The agenda for this meeting suggests that the Board will receive a report on its work to safeguard adults at risk in Newham. The Board is also scheduled to hear from Healthwatch Newham about the services they are providing to the community, and to consider endorsing their Patient Information Systems leaflet.

Newham Safeguarding Adults Board Annual Report 2023/2024

The report pack includes the Newham Safeguarding Adults Board (NSAB) Annual Report 2023/2024 (NHWBB Report Template 2025 updated January 2025 SAB Annual Report).

The report is for the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. It details the work of the NSAB in that period, set against a backdrop of significant change at the board, including the appointment of Sola Afuape as the new chair following the death of the previous chair, Fran Pearson, and a restructure of the board's business unit.

The report lays out the board's priorities for 2023-2026:

• Mental Capacity: This was identified as a priority due to feedback from case file reviews and learning and recommendations from authored Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SARs) indicating this was an area where practice development is required.
• Cuckooing¹: A working group has been set up to address concerns that there wasn’t sufficient awareness of the prevalence in Newham.
• Self Neglect: A working group has been set up with the goal of co-producing a Multi-Agency Self-Neglect Policy and Practitioner Toolkit.
• All Age Exploitation: The report describes the work being undertaken with Newham's Children's Services to identify and address instances of exploitation.

The report also notes the high number of Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SARs)² being undertaken by the board.

The NSAB SAR Subcommittee serves as the decision-making body for SAR referrals, using the SCIE Quality Markers to guide SARs and ensure quality standards are met.

The report concludes with some data on safeguarding in Newham, including that 1,494 safeguarding concerns were raised with the NSAB. The most commonly reported form of abuse was psychological abuse, followed by financial abuse. This is a change from 2022/23, when neglect was the second most common form of abuse reported.

Healthwatch Newham Update

The agenda includes a report on the work of Healthwatch Newham (HWBB Cover Report 27.1.25).

Healthwatch Newham is an independent organisation that gathers and represents the views of people who use health and social care services in Newham.

We are committed to gathering the voices of Newham’s communities and present them back to statutory providers. We produce reports which will include low and no-cost solutions for improvements which will be published on our website and reported to the Healthwatch England and our regulator the Care Quality Commission.

The report describes the work Healthwatch Newham have been doing, and is expected to ask the board to:

• Comment on the revised design of a Patient Health Systems Information Leaflet (HWN Patient Information Sheet).
• Note the insights gathered about the impact of mental health issues on the personal and social relationships of people in Newham's Congolese community.
• Note a report (Presentation HWN- Deaf Outreach Worker) from the Deaf Outreach Worker. The Deaf Outreach worker is a new role funded by the NHS for three years to improve access to health and social care services for deaf people in Newham. The worker is hosted by Healthwatch Newham on behalf of the Newham Health and Care Partnership and was appointed in October 2024. The report discusses the work undertaken so far, and makes a number of suggestions about how to improve the accessibility of services. These include:
  • Providing a range of ways for deaf people to contact their GP, including text, email, and Video Relay Service (VRS).
  • Improving the accessibility of the Well Newham website by adding a clear 'Deaf/HOH' Information Box on the Homepage, and including British Sign Language (BSL) videos for important information.
  • Implementing sign language options in physical locations such as Well Newham HUBs.
  • Creating programs or initiatives within Newham HUBs to reduce isolation among deaf residents.