Adult Support and Protection National Strategic Forum minutes: March 2024

Attendees and apologies

• Maree Todd, Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport (Chair) 
• Iain MacAllister, SG, Regulation, Improvement & Integration
• Robert Peterson, SG, Regulation, Improvement & Integration
• Jamie Aarons, SG: Adult Support & Protection
• Gemma Graham, SG: Adult Support & Protection
• Brian Auld, SG: HM Inspectorate of Constabulary Division
• Iain Ramsay, SG: Office of Chief Socia Work Advisor (OCSWA)
• Sinead Power, SG: Office of the Chief Social Work Adviser (OCSWA)
• Fiona Brown, Office of the Public Guardian
• Mike Harkin, Care Inspectorate (CI)
• Winnie Burke, Care Inspectorate (CI)
• Brenda Walker, IRISS
• Stuart Muirhead, IRISS
• Jeanette Sutton, IRISS
• John Urquhart, COSLA
• Maureen Scott, NHS Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS)
• Suzanne Swinton, Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance (SIAA)
• Jeffrey Ace, NHS Chief Executives
• Grace Gilling, NHS ASP Network Group
• Gemma Ritchie, Social Work Scotland ASP Leads Network
• Laura Kerr, Social Work Scotland
• Claire Wilson, Social Work Scotland
• Stephen Grimason, Scottish Police
• Mary Wilson, Scottish Police
• David Thomson, National Mental Health Nurse Leads Group
• Sylvia Chatfield, Chief Social Work Officers Group
• Elaine Torrance, SASPICA, Conveners Group
• George Whitton, SG: Adult Support & Protection (Minutes)

Apologies

• Vikki Milne, SG: Adult Support & Protection
• Alan Laughlan,
• Kirsteen MacLennan, Care Inspectorate
• Jane Byrne, NHS Healthcare improvement Scotland (HIS)
• Karen Hedge, Scottish Care

Items and actions

Welcome, introductions and business from last meeting

Maree Todd welcomed everyone to the Forum. Ms Todd noted a copy of the previous meeting’s minutes, as there were no ongoing actions from the last meeting, she then invited the Forum to respond on whether the minutes were an accurate record of the last meeting. The minutes were approved.

Terms of reference update

Iain Ramsay, Professional Social Work Adviser, who chairs the National Implementation Group (NIG), gave an update on the Terms of Reference and the resources that have developed by the NIG. The Group set up sub-groups, who adopted a national collaboration approach, to review the Terms of Reference, develop resources and produce guidance. These groups have taken on a lot of work. There is a significant variation in how partnerships work and deliver on Adult Support and Protection (ASP). Further pieces of work will come to the forum for approval.  

National implementation group

Brenda Walker, National ASP Co-ordinator, gave an update on the work of the National Improvement Group and the sub-groups. The Main Implementation Group has now met quarterly over the last 18 months. Including a joint meeting between the National ASP Implementation Group and the National ASP Learning and Development Network. These joint meetings are to facilitate good communication between the two groups, to ensure there is no duplication of effort and that any supportive actions can be identified and implemented. The Leads of the Subgroups have continued to meet between the main Group meetings, with the Chair/Vice Chair to share their progress, highlighting challenges and successes.

Brenda then gave an update on the work of the four sub-groups:

Chronologies

Chronologies is a chronic issue, which comes up in Inspection reports all over Scotland as an area requiring improvement across ASP and often CP too. The Sub-group acknowledge the need to be realistic in their ambitions and focus on what can be achieved within their remit and the need to link with CP colleagues and others in relation to the wider landscape in relation to Chronologies.  To that end, the Group reps will be involved on an ongoing basis with the Scottish Government Cross-policy meetings in relation to Chronologies. The Sub-group noted a range of good practice already in existence and the importance of ensuring this work was shared and duplication avoided. Ellen Daly from IRISS – who presented in relation to her work on Chronologies at the last National Forum, has been supporting this group.  The forthcoming April joint meeting between CPC Convenors and Lead Officers and ASP Convenors and Lead Officers will include an input on Chronologies informed by the work of this Subgroup. Intended Resources from this group include:

• developing an up-to-date good practice guidance to chronologies
• training and awareness raising of chronologies
• learning from case reviews: can a good chronology foresee or prevent significant events?

Self-evaluation 

The Self-evaluation subgroup have formed smaller Working Groups with the wider group feeding into these on a consultation basis, as this provides better consistency of attendance. Members took the opportunity to scope out work intended for completion, whilst being mindful of the need to avoid duplication, as they have identified many links with work of other Subgroups, and potential crossovers. 

Work areas the sub-group have identified to take forward to date have included:

• develop a tool kit to clarify what is meant by self-evaluation and range of activities.
• clarifying the role and function of APC’s
• training and development for lead officers, this may link in with the national ASP learning & development network
• undertaking thematic reviews, the subgroup intends to look at trends across different themes and reviews to determine if there is benefit in undertaking audits across Scotland and then linking into learning reviews.

A Quality Improvement Framework Working Group has been established which will work with the Care Inspectorate to develop a Framework of Quality ASP Indicators which can be used by Partnerships across Scotland to develop a consistent approach to audit and self-evaluation activity and can be utilised by the Care Inspectorate in relation to inform future ASP Inspection activity.

Advocacy and service user voice

This Subgroup has a main group of interested parties and a smaller working group model who actively take work forward and then report back to the main Subgroup and ultimately to the full National ASP Implementation Group. The Group has developed three workstreams:   

• adults are supported by independent advocacy (led by Suzanne Swinton - SIAA) and Heather Irving (ASP Lead - North Lanarkshire) - draft document is currently being developed
• good practice guide for ASP case conferences (led by Kay Leary - Scottish Borders) and Kate Fennel (Napier University) - draft document is currently being developed
• good practice guide for to seeking feedback (led by Val Vertigans - ASP Lead Officer - Aberdeen City) - collating resources identified by areas following the scoping exercise carried out in summer 2023

Inquires and use of investigatory powers and the role of council officer 

Subgroup 4 is working to ensure a consistent interpretation of the ASP revised Code of Practice, to standardise interpretation across APCs and partner agencies. This group have already developed their first piece of work in relation to guidance concerning the role of non-Council Officers within ASP and the oversight that is required. This is the document to be considered today by the Forum. The sub-group is also looking at two other pieces of work:

• discussing and gaining clarity in relation to when a fuller ASP risk assessment under ASP is triggered
• establishing when the Adult who is the subject of the ASP Inquiry is made aware that they are the subject of an ASP inquiry and what constitutes best practice in relation to this and when/how the adult is made aware of their rights under ASP 

Large scale investigation guidance

Jeanette Sutton, IRISS, provided an update on the work that is being done to develop Large Scale Investigation Guidance in 2024. The ASP National Large Scale Investigation Framework was published in June 2023. This framework offers a set of processes and principles that is helpful to those conducting or participating in a Large-Scale Investigation (LSI). It also contains practice steps that can be considered as hallmarks of good practice. It also works alongside local guidance. A Short Life Working Group (SLWG) has been created to produce consistent and transparent national guidance. They also aim to firm up the Framework and fill in any gaps. As well as the guidance they intend to produce templates and practical material that will be useful in all LSIs. The SLWG has met twice and has been publicising the forthcoming guidance. It is proactively trying to capture perspectives not represented on the SLWG. A draft structure has been created for the guidance. They are continuing to work outside the meetings to ensure to evolve the guidance. The third meeting of the SLWG is due to take place at the end of March or the beginning of April. They will confirm the structure for the guidance. They will discuss how to start and end an LSI and what the guidance should contain in these sections. They will also be debating on how much should be written on prevention/alternatives other than an LSI. There will also be a continuing reflection to check that the guidance will not have an implicit residential care bias

Improvement and inspection

Mike Harkin, Service Manager, Care Inspectorate and Winnie Burke, Strategic Inspector, Care Inspectorate, reflected on the data and analysis of the Annual Report for Significant Case Reviews and Learning Reviews between 1 October 2022 and 30 November 2023. The report evidence base was gathered from the analysis of the report; five regional focus groups with representatives from 31 protection committees; and from survey responses from twenty protection committees. Thirty-one notifications were recorded from ten committees. Ten cases proceeded to learning reviews. Of these cases six were submitted during this reporting period. The Review Notification Key Messages and Observations are as follows:

• most prominent primary types of harm – self-neglect, self-harm, and neglect
• leading service types – alcohol, substance misuse and dementia & frailty
• what led to a review – missed opportunities to protect adults, risk identification and communication
• twenty two of the thirty-one notifications were from three partnerships
• decision making was proportionate
• there was a lack of information following reviews other than; earning reviews the Care Inspectorate
• are at early stages of implementing trauma informed practice
• capacity and resource issues are limited the availability of internal reviewers and chairs
• there is strong strategic leadership and governance
• legal literacy remains an area for improvement
• there is a lack of SMART recommendations
• clarity in the process is needed when national recommendations are made
• measuring and evaluating the impact of reviews on practice requires development.
• involving staff at all levels is critical to embedding recommendations and improvement. aligning adult and children’s review guidance provides benefits     

The next steps to improve practice in adult support and protection are to:

• introduce a national approach to trauma informed practice
• develop a SMART implementation plan and governance framework to support joint protection work
• develop the role of the care Inspectorate

Cross party update

Sinead Power, Head of Public Protection, OCSWA, Scottish Government gave an update her work as Head of Public Protection. Scottish Government have been jointly working with the SOLACE Public Protection Group to improve accountability and develop a public protection leadership group to support best practice. They are also seeking an assurance function for the NCS from the National Public Protection Leadership Group.   

Workforce

Iain Ramsay, Professional Social Work Adviser, OCSWA, Scottish Government, gave an update on the work he is doing to develop an Advanced Practice Framework for Social Work (APF). The aim is to coordinate the development of an APF which sets out the structures that support social workers to progress through different career phases. The APF will describe a cohesive and supportive series of academic, learning, and developmental and work-based opportunities to support the workforce. He set out the reasons for producing the framework. These are that social work is a complex and diverse profession and social workers are based in many organisations and settings. They should feel confidence in their practice, have consistent access to high quality learning and development opportunities. There should also be consistency of best practice across the profession, as staff are working in an increasingly complex policy environment and workplace challenges.

To date they have held seven in-person events at locations, including Ayr, Dundee and Lerwick. They attended and sought views at several on-line events. They also spoke to over 200 social work students, social workers, and social work leaders. At these events they presented the proposed element of the APF. They gathered a wealth of valuable feedback to develop the Advanced Practice Framework for Social Work, which reflects the thoughts, comments and experiences shared across the engagement events by social workers, social work leaders, and social work students.

The framework will contain core, practice specific and mandatory elements. It will highlight the value and importance of appropriate access to learning and development opportunities. It will acknowledge the importance of workplace learning and provide a formal pathway for consolidating and enhancing knowledge to support career development. It will link to registration, CPL requirements, existing social work frameworks and standards. It will also reflect the important role social workers play in multi-disciplinary teams.

Development and key activities

National ASP Awareness Day – 20th February 2024

Brenda Walker confirmed that the National ASP Communications Group provided resources to support ASP Awareness Day 2024. This included a Resource Media Pack and two animations (https://www.iriss.org.uk/news/news/2024/02/07/national-adult-support-and-protection-awareness-day-2024). The focus of the day was on general ASP awareness and a highlight on Sextortion. Anecdotally there was a general feeling of an increase in Comms activity this year in relation to ASP Awareness Day. A survey has been conducted to check these perceptions.

First in-person ASPire (Adult Support and Protection innovation and reflection event)

Brenda also gave an update on the in-person ASPire event, which took place on Thursday 22nd February in Stirling. The Programme for the event was collated from information in relation to current ASP topics being discussed in several arenas over the last 9 months or so, including meetings and surveys.

Key speeches included.

• an input from Police Scotland on sextortion
• an overview of a recent case investigated by the Mental Welfare Commission in which undue pressure featured, followed by an input from a solicitor in relation to the legal aspects of undue pressure linked to ASP
• a presentation from the care inspectorate in relation to their findings from analysing the learning reviews submitted in the last year and the focus groups held to discuss these findings with the ASP community

Feedback on the day was extremely positive and a formal evaluation is going out in the next week.

Sextortion   

Sergeant Mary Wilson, Cybercrime Harm Prevention Team, Scottish Police, gave a presentation on Sextortion. She explained that sextortion is financially motivated sexual extortion which involves the threat of sharing sexual information, images, or clips to extort money from people, whether images exist or not. Forms of Sextortion, include phishing e-mails, social media, hacked accounts or devices, non-consensual intimate image sharing and child sexual abuse and exploitation. There has been a 61% in reports from 2022. The figures are likely to be much higher when considering the sextortion attempts that go unreported, and any unknown unsuccessful attempts. Sextortion offences represented 12% of all cybercrimes reported in 2023. This highlights the sheer prevalence of the crime. 1975 incidents were reported in 2023. 93% of perpetrators remain unidentified and undetected. The most impacted age range is 16-20 years old. 66% of victims met demands made by perpetrators. In 32% of cases financial demand is made in vouchers and gift cards. The key finds are:

• the primary targets of financial sextortion are boys and young men
• many criminals use a similar strategy involving snapchat and instagram posing as an attractive female
• criminals can easily create fake accounts to target potential victims and access their personal information and social networks
• complying to demands for money typically leads to further demands
• the only way to fight sextortion is prevention
• victim-led approach is paramount. This means non-judgemental advice, signposting, and tools to put the control back in their hands.

The impact of sextortion can affect many aspects of a person’s life, such as cultural/religious, financial, mental health, relationship breakdown and outing of LGBT+ people.

What to do if you are being sextorted. Do stop the chat; Do take screenshots of the text and profile. Do block the account and report it to the platform. Do report to Police Scotland. Do get Support. Don’t send more images. Don’t pay. Don’t respond to demands. Don’t enter into further communication. Don’t think you’re alone. People can also contact the Revenge Porn Helpline (035 6000 459) or National Cyber Security Centre for guidance on protecting yourself from sextortion.

Meeting close

The meeting closed at 11.40am.