Your Roles in the Council
Corporate Roles
Your formal roles within the council will vary, but there are some responsibilities common to all councillors. It is important that you familiarise yourself with your council’s policies in this area.
Some important areas of responsibility are:
Safeguarding Adults
The Social Services and Well-being Act 2014 defines an adult at risk as an adult who:
a. is experiencing or is at risk of abuse or neglect,
b. has needs for care and support (whether or not the council is meeting any of those needs); and
c. as a result of those needs is unable to protect him or herself against the abuse or neglect or the risk of it.
If a council has reasonable cause to suspect that a person within its area is an adult at risk, it must make enquiries or arrange for enquiries to be made to enable it to decide whether any action should be taken and, if so, what and by whom.
Every councillor has responsibilities in relation to safeguarding adults. Those responsibilities include your work with constituents and in the debate and decision making that you contribute to as part of the council. Alongside the NHS and the Police, councils have a key responsibility to lead in preventing the abuse and neglect of adults with care and support needs and in ensuring that there is a good response when concerns are raised. It is your role to hold to account those with statutory responsibility, the Lead Member and Director, and to ensure that adults’ rights to life and freedom from inhuman or degrading treatment are safeguarded, alongside their rights to privacy, a family life, a fair hearing and to liberty and security.
For more information
A Councillors Workbook on Safeguarding Adults is available here.
Councillors have a key role to play in safeguarding adults in a number of ways including:
- Ensuring that through the decisions they take, or through their participation in scrutiny activities, they contribute to preventing abuse and neglect from occurring.
- Assuring themselves that there are robust arrangements in place across key partners (particularly councils, the NHS and Police) to respond to concerns about abuse and neglect.
- Raising awareness about the abuse and neglect of adults in their ward work.
- Being aware of how to report abuse or neglect should they or their constituents become aware of it.
Key questions that councillors may wish to ensure that officers and partners can respond to are:
- Are services (health and social care and police responses particularly) in our area good enough to prevent neglect or abuse?
- Do services engage with people and can they demonstrate that they make a positive difference when concerns about abuse or neglect are raised?
- Do people look out for each other in our communities and do they know how to raise concerns?
Resources and guidance have been developed around a wide range of topic areas to support learning and understanding of Safeguarding for people in social care work at all levels and these are available here:
Safeguarding Children
Every Councillor has responsibilities in relation to safeguarding children and young people. Alongside the NHS and the Police, councils have a key responsibility to lead in preventing the abuse and neglect of children with care and support needs and in ensuring that there is a good response when concerns are raised.
The responses to the prevention of abuse and neglect will vary depending on circumstances. In some cases, it may be appropriate and necessary to take the child into care and this is where specific corporate parenting responsibilities come into play. In others, the safeguarding response will be to work with that child or young person and their family and identify what support is needed to ensure that they are safe and their well-being is promoted. This is often done without the need to adopt formal care proceedings.
The Social Services and Well- being Act 2014 states: A child at risk is a child who:
a. is experiencing or is at risk of abuse, neglect or other kinds of harm; and
b. has needs for care and support whether or not the authority is meeting any of those needs.
It is part of a council’s duty to safeguard and promote a child’s well-being (as set out in the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014), but what does the term ‘welfare’ mean in its encompassing of the Act’s universal well-being outcomes? The following help us understand these key aspects:
Physical and mental health and emotional well-being
Social and behavioural development
Protection from abuse and neglect
Education, training and recreation
Family and personal relationships
Involvement in the local community
Securing rights and entitlements
Social and economic well-being, including not living in poverty
Living in suitable accommodation
Councils play a crucial, statutory role in safeguarding children. This cannot be done alone and requires the co-operation of the wider community and our partner agencies. Councils can use their links with police, schools, health professionals, and community and faith groups to highlight the signs and ensure people know where to turn if they have concerns.
All councillors should take an informed and active interest in how the Council supports children and young people as this can be a very vulnerable group. It requires ownership and leadership and particularly partnership working at a senior level and this includes all elected members.
Councils also have corporate parenting responsibilities for those children who are ‘looked after’ and there are clear responsibilities which need to translate into practical actions.
Resources and guidance have been developed around a wide range of topic areas to support learning and understanding of Safeguarding for people in social care work at all levels and these are available here:
Your Responsibilities as a Corporate Parent
As a councillor, you personally carry responsibility for the care, education, and future life chances of every child that is looked after by your Council. This is because once a court has made the decision to grant a care order, the council as a whole becomes the responsible corporate parent.
Your council will have a lead member with delegated powers and statutory responsibilities under the Children Act 2004. This member will be responsible for making sure that the council is delivering its aims for local children and young people, planning improved safeguards and better outcomes and working with statutory and voluntary partners, to ensure sufficient funding, priority setting, and commissioning of services.
Overview and scrutiny committees will monitor and question the services provided to looked after children, making sure that there is a clear link between the priorities as set out in the various statutory plans, and the council’s budget. It can monitor performance and the impact of services on the lives of children who leave care. It may help develop policy for the executive to consider. It can involve relevant parties (children and young people, carers, parents, partnership organisations, and front¬line staff) in gathering evidence.
As a local councillor, you have a duty to make sure that the children and young people in your locality are sufficiently supported. Although the council will be unable to disclose information about individuals, you can check about the availability of services generally. If you are a school governor you can ask questions about the support that is available from the school for looked after children who are pupils there. It is important to remember that councillors should not get involved with the lives of individual children, or in directing officers in the care of children.
A Councillors Workbook on Corporate Parenting has been developed which is available here.