If an adult is harmed or dies whilst in a Trust’s care as a result of suspected abuse or neglect then an NHS Trust can find itself under the spot light of multiple interested parties.
This will involve a Safeguarding Adults Board and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Trusts may find that the police and coroner are also interested.
The primary purpose of a Safeguarding Adults Review (SAR) is to learn lessons from the situation however, often a finger gets pointed at the professionals who were caring for the adult when they died, despite there being multiple party input to that care package.
These processes can be complex, daunting and overwhelming. Ridouts is well placed to advice a provider during a SAR which are often document heavy, detail driven investigations.
Ridouts can help you by:
- Advising NHS Trusts on the process to be followed;
- Advising NHS Trusts in relation to their Individual Management Report in order to protect their position (especially whilst there are on-going regulatory and police investigations);
- Challenging aspects of the process which are procedurally unfair;
- Challenging the Overview Report and Executive Summary to ensure they accurately reflect a Trust’s position;
- Reviewing documentation requested by the regulators and police to advice on whether there are any areas of potential concern.
