UPDATED: Multi-Agency Risk Management (MARM) documents
We have updated the documents relating to the MARM subgroup, including the MARM referral form and guidance. Please do familiarise yourself with the new documents.
We have updated the documents relating to the MARM subgroup, including the MARM referral form and guidance. Please do familiarise yourself with the new documents.
Welcome to this short podcast on behalf of the West Sussex Safeguarding Adults Board, which will give you information about the outcome of our older people case audit, which we carried out in 2023.
This audit looked at the records of ten people over the age of 65. The audit looked to evaluate and reflect on practice, learn from experience, inform multi-agency practice development, and strengthen multi-agency working.
So, firstly, I would like to explain the criteria for the audit.
For our audit, adults must have been aged 65 or older. They must have been involved in a safeguarding enquiry, which must have been closed or completed in the 12 months preceding the audit, and there must have been multi-agency involvement with the adults at the time of the enquiry. Further details about the adults such as their ages, ethnicities, gender, and support needs, can be found in the learning briefing which accompanies this podcast.
So, now I’ll share with you what our audit found in terms of areas for improvement.
There were seven areas highlighted where improvement is needed.
So, what else did we look at alongside this audit?
In addition to the audit, we also carried out a survey with staff to understand the issues, barriers and positive factors in supporting older people.
The top three issues identified when working with older people are:
The top three barriers identified when working with older people are:
The top three positive factors identified when working with older people are:
In addition to the survey, we also reviewed practice themes for Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SARs) relating to older people. There were three common themes where improvement is needed, these are: knowledge and implementation of the Mental Capacity Act, multi-agency working, including risk management, and Making Safeguarding Personal. You can read more about our SARs on the statutory publications page on our website.
So, what can we do next?
To make the findings of this audit matter and improve the experience for older adults, we have several resources to support your knowledge and practice to be current.
Firstly, please see our policy and protocols on our website which should be underpinning your practice in safeguarding older people. These include:
In addition to these policies and protocols, on our learning and podcasts page of our website we also have a range of other learning resources which can support your practice with safeguarding older people. Relevant to this audit, this includes learning briefings and podcasts regarding:
This brings us to the end of our podcast. Thank you very much for your time to listen to it, and we appreciate your support to make a real difference to older adults.