The Nottingham City Safeguarding Adults Board (NCSAB) is the statutory forum for agreeing on how services, agencies, organisations, and the community work together to safeguard adults at risk of harm and abuse. On 20 May 2024, the Practice Development Unit (PDU) joined Changing Futures and other representatives from a range of agencies within the NCSAB partnership for the NCSAB Annual Conference 2024, which this year was themed around the topic of Severe and Multiple Disadvantage (SMD).
Hosted by Nottinghamshire Police at the Fire and Rescue Headquarters and facilitated by members of the Safeguarding Adults Board, this in-person event was an opportunity to engage a wide cross-sector audience on the SMD agenda locally and to consider the interface with adult safeguarding with a view to supporting joined-up, collaborative working. The sessions explored the journey of SMD in Nottingham to date and the impact it had, drawing on links to local strategies, the work of the Nottingham SMD Place-Based Partnership, and the Changing Futures programme, in addition to the recent establishment of an SMD Centre of Excellence within primary care by colleagues in Nottingham City GP Alliance (NCGPA). The conference helped raise awareness of referral pathways and service provision, as well as highlight the work conducted by multi-agency panel meetings such as Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC), Slavery Exploitation Risk Assessment Conference (SERAC), and the SMD Wraparound Multi-Disciplinary Team. There was also time for Q&A discussions around future planning.
Over 120 delegates attended the event, with feedback from the conference being taken forward by the NSCAB Training and Implementation Learning group to inform further workforce development and learning.
