Message from Bill Atkinson, the Adult Protection Committee Independent Chair
Welcome to the Perth and Kinross Adult Protection Website, which is continually updated and maintained by the Perth and Kinross Adult Protection Committee (APC). Within this website, you will find a wide range of information and advice about adult protection and how we seek to safeguard the welfare and the interest of adults in Perth, together with useful links and downloads.
On behalf of the Perth and Kinross Adult Protection Committee members, I hope that you will find this website informative, helpful and user friendly. We are keen to continue the development of this website and we would welcome any comments and suggestions you may have. Please feel free to contact us at hscpadultprotectionadmin@pkc.gov.uk to let us know what you think.
What are APCs?
The Adult Support and Protection Committee (APC) is a multi-agency forum that meets quarterly to consider how to develop and improve inter agency work to support and protect vulnerable adults in Perth and Kinross. Membership of the APC is made up of statutory and independent agencies and organisations; representatives of users and carers and other stakeholders involved in the wide range of services which support vulnerable adults in the area. The APC regularly reviews and refreshes the membership to ensure it continues to reflect the diverse range of circumstances covered by Adult Protection legislation and policy.
The roles and responsibilities of the APC are set in statutory and national guidance and the APC is responsible for the delivery of national and local priorities articulated in its Annual and Biannual Reports. The APC is driven by its vision of "People have the right to live independently as possible in a safe environment, free from harm, to have their wishes and feelings taken into account and to have minimal amount of intervention into their private lives"
Broadly, the APC 's work covers three main areas:
Strategic planning
The APC is accountable locally to the Integrated Joint Board of the HSCP, and the Community Planning Partnership and nationally to the relevant ministers in the Scottish Government.
The APC is one of a number of Committees that contribute to a Public Protection Partnership Approach in Perth and Kinross seeing the benefits of a collaborate approach to tackling the long standing and deep-rooted issues that challenge individual partnerships (e.g., substance misuse; violence against women; abuse and neglect; management of offenders, etc) This approach is a major priority for the APC
Continuous improvement
A considerable proportion of the APC s time and work is focused on a variety of activities that contribute to improving the policies, processes, and procedures and ultimately the practice of ASP work in Perth and Kinross through the implementation of local and national priorities. An important part of the Annual plan is the Improvement plan setting out the areas of priority going forward and how they will be achieved within timescales. Included in this are Learning and development work; Policies and procedures; self-evaluation and improvement work; audit, review, and Inspection and lastly and importantly Learning Review work which includes local cases subject of Case Review and also learning from cases across the country.
Public information and engagement
The APC is committed to engaging with service users and carers in the service delivery and planning of Adult Support and Protection services in Perth and Kinross. Different approaches have been tried to do this with different groups of vulnerable adults and with all vulnerable adults meaningfully and helpfully and this remains a priority and a challenge for the APC going forward.
The Adult Protection Committee has a significant role in ensuring co-operation and communication within and between agencies to promote appropriate support and protection as set out in section 42 (2) of the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007.
Full guidance (PDF) [229KB] for Adult Protection Committees has been issued by the Scottish Government. Perth & Kinross Council along with the University of Stirling, East Dumbartonshire Council and Falkirk Council commissioned research (PDF) [884KB] in 2011 exploring how practitioners support and protect adults at risk of harm in light of the Adult Support and Protection Act. We have also produced our own operational guidance. (PDF) [2MB] .
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