This page is designed to answer the following questions:
- 3.1 Explain agreed protocols for working in partnership with other organisations (Level 4 Diploma in Adult Care, Understand Safeguarding and Protection in Health and Social Care Settings)
NOTE: This page has been quality assured for 2023 as per our Quality Assurance policy.
Your organisation should have internal policies and procedures in place for working in partnership with others in relation to safeguarding and you should familiarise yourself with these agreed ways of working. This should include a shared commitment to the protection and safeguarding of vulnerable individuals with an emphasis on their wellbeing.
The Care Act 2014 makes it a statutory requirement for organisations, agencies and professionals to work together in partnership to protect and safeguard vulnerable individuals. As stated in the Care & Support Statutory Guidance:
Local authorities must cooperate with each of their relevant partners…and those partners must also cooperate with the local authority.
Relevant partners include NHS England, Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts, Department for Work and Pensions, the police, prisons, probation services, general practitioners, dentists, pharmacists, housing, and health and social care providers.
Chapter 14.187 of this document states that “Agencies should draw up a common agreement relating to confidentiality and setting out the principles governing the sharing of information, based on the welfare of the adult or of other potentially affected adults.“, so there will be agreed protocols in place for the sharing of information – these should be developed in line with Caldicott Principles.