Gateshead Council adult protection criticised in a damning report

A DAMNING report has exposed a council for performing poorly in safeguarding vulnerable adults. Inspectors gave Gateshead Council the rating after examining the well-being of adults, the actions taken and how partners worked together.

Following inspections, councils were given one of four ratings – poor, adequate, well or excellent. Gateshead Council failed to come up to scratch when safeguarding people from abuse, neglect and self-harm.

Around 220 people who used services as well as carers were sent questionnaires or met by inspectors to give their views and experiences for the survey. One case saw an elderly woman intimidated by her son over a long period of time.

The report said despite the pensioner giving positive feedback about the help she received, “partners had taken too long to work together to manage the risk, with recurrent abusive incidents over 10 years”.

A man suffering from learning difficulties was also subjected to physical abuse by another tenant for more than eight months and inspectors found no protection plan was in place.

Social care needs or past incidents including a history of abuse “were not always taken into account”, the survey revealed.

There were also some shortfalls in the quantity of specialist supported homes, respite and day care for older people with mental health needs.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) found the capacity to improve in Gateshead was “uncertain”. Ratings ranged from poor, uncertain, promising and excellent.

Recommendations on how to better their services included acting urgently to identify and address poor safeguarding practices and ensure there is effective communication between agencies.

The report revealed that the council gave high priority to issues that matter to elderly residents and members were committed to providing excellent services.

It also said residents had good physical and mental health and were supported to live as independently as they chose.

Michael Laing, head of adult social care for Gateshead Council, said: “We are taking the findings of this report very seriously. We have already introduced a substantial number of changes to address issues raised.

“For example, we are putting more resources into safeguarding, we have expanded and strengthened the safeguarding team, and we have improved staff training.

“We are also taking advice from independent experts on ways we can improve our standards of safeguarding further. We remain entirely committed to safeguarding the well-being of each and every one of our clients.

“We are now working closely with the CQC on our action planning to ensure that our prospects for improvement are strong.

“This is a markedly different report to previous reports which rated our services as ‘excellent’. We are aware that there is now increased focus on safeguarding following a recent ministerial announcement and its clear that we and other local authorities are now feeling the effects of this.”

We are taking the findings of this report very seriously. We have already introduced a substantial number of changes