Adult safeguarding: Participation
Most councils need to put systems in place to obtain feedback from people who have experienced abuse ... in order to improve services.
CSCI 2008
Participation - introduction
Health and social care has a well established ethos of involving people who use services and carers in their own care and in developing services. Government policy, such as personalisation and the transformation of adult social care, and the campaigning of service user movements have largely driven this. Consequently, many people who use services seek participation, choice and control in safeguarding and risk assessment.
However, involving people who use services in safeguarding is patchy, and a Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) report concluded that ‘most councils need to put systems in place to obtain feedback from people who have experienced abuse ... in order to improve services’ (2008). This section of SCIE’s safeguarding hub shares ideas on involving people who use services and carers in safeguarding based on available evidence and practice examples.
What is SCIE doing in this area?
SCIE’s user involvement report describes the principles and values underpinning user involvement and explains the viable models of service user involvement in safeguarding that draw on good practice principles. Case studies illustrate these points. The report also makes recommendations for safeguarding leads on how to implement and improve service user involvement in their area.
Key SCIE resources
- Report 36: Enabling risk, ensuring safety: Self-directed support and personal budgets
- Guide 36: A commissioner’s guide to developing and sustaining user-led organisations
- SCTV film on personalisation
- Position paper 3: Has service user participation made a difference to social care services?
- Report 7: Developing social care: service users' vision for adult support
- Position paper 05: Working together: Carer participation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
- Report 14: Doing it for themselves: participation and black and minority ethnic service users
- Guide 17: The participation of adult service users, including older people, in developing social care
- SCIE Position paper 09: Developing measures for effective service user and carer participation
- Guide 20: Participation - finding out what difference it makes
- Knowledge review 17: Developing social care - service users driving culture change
- Report 18: Looking out from the middle: User involvement in health and social care in Northern Ireland
- Position paper 10: Seldom heard - Developing inclusive participation in social care
