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ℹ️Introduction
This article explains how to use the Ardens Adult Safeguarding resources to identify and manage adults who have, or may have, a safeguarding concern. By the end of this article, you will be able to record safeguarding information consistently, identify adults requiring review, monitor activity within your practice and produce safeguarding documentation.
Background
Effective adult safeguarding relies on timely identification, accurate documentation, and clear communication between healthcare professionals and partner organisations.
The Ardens Adult Safeguarding resources have been developed to support GP practices in recording safeguarding information consistently and monitoring adults with safeguarding concerns.
How Ardens Can Help
Ardens provides a range of resources to help practices:
Identify adults who require safeguarding support
Record safeguarding information consistently using a dedicated clinical template
Complete safeguarding assessments and risk reviews
Maintain the safeguarding registers
Monitor safeguarding activity and referrals
Produce standardised safeguarding letters and reports
How to Access the Resources
👨⚕️ Recognition
Safeguarding concerns can come up in any consultation, planned or opportunistic. Ardens helps clinicians recognise early warning signs, record what they've seen and decide on the right next steps for the adult.
Screening
Use the Ardens template to record early safeguarding considerations before a formal concern has been raised. This could include concerns from carers or third parties, possible abuse or neglect, and any other worries supported by a risk assessment. Record the outcome, whether that's advice to return, a follow-up, a referral or a plan.
Concerns
When a concern is identified, record the status using the Ardens template. This flags the adult correctly across registers and alerts so the wider practice team can see it. The template also supports recording risk assessments, physical assessments and body maps, social information and risk factors, management plans and referrals.
📋Register
Once an adult's safeguarding status has been coded, they're automatically added to the relevant Adult Safeguarding register. The registers give the practice a clear view of every adult with a safeguarding concern, which supports ongoing review and multi-agency working.
Case Finding
Case Finder reports identify adults who may require a safeguarding review. These reports are particularly useful for identifying adults who:
have safeguarding information recorded but are not currently included on a safeguarding register
have not had a safeguarding risk assessment recorded within the last year
Running these reports regularly helps keep safeguarding registers complete and up to date.
Record Status
Whenever an adult's circumstances change, update their status using the Ardens Adult Safeguarding template so the register stays accurate. A newly coded adult shows a safeguarding alert in their record. Recording the appropriate 'no longer' code takes them off the register and removes the alert.
Register reports are available highlight coded patients.
🔄️Review
Adults on a safeguarding register should be reviewed regularly so their information stays current and their care stays coordinated. During a review, clinicians may want to use the Ardens template to:
Confirm or update the adult's safeguarding status
Record the lead professional involved in the adult's care
Complete or update a safeguarding risk assessment
Referral
If an adult needs further assessment, specialist input or multi-agency support, refer them to the appropriate service, such as the local authority adult safeguarding team, a multi-agency risk assessment conference or another external safeguarding organisation.
Standardised Adult Safeguarding and DoLS letters and forms are available to support the referral and any information sharing with partner organisations.
⚠️ Please note: Practices should follow their local processes for generating referral documents and sending referrals.
📈Evaluate
Ardens provides several resources to help practices monitor adult safeguarding activity and keep oversight of safeguarding across the practice.
Activity
Activity reports monitor adult safeguarding referrals recorded over the last year, helping practices review safeguarding activity over time.
Insights
For organisations using Ardens Manager, the Adult Safeguarding dashboard provides a practice-wide overview of adult safeguarding activity.
The dashboard includes information on:
Safeguarding referrals
Adults on safeguarding registers (of concern, vulnerable, on a protection plan or subject to DoLS)
Safety alerts requiring review
Case Finder reports
Safeguarding activity over the last year
Data can also be filtered by demographics, risk groups and other population characteristics to support monitoring and service planning.
Activity
❓FAQs
When should safeguarding information be recorded using an Ardens template?
Use the Ardens safeguarding template whenever recording a new safeguarding concern, reviewing an existing concern, or updating a patient's safeguarding status. This ensures information is recorded consistently using the appropriate SNOMED codes.
Why is it important to record safeguarding information using SNOMED codes?
Recording safeguarding information using the appropriate SNOMED codes ensures patients appear correctly within safeguarding registers, reports and alerts, supporting consistent monitoring and follow-up.
Why isn't a patient appearing in a safeguarding register or report?
Check that the appropriate safeguarding SNOMED codes have been recorded.
In SystmOne, information entered only into the Safeguarding Information node is free text and is not coded, so it will not appear in safeguarding reports or registers.
How do I remove a patient from a safeguarding register?
When a patient's safeguarding circumstances change, record the appropriate follow-up or resolved safeguarding code using the Adult Safeguarding template. This ensures the patient's safeguarding status is updated correctly across the Ardens resources.
Do Ardens safeguarding resources replace local safeguarding policies?
No. The Ardens safeguarding resources are designed to support consistent clinical recording and identification of safeguarding information. They should be used alongside your organisation's local safeguarding policies and procedures.
🏫 Additional Support
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