Safeguarding

Policies and procedures

You can access the Hampshire County Council adult protection site to gain access to a great deal of information aimed at professionals and practitioners

The Hampshire County Council safeguarding adults, adults protection policy out lines the policies and procedures that are in place to protect vulnerable adults in Hampshire, Southampton and Portsmouth.

The safeguarding website also provides guidance for developing your own in-house policies which tie into the HCC policy, either specific to care homes or more general for a range of agencies.

Skills for care

Skills for care knowledge sets for safeguarding outline what your staff should know to be competent in their role

If you suspect abuse

If you have a safeguarding referral you should contact the safeguarding team via the contact centre on

0845 603 5630

Out of hours the emergency duty team can be contacted on 0845 600 4555

To understand what happen next you might wish to look at the levels of intervention  234kb system used as a way of prioritising referrals. There is also a template for the risk management protection plan. You may also wish to learn more about the time scales of the safeguarding process

Information for service users and staff

You can also download a directory of resources published by Southampton City Council to resources for people involved in protecting vulnerable adults

Download copies of the protecting adults from abuse leaflet in general format or easy read format.

There is also a version for staff, as well as other useful safeguarding leaflets

If you would like to order hard copies of these leaflets please contact Simon Clayton via email: Val.money@hants.gov.uk and he will be able to provide these for you.

About the Vetting and Barring Scheme

For the latest information from the vetting and barring scheme visit the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) website

Safeguarding forum

Making connections, the people we commission to provide our safeguarding training, have developed and launched an adults safeguarding forum. This provides you with latest updates and commentary on recent national news relating to safeguarding.  There is also an opportunity to post questions and contribute to discussions on specific areas of safeguarding in their discussion forum, as well as links to resources and handouts. The site is free to access and there are no registration or passwords required.

Medication

Policies and procedures

Hampshire County Council have published their Medicines Policy which will took effect from 1st September 2009. You will also need to download the front cover, which outlines the policy. Please visit the Hantsweb medicines page for further information.

Skills for care

Skills for care knowledge sets for medication outline what your staff should know to be competent in their role

Care Quality Commission (CQC) professional advice

Here you can find advice from CQC on administration of medicines in domiciliary care, safe administration of medicines within care homes as well as general advice and information for training care workers to safely administer medicines. You may note that some of these documents are from CSCI, these are still relevant and valid.

You can also look at guidance for secondary dispensing, disguising medicines in food and drink, controlled drugs, leave medication and non-prescribed medication from the pharmacy tips CQC have prepared.

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) have launched a website designed specifically for care home staff. It includes guidance, safety alerts, and links to educational material to assist staff in the safe use and management of the wide range of medicines and medical devices used in care homes.

These pages aim to provide healthcare professionals with targeted information relevant to different specialities. You can sign up to receive emails when each targeted page is updated using their free email alerting service

Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB)

View the very comprehensive information from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain on handling of medicines in social care

Other resources that may be useful can be found from:

Your local pharmacist and/or prescriber are the best people to seek advice regarding specific service users

Patient information leaflets can be downloaded for any medication licenced in the UK

British Medical Association

RPSGB - Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain

NHS direct

Recommended publication -

BMA New Guide to Medicines and Drugs (latest version)

British National Formulary

Dementia

Policies and procedures

Although Hampshire County Council does not have a specific dementia policy HCC does have several policies that may be able to assist people with dementia to live a full and independent life. For example the HCC supporting people to positively manage risk may be helpful to understand the importance of offering and managing choice. You may also find helpful information in the residential, nursing and community response practice manual.

Skills for care

Skills for care knowledge sets for dementia outline what your staff should know to be competent in their role

SCIE dementia gateway

The Social Care Institute of Excellence have produced a dementia gateway. The website has lots of practical tips, tools and activities to help you with your daily care of people with dementia. Each section has been written by a dementia expert and is based on best practice and latest developments

SCIE TV

The Social Care Institute of Excellence (SCIE) have developed 5 short films to help people understand dementia from the service user, family and carers perspectives as well as the medical explanation of the disorder.

The first film – Rapidly declining early on-set Dementia - Living at Home with Dementia, gives an insight to a partner living and caring for their spouse

Second film – Late-onset of Dementia: early diagnosis and drug treatment – focuses on facing changing situations, talking through the diagnosis,and learning to work through the condition step by step

Third film – Living in a Care Home – a positive outcome for a person with Dementia – is narrated by the voice of a family member facing the dilemma of placing a loved one in to a home and contemplating, how important it is to find the right home, what the home can offer, inter-action of staff, continuity of staff,  how the home engage the mind of a person with Dementia, hobbies, helping them to live with their condition in the best ways possible.

Forth film – The causes of Dementia – provides in-depth information covering the time span of Dementia, the meaning of Dementia, what happens to the brain, and how this effects the memory

Fifth film – Providing care at home for people with Dementia – gives an insight to the structure of a care organisation who provide domiciliary support, to ensure care provided is to the best standard and showing their carers working within domiciliary home life.

Support from our library service

Most of the books, journals and publications we use in our courses are available via the library service. You can obtain hard copies of government publications as well as easy to read versions of Acts and Policies.

Hampshire Library Service holds a huge catalogue of health, social care and psychology literature. It is quick & free to join,. you can borrow up to 30 books at a time and usually for 4 weeks.

You can also visit the discovery centres and access Internet resources as well as having lots of books publications & quite areas to brush-up on your knowledge