Safeguarding Adults Reviews: Information for families, friends and carers
What is the Hammersmith and Fulham Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB)?
The SAB brings together all the main organisations who work to safeguard ‘adults at risk’. An ‘adult at risk’ is someone who has care and support needs, and as a result of those needs may be unable to protect themselves from abuse or neglect.
The SAB is a partnership that works together to ensure that there are e ffective arrangements to keep adults at risk safe from abuse or neglect.
What is a Safeguarding Adults Review?
When an adult at risk either dies or suffers serious harm, and when abuse or neglect is thought to have been a factor, Hammersmith and Fulham SAB may need to review what has happened. This is called a Safeguarding Adults Review (SAR).
The main purpose of these reviews is to find out if we can learn anything about the way different organisations worked together to support and protect the person who suffered harm. This could identify barriers, but it could also identify good practice. This learning will help us to make positive changes to the way we work.
We understand this is likely to be a very difficult time for families, friends and carers, but we want to learn as much as possible about how we can do things differently in the future. The SAB wants families, close friends and carers to be involved in the process wherever they can.
We believe the person who suffered harm and those close to them should have the opportunity to discuss any concerns they may have and to share their thoughts and opinions.
What happens during a SAR?
There are different ways in which a SAR can be done, but they all involve gathering information from services who had involvement with the person at the centre of the review.
The review team, led by an independent reviewer who had no involvement in the case, can then try to get a better understanding of what happened, and why. They will consider whether things could or should have been done differently and ask how things could be done better in the future.
A SAR will often find there have been lots of agencies involved in the person’s life. Sometimes the best way forward is to ask those who were directly involved to share their experience.
The lead reviewer will help to facilitate the discussion and lead on identifying recommendations for future practice.
The findings are then summarised in a report which is usually published and made available to the public however, no individuals are named in the report and no information is included that could lead to the people involved being identified.
The lead reviewer may give you the opportunity to review the report and make comment before it is finalised, if you would like to do so.
The SAB will then construct an action plan to make sure improvements are made to the way organisations work together to keep adults at risk safe.
Sometimes an individual organisation involved in the review will also write their own action plan which will work alongside the shared action plan. They will be asked to provide assurance to the SAB that actions are being implemented.
A really important part of undertaking a SAR is to ask you, those close to the person, for your opinion about what happened. Your views should be reflected in the final report. Your involvement in the SAR process also helps the lead reviewer to get an understanding of who your loved one was as a person.
We will discuss with you how you would like to be involved and to what extent. Sometimes a SAR can take several months to complete, but we will update you regularly and explain the reasons for any delays.
Contact us
If you have other questions you would like to ask, you can speak with the lead reviewer or you can email the Safeguarding Adults Board Manager: Ceri.Gordon@lbhf.gov.uk
Cruse Bereavement Support may also be able to offer additional support.