We have developed a detailed action plan to ensure that we drive a number of safeguarding improvements, following our most recent Care Quality Commission (CQC) assessment of adult social care services.

What is safeguarding?

Safeguarding protects vulnerable adults with care and support needs from abuse and neglect, ensuring they can live safely and with dignity.

It involves preventing harm, stopping abuse when it occurs, and promoting the adult's right to make choices about their own life.

Safeguarding should feel like a proactive approach to ensure safety and wellbeing, rather than just a reactive response to harm. It fosters a sense of security, empowerment, and control for individuals, while also promoting a culture of prevention and early intervention.

Safeguarding is a process that is person-centred, respectful of individual needs and preferences, and focused on building trust and confidence.

Our CQC assessment

While we received an overall rating of ‘Requires Improvement’ from the CQC, the safeguarding element received a score of 1. This means that ‘evidence shows significant shortfalls for the safeguarding element of the assessment'.

CQC have a duty to notify the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care when it finds that a local authority is failing to perform its functions under the Care Act to an acceptable standard. Following this notification, we received a letter from the Minister for Care outlining his expectations for improvement, particularly around safeguarding practices.

We have developed an action plan which outlines how we are addressing these expectations, with a focus on strengthening oversight, improving pathways, and ensuring the safety and wellbeing of residents.

Our action plan

Key outcomes

• Improved safeguarding practice through more assured oversight, clear referral pathways when they suspect an adult is experiencing, or at risk of, abuse or neglect, and is unable to protect themselves
• Empowered professionals and partners who are confident in applying safeguarding principles and legal frameworks
• Accessible services that enable residents to report concerns easily and receive support when and where they need it
• Stronger performance monitoring to identify trends, drive improvements, and ensure accountability
• Clear governance and leadership that provide assurance, challenge, and strategic direction across the safeguarding system

Through this our aim is to ensure that people are kept safe from abuse, harm and neglect.

Overview of the action plan

There are a number of key actions we’re undertaking as part of our safeguarding improvement work. There are a number of priorities we’re working on and which we’re aiming to be fully complete by Summer 2026.

It is our expectation that through our improvement plan we will be able to address all concerns related to the Section 50 notice.

We are:

• Ensuring that our staff and partners understand the Care Act’s terminology, and using and applying it as part of their day-to-day work
• Ensuring strong human oversight of our safeguarding online referral form, embedding stronger monitoring and reporting, and scrutinising cases that may not have met safeguarding criteria to ensure there are no “gaps”. We have already reviewed in detail all 1,303 cases raised via the online safeguarding form, which did not identify any instances of harm
• Reviewing and simplifying the entire safeguarding adult pathway, through the development of a new, end-to-end process for how adults enter our care and support services including safeguarding
• Undertaking an audit to determine the extent to which enquiries where we require the involvement of our partners in investigations are taking place and the oversight of enquiry actions.
• Reviewing our internal safeguarding guidance documents, which help our staff and partners know how best to respond and decide on what action or support is necessary
• Strengthening our governance arrangements for scrutinising, risk assessing and approving policies, procedures, guidance and other documents. We’re also ensuring there are clear and consistent communication mechanisms for sharing new or changed documentation and that training is in place
• Ensuring that “Making Safeguarding Personal” is widely understood and consistently applied. We are working with Warrington’s independent Safeguarding Adults Board to ensure the six safeguarding principles - empowerment, prevention, proportionality, protection, partnership, and accountability) are the cornerstones for all of our safeguarding practice
• Making sure that safeguarding is everyone's business -  ensuring that it is a shared responsibility, and equally ensuring that it is supported by adult social care leadership who will provide direct scrutiny, support and challenge

How will we measure progress against the plan?

To make sure we’re making progress, our recently established adult social care improvement board is overseeing and monitoring our action plan.

We will also report our progress in detail to our Scrutiny Committee and Protecting the Most Vulnerable Committee who are providing support and challenge with our improvement plans. We also continue to welcome the support, challenge and joint working with our partners through the Warrington’s Safeguarding Adults Board.