Criteria for a SAR

Criteria for a SAR

3.1 A SAR must be commissioned when:

a. an adult in the NYSAB area has care and support needs (whether or not the local authority was meeting any of those needs).

and

b1. either dies, and the NYSAB knows or suspects that the death resulted from abuse or neglect (whether or not it knew about or suspected the abuse or neglect before the adult died)

or

b2. NYSAB knows or suspects that the adult has experienced significant harm from abuse or neglect (whether or not it knew about or suspected the abuse or neglect before the adult died).

and in both cases

• there is reasonable cause for concern about how the NYSAB, members of it (or other persons with relevant functions) worked together to safeguard the adult.

• The NYSAB has the power to undertake a discretionary SAR in other situations where it believes that there will be value in doing so. This may be where a case can provide useful insights into the way organisations are working together to prevent and reduce abuse and neglect of adults, and can include exploring examples of good practice.

3.3 Following a significant event, active consideration should be made as to whether or not a referral for a SAR is required. To support this, organisations should consider including an appropriate trigger question to include on internal incident reporting, investigation and/or review templates, or have appropriate mechanisms in place to be able to identify scenarios that require referring into the SAR process. 

3.4 It is important to note that if the nature of the incident triggers a mandatory investigation or review within the organisation concerned (eg Serious Incident Policy) this should take place without delay and in line with the organisation’s internal policy requirements. Internal governance processes and SARs are not mutually exclusive and indeed, the multi-agency perspective may provide invaluable insights to inform internal review processes and vice versa.

3.5 Section 45 of the Care Act 2014 establishes the importance of organisations sharing with the SAB information relating to the abuse or neglect of people with needs of care and support. If the SAB requests relevant information from an organisation or person (for example, in the context of a SAR) then section 45 of the Act creates a legal duty for that body or person to share what they know with the SAB. The test is that the information requested by the SAB must be for the purpose of enabling or assisting the Board to perform its functions. This includes undertaking SARs.

3.6 In the context of SARs, something can be considered serious abuse or neglect where, for example, the individual would have been likely to have died but for an intervention, or has suffered permanent harm or had reduced capacity or quality of life (whether because of physical or psychological effects) as a result of the abuse or neglect.

3.7  When considering a SAR referral, the LAR will need to establish if there is learning from a multi-agency or single-agency perspective. It is important that consideration be given to the increasingly complex landscape of the commissioning and provision of services.