Vikki Bunting, Adult Social Services
A day at the beach, and how each of us play a vital role in safeguarding
Recently my friend, her husband and two children came to visit me in Norfolk and we all trundled to lovely Cromer beach. They live in Birmingham so have not been to the beach in the children’s living memory and they were amazed. I am reminded how lucky we are to be in a coastal county and have such ready access to the beach and the sea in all its wonder.
As we were at the beach, I found myself repeating the same phrase, “that’s just how it is at the beach”. There were concerns about my dress being soaked to the waist, concerns about the sun cream and sand mixtures being stuck to us, the temperature of the sea, the impact of the doormats on the children’s skin as they flew down the helter skelter… “that’s just how it is at the beach”.
I dread this phrase. When I hear it in care environments “that’s just how it is”; “that’s how we have always done it”.
These phrases usually make me cringe (and I sure there are many working in care who also cringe too) and fear for the quality of care that people receive. It is indicative of care quality that does not consider the person, suits the care provider rather than the person. It doesn’t allow for growth, development of the people we support, nor does it consider their individuality. In a time when we are all concerned about efficiency that we can miss our purpose: to support the people of Norfolk who have additional needs.
I have been in my current role for three years now. Part of my role is to collate concerns about care providers for people with a learning disability and autism in Norfolk. We meet weekly to review care providers of concern and collate the ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ intelligence from all areas. The meeting is a collaboration with Care Quality Commission, Integrated Care Board and key Norfolk County Council teams. We discuss the ‘soft’ intelligence from operational visits and the ‘hard’ intelligence from reports, inspections and assessments of the services. This means we can more effectively monitor the services where we see systemic concerns.
The size of your power
Whilst at the beach there was some form of construction happening and the largest machinery I have ever seen passed us by. At the end of the long line of these large machines, which the children likened to dinosaurs, a small vehicle followed. At the time we laughed at the stark difference of the size of the vehicle and what role it must have in relation to the larger equipment. In hindsight, this is how it can feel working for a large organisation, especially as a frontline practitioner: a small cog in a very large machine.
Every practitioner in your organisation is important and necessary to be able to complete our jobs. Particularly those practitioners who are visiting care environments or those who are working to provide the care and sharing their concerns - whether safeguarding or other types of concerns - they're the most important cog in the machine.
For the Provider of Concern Group this feedback enables the weekly discussions about how we can support organisations. We have a few mottos in the weekly group but one of our clear agreed rules is that anyone can add a provider of concern but everyone must agree to take them off monitoring. This is important in recognising how any concerns are addressed but also that every person in that meeting has different professional experience that can offer an alternative view on the care delivery and how to improve, monitor and support these services.
Sometimes it can be difficult to understand where we fit in as organisations but be reassured that your feedback and work is crucial to the safeguarding system and the positive care delivery for people in Norfolk.
When I asked the six year old what her favourite part of the day was, she replied “everything” and despite moaning about the four hour journey wanted to know when she could come back to the beach. Sometimes the journey is long but the destination worthwhile!
Read more about Vikki’s research here: