Social Security Department safeguarding process (FOI)Social Security Department safeguarding process (FOI)
Produced by the Freedom of Information officeAuthored by States of Jersey and published on
20 October 2017.Request
Please supply the following in respect of the Social Security Department:
A
The number of times the Department's internal safeguarding process was activated during the following years:
B
A breakdown by category of the reasons which led to the Department's internal safeguarding process being activated in each individual case for the following years:
C
A breakdown of how many cases that activated the Department's internal safeguarding process resulted in other agencies being contacted, with the names of those other agencies contacted, for the following years:
If the information cannot be provided because the data is stored in different databases and the claims would need to be counted manually and the cost of doing so would exceed 12.5 hours, please just provide the annual statistics for 2014 and 2015 which would have already been collated by the Department's own Safeguarding Team and would therefore not require the requested statistics to be produced all over again (because they already exist).
Response
Social Security has internal safeguarding processes in place that feed into the Safeguarding Partnership Board (SPB) procedures. The aim of safeguarding is to improve outcomes, reduce risk and increase safety for adults and children and we have a shared responsibility to make sure that people at risk are safeguarded against all forms of abuse and harm.
Following the lead of the SPB, the Social Security Department introduced its internal safeguarding process and recording in June 2014 which is reflected in the number of referrals for that year.
Social Security staff are trained in safeguarding procedures and raising alerts. When a member of staff activates the internal safeguarding process, they will get advice and guidance from a member of the Internal Safeguarding panel. In some cases, after this discussion, a referral will be made to a more specialist agency.
As Social Security has regular contact with large numbers of customers, approximately 1000 customer interactions every day, the department, alongside other partners, plays a critical role in safeguarding vulnerable islanders.
Response to questions A and B
| | Quantity of cases reviewed by our Internal Safeguarding panel |
2014 (Jun to Dec) | 2015 |
Mental health | 6 | 15 |
Self-harm, self-neglect or missing persons | 11 | 35 |
Child welfare | 7 | 24 |
| Welfare (safety check on well-being of a person) | 26 | 79 |
Domestic violence | 7 | 16 |
| Income Support Breach 3 sanction (automatically reviewed process)* | 51 | 75 |
* An Income Support Breach 3 sanction is given to Income Support claimants if they have not fulfilled their job seeking requirements with Back to Work. This means their Income Support is stopped for at least six weeks. They are given three previous warnings.
Before issuing this sanction, the Department’s Safeguarding Panel automatically screens everyone affected to ensure that there are no safeguarding concerns.
Response to question C
| | Quantity of cases referred to a specialist agency |
2014 (Jun to Dec) | 2015 |
These specialist agencies include:
- IDVA (Independent Domestic Violence Adviser)
- JMAPPA (Jersey Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangement)
- MARAC (Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference)
- MASH (Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub)
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