“The term “vulnerable adults” covers an extremely wide range of individuals, some of whom may be incapable of looking after any aspect of their lives and others who may be experiencing short periods of illness or disability with an associated reduction in their ability to make decisions.” – British Medical Association

Our definition of a vulnerable adult in practical terms is a person aged 18 years or over who may be unable to:

• take care of themselves, or
• protect themselves from harm, or
• from being exploited by someone else.

In our business, the most common route to someone being defined as “vulnerable” is where they have a learning disability or they have an acquired brain injury which has rendered them with some kind of sensory, physical or emotional impairment.

We have a high level of continuous professional development amongst the staff in our homes who deal directly with our service users in their day-to-day lives and in the progress of their rehabilitation. During the induction period of a new service user and indeed throughout their stay with us, we need to have the skills inhouse to be able to identify when a service user should be qualified as “vulnerable” in order to ensure their own personal safety.

Jackie Mann, our Homes Manager at Kingsthorpe Grove, completed her “Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults:(mandatory) Level 3, Investigating Skills & Chairing Safeguarding Concerns Meetings” course in February 2012. The aims and objectives of completing this course are to understand the process of investigations (i.e. identifying and verifying evidence that someone is “vulnerable”); be aware of personal impact (of the investigator); create clear strategies for confidentiality and of course, in the end Jackie also had to demonstrate what she had learnt.

Jackie enjoyed the fact that one of the key aspects to the course was learning the structure of (a) establishing what has happened (i.e. evidence of the events/situations that have occurred), (b) identifying who was at risk and (c) collating information from all agencies involved.

“By the end of the 3 days I was able to have a better understanding of the process of the case conferences; be aware of my personal impact on this process; have an understanding of how to apply the principles of the mental capacity and decision making capabilities of the person; and demonstrate my skills of participating confidentiality and ability to contribute to effective planning. I have to say that this course will enable me to meet best practice within my role and working environment.” Jackie Mann

At the Richardson Partnership for Care we put the safety and wellbeing of our service users first. We are really pleased that Jackie has gone on this training to enhance her knowledge of the subject. The feedback has been that our core values are complimentary to this legislation and our policies robust.