Thurrock Council has worked in partnership with Essex Council and Southend Council to produce Safeguarding Guidance that applies throughout all three areas.
This was also in consultation with partner agencies including the Police, PCTs, Health Care Trusts, the Voluntary Sector, Providers through the Independent Care Association, and the Commission for Social Care Inspection. It means that Safeguarding practices are consistent for people wherever they live in Thurrock.
Graham Carey, Independent Safeguarding Champion & Co-Chair of Thurrock's Safeguarding Adults Board says "Lack of communication and failing to share information between partner agencies is probably the single biggest problem that comes up time and time again whenever someone has been hurt who should perhaps have been offered better protection. These jointly agreed guidelines and working practices go a long way towards ensuring that those barriers to communication continue to be broken down across Essex, Thurrock and Southend and in doing so they make people safer."
Full guidance for Safeguarding Adults in Southend, Essex and Thurrock is available to download (please see how to access PDFs):
Safeguarding Adults Guidelines (PDF 848.6kB)
Board partner policies:
Anyone aged 18 years or over who may be unable to take care of, or protect themselves. This may be because they have a physical, sensory or learning disability, or have mental health needs, or are frail and/or experiencing a temporary illness. They may be living in their own home, or a residential or nursing home, in hospital, attending day care, or without a permanent home
Abuse is when a person's rights or dignity are violated by someone else, often where there is an expectation of care or trust, which causes harm to that person. There are many kinds of abuse. The following list gives an indication of the categories of abuse and some examples (these lists are not exhaustive).
Anyone can abuse a vulnerable adult. For example:
If you are the victim of abuse, or you know someone who you think is being or has been abused, then it is important to seek help.
Ignoring abuse is not an option
The Ask SAL helpline is aimed at anybody seeking advice on the abuse of adults.
Thurrock Council has a responsibility to safeguard vulnerable adults from abuse. The Safeguarding Adults handbook provides guidance for people working directly with vulnerable adults on how to raise concerns about abuse. It outlines employees` responsibilities as follows:
For further information, download the Safeguarding Adults Handbook (please see how to access PDFs).
If you see, hear or suspect that a vulnerable adult is being abused, call Thurrock Council Adult Social Care on 01375 652868 during office hours, or out of office hours call 01375 372468.
For information on safeguarding children procedure, visit the Thurrock Local Safeguarding Children Board web pages.
If you suspect a crime has been committed ring 999 if it is an emergency, or Essex Police on 101 (option 1).
Tell the person you speak to that you are worried about a possible adult abuse. You will be put in touch with the best person to talk to.
You can also use the SET SAF1 - Safeguarding Adult Referral Alert Forms.
The social care staff will find out as much as possible about what has happened. They will investigate the situation and put in place an appropriate protection plan to ensure the vulnerable adult is safeguarded from further abuse.
The Thurrock Safeguarding Adults Board was known as the Thurrock Safeguarding Adults Committee prior to 2008/2009, and the Thurrock Adult Protection Committee prior to 2005/2006.
The annual reports are available as PDF files (please see how to access PDFs):
Some of the links below are to PDF files (please see how to access PDFs):
