Safeguarding Adults Boards – Quality assurance

The SAB should seek assurance of the effectiveness of safeguarding activity and that safeguarding practice is continuously improving and enhancing the quality of life for adults with care and support needs and carers in its area, in line with ‘Making safeguarding personal’. This should address issues of quality as well as quantity, particularly from the perspective of those who have experienced safeguarding services. It should include arrangements for:

• data recording, analysis and reporting
• case audits
• SAB and agencies’ self-audits and peer review
• safeguarding adults reviews
• practitioners’ forums to share lessons from case audits and local good practice, from research and from safeguarding adults reviews
• holding member and partner agencies to account
• the management of large-scale investigations, serious incidents, complaints, disciplinary proceedings, grievances, whistleblowing and allegations of professional malpractice or unfitness to practice
• the implementation of ‘Making safeguarding personal’ at a local level and its impact on engagement and outcomes.

SABs need a range of approaches to quality assurance to monitor the effectiveness both of their own work and that of their partner agencies. These should include:

• use of data collection analysis for a quantitative perspective
• self-audit tools
• qualitative reviews and audits.

SABs generally find it necessary to establish subgroups to oversee the gathering and analysis of the information they need.