are responsible for ensuring that their staff receive appropriate supervision and
support, including child safeguarding training. This applies to professionals delivering
public health services commissioned by LAs.

The commissioning of public health services for children is undertaken by LAs. It

includes sexual health services, school nursing services and health visiting and family
nurse partnership services. These health services have an integral role in safeguarding
children and young people, which should be clearly reflected within the relevant service
specifications.

6 Regulators and safeguarding partners

Regulation is an important element of the assurance and accountability arrangements
in place across the health system. A number of organisations are involved, and their
roles and remit are set out in brief below. Regulators are in place, and work at an
individual and organisational level as well as looking across local safeguarding
systems and assessing their effectiveness. Reports from regulators, as the
independent watchdogs, provide an important source of intelligence. This is used
alongside other internal information by NHS England in providing assurance (see
Appendix I) on the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements in local health systems.

All providers of health services are required to be registered with the CQC. In order to
be registered, providers must ensure that those who use the services are safeguarded
and that staff are suitably skilled and supported. This includes private healthcare
providers.

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) provides strategic leadership for
public health, the NHS and social care in England. It sets the strategic direction for the
NHS, based on outcomes, and holds it to account. DHSC assesses NHS England
performance against the mandate, including the specific safeguarding elements. It also
ensures that the health and care system work collaboratively through national groups.

DHSC convenes two specific safeguarding stakeholder groups, one for children and
one for adults. Membership of these groups includes representatives from across
government departments, regulators and arms’ length bodies. Both of these groups
set out safeguarding policy, hold partners to account for implementing that policy, and
address specific national concerns.

23
 Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills
(Ofsted)
Ofsted inspects and regulates LA services which care for children and young people,
and those providing education and skills for learners of all ages. Whilst many services
inspected by Ofsted are not strictly within the health sector, there are many areas of
overlap, for example where health professionals work within children’s services
provided by the LA such as special needs schools. Ofsted regulation of multiagency
safeguarding children partnerships has been influenced by the removal of local
safeguarding children boards, the implementation of local multiagency arrangements,
and the introduction of independent scrutiny.

6.2.1 Inspections of local authority children’s services (ILACS) framework

In January 2018 Ofsted launched the ‘Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services’
or ILACS, a flexible framework for inspecting children’s services for LAs. Under this
system, intelligence and information is used to inform decisions about how best to
inspect each LA. Joint Targeted Area Inspections (JTAIs) are included in this system
inspection.

6.2.2 Joint targeted area inspections (JTAIs)

Joint Targeted Area Inspections (JTAIs), are carried out by Ofsted, HMI Constabulary
and Fire & Rescue Services, the CQC, and HMI Probation. JTAI assess how effectively
agencies are working together in their local area to help and protect children.

Public Health England (PHE)

Public Health England (PHE) has a range of public health responsibilities; it must
protect and improve the health and wellbeing of the population and reduce inequalities
in health and wellbeing outcomes. PHE specific safeguarding duties in relation to the
front-line delivery of services to individuals and families relate to its delivery of health
protection services. PHE has a named doctor and nurse for safeguarding. PHE liaise
with NHS England to access local expertise and advice.

LAs are held to account for the public health duties that are transferred to them, through
local management structures and Safeguarding Children’s Partnerships/SABs in the
usual way.

PHE is responsible for supporting the on-going development of the public health
workforce in LAs. It helps to inform commissioning of early years services and the on-
going support and development of the children’s public health nursing workforce. This
includes school nursing, health visiting and family nurse partnerships.

Care Quality Commission (CQC)

The CQC’s regulatory function is split between three directorates, Adult Social Care,
Primary Medical Services and Hospitals, with each having a Chief Inspector providing
leadership. Their role is to register, monitor, inspect, rate and regulate health and social
care services to ensure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety. It
carries out this role through:

24
 • the checks it carries out during the registration process for all new care services;
• inspections;
• monitoring a range of data sources that can indicate problems with services.

The CQC speaks with an independent voice, publishing views on major quality issues
in health and social care. It reports on how care has been delivered in England in the
annual State of Care report and protects the rights of vulnerable people, including
those restricted under the Mental Health Act. It also carries out special investigations
and reviews into aspects of health and social care on behalf of Government.

The CQC role that is specific to safeguarding includes:

• Ensuring providers have the right systems and processes in place to make sure
children, young people and adults are protected from abuse and neglect.
• Working with other inspectorates (Ofsted, HMI Probation, HMI Constabulary, HMI
Prisons) to review how Health, Education, Police, and probation services work in
partnership to help and protect children and young people and adults from harm.
• Holding providers to account and securing improvements, including through taking
enforcement action.
• Working with local partners to share information about safeguarding.
6.4.1 Child safeguarding and looked after children inspection programme
Under section 48 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008, inspections look at the
quality and effectiveness of the arrangements that health care services have made to
ensure children are safeguarded and how health services promote the health and
wellbeing of looked after children and care leavers.

Professional regulatory bodies

Health and social care professionals who work in England must be registered with at
least one of the twelve professional regulatory bodies in the UK. These organisations
regulate individual professions. In order to practise in health and/or social care,
practitioners must be registered with the relevant regulatory body, and demonstrate
that they have the appropriate skills, competencies and behaviours to meet the
standards set out within the code of conduct or code of practice for their profession.

Each regulator maintains a public register of those registrants who have demonstrated
that they have met the standards set. Should concerns regarding a registrant arise,
regulatory bodies have the power to investigate complaints and if necessary can
ensure remediation, or, withdraw or restrict a registrant’s right to practice.

Quality surveillance groups

Quality surveillance groups (QSGs) support the discharge of local accountabilities for
quality and for sharing information and intelligence to improve quality and safety, with
safeguarding quality as a recognised function. NHS England provides support and
facilitation to Local and Regional QSGs. The key strength of the QSGs is that they
draw together organisations with commissioning and regulatory roles to share their
respective information and intelligence. Locally QSGs should link with designated
professionals for safeguarding information and intelligence.

25
LA QSG representatives should be able to act as the ongoing link point between the
QSG and their LA and liaise with safeguarding partnerships and boards, Health and
Wellbeing Boards and overview and scrutiny committees.

Health Education England (HEE)

HEE supports the delivery of excellent healthcare and health improvement to the
patients and public of England. It ensures that the workforce has the right numbers,
skills, values and behaviours, at the right time and in the right place. HEE has a
mandate commitment to ensure that the principles of safeguarding are integral to
education and training curricula for health professionals. This primarily focuses on
influencing the pre-registration training provided for health professionals, and ensuring
safeguarding is embedded into these programmes.

HEE provider-led local education and training boards (LETBs) are responsible for local
health workforce development and education commissioning in their areas. These
boards are responsible for developing their own training priorities to meet locally-
identified needs, including safeguarding as appropriate. Commissioned training should
be in accordance with the intercollegiate guidance and Safeguarding Children
Partnership/SAB requirements.

Multi-agency safeguarding arrangements

6.8.1 Safeguarding children partnerships

The task of organising safeguarding arrangements is now shared by three partner
agencies (LAs, Police, and CCGs). The Children Act 2004 places a duty on those three
agencies to establish Multi Agency Safeguarding Arrangements (MASA) for their local
child population, with other relevant agencies as they deem appropriate. The partners
must work together to safeguard children and promote the welfare of all children in
their area, and to monitor and ensure the effectiveness of those arrangements. They
will be equally accountable for the system they create.

There is a shared and equal legal duty for partner organisations, working with relevant
agencies, to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in a LA area. A
safeguarding partner is defined as (i) the LA, (ii) a CCG for an area, any part of which
falls within the LA area and (iii) the Chief of Police for an area, any part of which falls
within the LA area.

LAs, NHS England, CCGs, CCG designated professionals and local providers should
ensure appropriate representation in the new partnership arrangements. Partners
must commission safeguarding practice reviews where abuse or neglect of a child is
known or suspected and the child has either died or been seriously harmed, and there
is concern over how agencies and service providers have worked together.

The three safeguarding partners should agree:

• local priorities;
• ways to co-ordinate their safeguarding services with relevant agencies;
• establishing a strategic leadership group in supporting and engaging others;
• implementing local and national learning from serious child safeguarding
incidents;

26
 • processes that facilitate and drive action beyond usual institutional and agency
constraints and boundaries;
• effective protection of children is founded on lasting and trusting relationships
with children and their families;
• a dispute resolution process;
• an independent scrutiny arrangement;
• the relationship and processes between Health and Wellbeing Boards.

6.8.2 Community Safety Partnerships

The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 introduced a statutory framework for Community
Safety Partnerships (CSPs). CSPs are made up of representatives from the police,
local council, fire service, health service, probation as well as many others. Their
purpose is to make the community safer, reduce crime and the fear of crime, reduce
anti-social behaviour and work with business and residents on the issues of most
concern. They also manage strategic plans for certain areas of safeguarding for
example Prevent, domestic abuse, serious violence and modern-day slavery.

6.8.3 Safeguarding Adult Boards (SAB)

Under the terms of the Care Act 2014, each LA must set up a Safeguarding Adult
Board (SAB), with statutory partners from the LA, Police and CCG. A SAB has a
strategic role and has three core duties; it must:

• Publish a strategic plan for each financial year, setting out how it will meet its
main objectives. In developing the plan, it must involve the community and it
must consult the local Healthwatch organisation(s).
• Publish an annual report detailing the activities of the SAB which it must send
to the following agencies for scrutiny:
o LA Chief Executives and member leads,
o local Health and Wellbeing Board(s),
o local Police and Crime Commissioner, and
o local Healthwatch organisation(s).
• Decide when a Safeguarding Adults Review (SAR) is necessary, arrange for its
conduct and if it so decides, implement the findings. SARs are about learning
lessons for the future so that practice improvements may be made.

There are also Health and Wellbeing Boards which have overall strategic responsibility
for assessing local health and wellbeing needs in the JSNA, and for agreeing joint
health and wellbeing strategies for each LA area.

The nature of the relationship between and SABs, and Health and Wellbeing Boards,
is decided locally. However, it is important that the boards are complementary. The
SAB should not be subordinate to, nor subsumed within, local structures that might
compromise their separate identity and voice. NHS commissioners and providers are
responsible for understanding these arrangements and ensuring that they are fully
engaged and working effectively to support them.

27
7 Conclusion
The safeguarding of children, young people and adults who are at risk is a fundamental
obligation for everyone who works in the NHS and its partner agencies. Safeguarding
children and adults at risk of abuse or neglect must be kept constantly under review.
Whilst there are some similarities, the safeguarding of children and adults are distinct
and separate entities which need different approaches.

Fundamentally, every NHS organisation, and every individual healthcare professional

working in the NHS, must ensure that the principles and duties of safeguarding adults
and children are holistically, consistently and conscientiously applied: the needs of
these at risk citizens and communities must be at the heart of everything the
NHS does.

Partnership working is essential, and it is vital that local practitioners continue to

develop relationships and work closely with colleagues across their local safeguarding
system. This will help to develop ways of working that are collaborative, encourage
constructive challenge, and enable learning in a sustainable and co-ordinated way.

NHS England will continue to seek assurance that the safeguarding arrangements
across the health system for children, young people and adults are effective.

28
8 APPENDIX I
How NHS England maintains oversight of safeguarding
NHS England’s safeguarding role is discharged through the Chief Nursing Officer
(CNO), who has a national safeguarding leadership role. The CNO is the Lead Board
Executive Director for Safeguarding and has a number of forums through which
assurance and oversight is sought. The system wide NSSG coordinates these forums
and gains assurance on behalf of the CNO. These groups and the governance
arrangements are set out below.

The NHS National Safeguarding Steering Group (NSSG)

The NSSG works with a range of temporary and permanent subgroups that focus on
key issues using a risk-based approach. Membership of the NSSG includes
representation from CCGs, provider trusts, and designated/named professionals,
regulators, professional bodies and arm’s length bodies (ALBs). Further information
regarding the NSSG is available on our webpage.

29
 NHS England regions
Each NHS England Regional Chief Nurse is accountable for discharging the NHS
England safeguarding duties within their region, further information can be found on
our NHS England Safeguarding webpage.

Safeguarding – annual assurance

The CNO is responsible for providing overall assurance to the NHS England Board on
the effectiveness and quality of the safeguarding arrangements. Assurance is secured
through an annual review process, the mechanism for achieving this is for the
submission of Regional annual reports using an agreed framework.

The regions provide an annual safeguarding assurance report to the NSSG. The report
has the dual purpose of providing assurance as well as enabling any themes, common
issues, emerging trends and system-wide learning to be identified from across the
health system.

30
9 APPENDIX II
National Network for Designated Healthcare Professionals (NNDHP)
The membership of the independent National Network for Designated Healthcare
Professionals (NNDHP), is all designated professionals for safeguarding children,
children in care and Child Death Overview Panels. Information about the network can
be found on the NHS England website. The network is supported financially by NHS
England in recognition of the need to provide appropriate support to the practitioners
undertaking this complex statutory role, and to enable the network to speak collectively
at a regional and national level.

The purpose of the network is to improve the outcomes and life chances of children
and young people by:

• Bringing together all the child safeguarding, children looked after and CDOP
designated professionals into one NHS network.
• Giving a national voice to the local safeguarding advice which collectively
amounts to national concern.
• Enabling the ‘Voice of Health’ and the opinion of safeguarding children expert
practitioners to contribute to and influence the national agenda with regards to
safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.
• Supporting NHS England and other external agencies, at regional and national
level.
• Facilitating partnership working with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child
Health (RCPCH), Royal College of Nursing (RCN), The Faculty of Forensic &
Legal Medicine, the NSPCC and CoramBAFF.
• To provide a ‘Think Family’ approach and remain connected to the SANN via
the Chairs.

31
10 APPENDIX III
Safeguarding Adults National Network (SANN)
The NHS England Safeguarding Adults National Network (SANN) provides the
national voice of adult safeguarding leads working for or on behalf of CCGs from
across England. Their role is to support NHS England in the strategic delivery of adult
safeguarding services across England.

SANN is designed to complement the work of the DHSC adult network, and is a clinical
reference group to the NSSG. The SANN has a virtual network that is formed of
multiagency professionals working within the realm of adult safeguarding.

The purpose of SANN is to:

• To develop a strategic focus; encourage CCGs and ICSs to quality improve and
share learning, to proactively influence, shape and develop innovation and improve
work streams for safeguarding adults.

• Develop the Safeguarding Health Outcomes Framework to enable a joint approach

to the reporting to Clinical Quality Groups and Local Safeguarding Adults Boards on
key safeguarding issues.

• To promote effective communication to ensure that any learning from SARs or other
reviews such as DHRs are shared as widely as possible to encourage practice
development.

• To monitor risks within provider organisations for adult safeguarding, Mental

Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty safeguards.

• To provide a ‘Think Family’ approach and remain connected to the NNDHP via the
Chairs.

• To provide an interface between NHS England and frontline staff by providing a flow
of information between NHS England and Regional Safeguarding Leads and the
SANN network.

32