Independent Review of 'The impact of Coronavirus on safeguarding and vulnerable adults'

Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Safeguarding Adults Board (CIoS SAB) are seeking to commission an independent reviewer to progress the 2023-24 Strategic Priority ‘The impact of Coronavirus on safeguarding and vulnerable adults.’
The reviewer will need to have systemic knowledge of health and social care systems and strategic/operational knowledge of safeguarding duties and practice. They will be able to define a project plan that will enable them to research and evidence the impact, good practice and learning for service commissioners and providers in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. The project will focus on safeguarding responses and practice within statutory sector partners in particular, but will also involve views from representatives of independent providers, service users (if possible) and the voluntary sector. No individual case studies will be necessary as the review will concentrate on the system responses and learning about how successfully agencies communicated and worked together during this period, rather than individual experiences.
The analysis should consider the range of the issues bullet pointed below and distinguish between the impact and learning for safeguarding services at each of the defined stages of the pandemic (See Appendix 1).
It is anticipated that the review will take approximately 15 days, with a final report to be submitted to the SAB with key learning and recommendations.
• Impact of statutory services to meet legal and statutory duties
• Impact on partnership working at frontline and strategic levels
• Examples of good practice development and on-going impact in services
• Implementation of effective local measures and government/ best practice guidance
• Prioritisation processes used for safeguarding vulnerable adults and impact on individuals
• Use of technology and new working practices in safeguarding during pandemic
• Identify outcomes achieved through changes to working practices
• Impact of withdrawal of services supporting vulnerable adults and their families
• Any adults coming to harm during the pandemic due to COVID restrictions
• Family and carer support available during pandemic and impact on their ability to care
• Support to care and nursing home sector and impact of changes due to pandemic, good practice and lessons learned to be identified
• Support to domiciliary sector and impact due to pandemic, good practice and lessons learned to be identified
• Support to voluntary and charitable sector and impact due to pandemic, good practice and lessons learned to be identified
• Statistical evidence of numbers affected by COVID, including deaths, to be examined
• Planning for future similar events in the future across services impact