Gateshead Safeguarding Adults Annual Report 2024/25
Introduction
Working together to safeguard adults at risk
The role of the Safeguarding Adults Board is to bring together key organisations in order to coordinate their work in safeguarding people with care and support needs from abuse, neglect and self-neglect. Safeguarding remains at the heart of everything we do. Our collective commitment is to ensure the safety and dignity of people by putting the person at the heart of what we do and that commitment to protection is unwavering.
The Safeguarding Adults Board is made up of a breadth of member organisations and the board's aim is to link in to all those organisations that provide care, support, and advice, or who may simply come into contact with someone who may need help.
The Annual Report gives an insight into the ongoing work being undertaken to help and protect adults in Gateshead. A vast amount of work is undertaken by members of the public, carers, volunteers and practitioners across Gateshead, who each and every day strive to keep people safe.
Safeguarding in focus: Achievements and future priorities
This report sets out our achievements and highlights the challenges we face as a Safeguarding Adults Board. It provides updates on progress made against our key strategic priorities for this year and sets out the priorities we have set for the year ahead.
We have set out our progress and achievements linked to the key aims below within the detail of the annual report:
- Strengthening safeguarding
- Learning and development
- Data and information
- Prevention of harm
- Involvement and engagement
Learning through review: Strengthening safeguarding across Gateshead
The year has presented many challenges including the need to commission an *independent thematic review. The focus of the review was to look at how effective organisational and system safeguarding processes were; it was commissioned independently after significant safeguarding issues in a care home were highlighted.
The outcomes of the thematic review, Serious Adult Reviews and other reviews provide the opportunity for learning and development. In conjunction with these reviews there is an increasing number of safeguarding enquiries across Gateshead and the differing types of issues they cover is growing significantly which system partners need to understand and respond to.
There is much learning to be done but the commitment and aspiration to continue to improve the way we work, the way we involve and include people, and their families is shared across the safeguarding partnership.
Safeguarding in action: Learning, responding, improving
It is against this background of increasing understanding and demand for safeguarding that this report demonstrates persistence to reduce the safeguarding risk to adults, and to respond effectively when some of the most vulnerable members of our community are victims of abuse and or exploitation.
There is much learning to be done but the commitment and aspiration to continue to improve the way we work, the way we involve and include people, and their families is shared across the safeguarding partnership.
Nicola Bailey
Independent Chair, Gateshead Safeguarding Adults Board
*An independent thematic review is a structured evaluation or analysis conducted by an external or impartial party, focusing on a specific theme, issue, or area of interest.
