The Care Inspectorate have today published a positive report of adult support and protection arrangements in Shetland.
The focus of the inspection was whether adults at risk of harm in the Shetland Partnership area were safe, protected and supported. The inspection in Shetland took place between October 2022 and March 2023, and it is one of 26 adult support and protection inspections to be completed across Scotland between 2020 and 2023.
The inspection was carried out jointly with Healthcare Improvement Scotland and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland.
The inspectors evaluated key processes for keeping adults safe, and the strategic leadership within relevant services in Shetland, and found a number of important strengths:
- Adults at risk of harm nearly always experienced improvements to their safety, health and wellbeing;
- There were strong investigation and case conference processes in place for managing risks for adults;
- There was strong collaborative working between services to support adults at risk of harm;
- Processes for addressing financial harm were effective, including raising awareness in the community of financial scams;
- Arrangements for providing adult support and protection services during the COVID-19 pandemic were well organised, and adults at risk of harm remained a priority throughout this challenging period;
- The strategic leadership team worked effectively to identify priorities for improvement in the delivery of services to adults at risk of harm.
As with all inspections, the inspection team identified some areas for further improvement by the Partnership in Shetland. These were:
- To strengthen some of their initial inquiry processes once referrals were made into Social Work
- To update the vision and improvement planning which is led by the Shetland Public Protection Committee, to give more focus to adult support and protection.
Maggie Sandison, Chief Executive of Shetland Council and Chair of the Chief Officers Group said: “The Chief Officers of the Council, Health and Police welcome the report on Shetland's Adult Support and Protection services. Overall, this is a positive report highlighting areas where we have strengths as well as some areas for improvement. The report is evidence of the high level of collaborative working amongst agencies and a credit to all staff involved in adult protection work. We are all committed to providing the highest quality services to the people of Shetland.”
Tam Baillie, Chair of the Public Protection Committee in Shetland said: “The inspection provides a really useful insights as to where we are doing well and where we can improve. Whilst it is reassuring that the balance is heavily tipped in favour of where we are doing well, we are constantly vigilant on the need to make improvements. People have come through tough times and it is pleasing that our adult protection work during the pandemic is recognised. I am confident we can look forward to continue to make further improvements.”
The link to the full report can be found here (PDF document)
This inspection is part of the Public Protection agenda in Scotland. The lead partner agencies who work together in Shetland to support adult protection are Shetland Islands Council Social Work, NHSShetland and Police Scotland. Work in this regard is overseen by the Shetland Public Protection Committee. More information can be found at: www.safershetland.com/about-us