Adult Safeguarding and Dignity Awards September 2022
2022 Winners
- Cheshire Wirral Partnership
- Cheshire West and Chester Adult Safeguarding Unit
The Team of the Year’s first award goes to Cheshire and Wirral Partnership Safeguarding Adult’s Team who provide a responsive and supportive safeguarding service to all the clinical teams and staff across the entire CWP footprint. This spans the entire Cheshire and Wirral localities and into neighbouring authorities. As for all teams, the last couple of years have been extremely challenging, navigating through Covid, adapting the way we provide and deliver services to ensure business continuity whilst maintaining the highest level of support and care to all CWP teams and service users. As a small team of 3 specialist nurses, they have continually evolved and adapted the way in which they have worked, predominantly remotely. This has involved familiarising themselves with new technology, finding new and ingenious ways to continue to offer support, supervision and expert advice to teams and services user across all the 3 main local authorities all who have varying systems and processes. With a plethora of experience including mental health, physical health and learning disability the team work cohesively, drawing from each other’s skills and knowledge on a daily basis to consider the optimum way to support the most vulnerable members of our population. Whether it be through informal discussions, advice to colleagues, safeguarding meetings or discussions, the team are passionately strong advocates for the ser vice users and are willing to challenge where they believe that their voice is being lost.
The second Team of the Year winner is the Local Authorities Adult Safeguarding Unit. The team have an excellent work ethic at keeping the person at the heart of any safeguarding they do. They work tirelessly in achieving the best outcome for the service users. They go above and beyond in escalating concerns to organisations to provide better outcomes for all , they don’t look in isolation but across partner agencies to seek improved outcomes and mitigate risk. The team support across adult social care any teams asking for information and advice they help where they can, they support outside of their role if needed. The team are passionate advocates for safeguarding adults at risk.
Siobhan Moffit-Lunt, Disability Positive
One example of practice as to why Siobhan is the winner of the Respect and Dignity award involved dealing with an extremely complex case over several years. Siobhan supported a service user, who required double knee replacement surgery, which would change her life. Unfortunately, she was being denied the surgery due to her learning disability. Siobhan supported the service user through 3 best interests processes, lodged two formal complaints and dealt with further delays due to the pandemic and she has also requested a second opinion Doctor. Due to her enormous tenacity, the service user has now had surgery on her right knee with the left knee due to be operated on next month. The client is overjoyed at her improved mobility, which will only improve further in the coming months. a fantastic outcome for the client! Siobhan has worked exceptionally hard in the face of great adversity to uphold her dignity and her human rights.
Dr Andy George
Doctor George is the winner of the Outstanding Contribution award for his work with serving the learning and disabilities team and is described as an incredible anaesthetist. He consistently works on the most complex lists including community dental adults and paediatrics for special needs patients, plus he is the go-to consultant for other specialities where the patient has a learning disability. Dr George was instrumental in ensuring a patient with a learning disability was able to access treatment in hospital by performing the general anaesthetic in the patient’s own home. He has no hesitation in visiting patients at home to assess them instead of trying to do this in a busy hospital environment. He is kind, caring and sensitive to the needs of the patient and their carer and we hope that this award more poignant as he is retiring this September.
St Werburghs Medical Practice for the Homeless
St Werburghs Medical Practice is the winner of the Public Community Award for their outstanding practice. The practice has served the homeless community for 20 years and remains a dynamic community focused team that specialises in people experiencing homelessness in Cheshire West and Chester. They provide clinical care to this vulnerable group of people with complex health and social care needs. The team also support their patients to engage with healthcare services through proactive outreach work and case management of complex health and social care needs.
The practice will register adults including adults at risk, who are sleeping rough, living in homes, hostels, or temporary accommodation. They ensure homeless people have fair access to healthcare which is flexible and individualised to meet their needs.
Safeguarding is integral to the everyday working of the team, and it is their diligence and persistence that identifies risks and concerns including mental health, substance misuse, exploitation, self-neglect, physical abuse, neglect, and domestic abuse. The team work collaboratively with partners to escalate risks and use a partnership approach to risk manage to keep people safe and reduce the impact of harm.
We feel that the team at St Werburghs deserve the safeguarding award for their contribution and commitment to safeguarding, reducing health inequalities, ensuring fair access to services to promote physical and mental health, and for always going the extra mile.
- Paula Foster Local safeguarding Adults Board
- Judith Griffiths, Surecare
Paula is the first of our two winners for the Special Recognition award. Paula consistently goes above and beyond what is required of her to do in her role, nothing is too much trouble, and everything is carried out in a pleasant manner. Paula is the first point of contact for the Adult Safeguarding Board as the administrator and just gives off the best impression and promotes a good reputation of the Board. She is on 18.5 hours so has to fit a lot into this role from minutes of meetings to training to supporting organising events, managing people’s diaries and responding to requests for information and produces the data report for QA. Throughout Covid Paula worked from home, like most of us did, and maintained really high standards of work as well as juggling home schooling. Paula also keeps us as a team on track reminding us of what we have to do and where we need to be as well as offering suggestions of ways to improve what we do. She is just superb and consistently goes over and above what is asked of her. Her performance is outstanding and is a worth winner of this award.
Our second winner is Judith Griffiths from Surecare as she has displayed above and beyond care and support to safeguarding a client through excellent partnership working, outstanding contribution to ensuring that clients wellbeing is ensured and maintained and we want to give her special recognition for this as it was a safeguarding and a very serious concern which Judith went above and beyond in responding and supporting and working with the individual she was able to secure a much safer outcome, which without her perseverance may have been a very different outcome for this individual.
Paula Wedd
Paula was nominated for this award in recognition of an exceptional NHS senior strategic safeguarding leader who has worked across Cheshire West and Chester for many years. Paula has clear organisational, partnership and Board dedication and commitment to ensuring that the principles and duties of safeguarding people are holistically, consistently, and conscientiously applied with the wellbeing of all, at the heart of what we do.
In her NHS director role, Paula constantly promotes exceptional safeguarding practice across all partner sectors. She respectfully challenges our team, partner agencies and the Safeguarding Adults Board to embed a culture of best safeguarding practice with shared values, vision and strategy focused on keeping adults at risk safe. Her commitment to safeguarding is second to none and as she challenges her team every day to identify areas of improvement for future safeguarding plans and ensure safeguarding underpins every aspect of health and social care practice.
Every day Paula demonstrates a passion for safe care and concern for others and her kindness impacts the lives of children, adults at risk and families without them even knowing. Paula is the unsung NHS hero behind the scenes who deserves special recognition of her strategic commitment and contribution to safeguarding.
Advocacy Team, Disability Positive
The Advocacy Team are the winners of the Service User Award who have faced many challenges over the last couple of years, not least due to the pandemic. The team have gone above and beyond to continue to deliver advocacy in the community, ensuring that service users health and welfare are safeguarded as a priority. The team have dealt with two supported living services and a clinical setting during the pandemic where ‘blanket’ DNARs were placed on the service users which should only be authorised where the service user has significant co-morbidities, which would preclude the option of CPR.
The team approached the setting and engaged a lawyer who wrote to the setting.
As a result, the blanket DNAR’s were all lifted, and we supported the decision makers to assess the service users appropriately and individually for DNAR’s.
Kim Christopher, Cheshire West and Chester Community Safety Team
Kim is the winners of the Partnership Working team. Kimberley joined Cheshire West and Chester’s Community Safety Team during Covid Lockdown. Despite these challenges, Kim went above and beyond despite her relative lack of experience with a very complex complaint involving vulnerability/Anti-social Behaviour/and allegations of harassment. This was a complex neighbour complaint, where Kim identified the victims (one elderly, with medical issues). The case involved several complainants (all elderly including the perceived offender) Kim liaised with Social Care, the Police, initiated mediation offers, consistent weekly phone calls and visits to the vulnerable complainants, she had to deal with allegations that did not fall within a legal framework so being innovative whilst still being supportive. This issue continued for over 6 months before being resolved and all parties now living in peace with each other. This case was unique as it needed a supportive, empathetic officer, with patience, problem solving ability and resilience as the people involved were extremely vulnerable and demanding at the same time.