The Manchester Safeguarding Partnership (MSP) partners are clear about their responsibilities to learn from experience and improve their services as a result.
Findings from Safeguarding Adult Review (SARs) are an essential part of this process and provide an opportunity to reflect and learn.
On the 6 August 2020 the MSP published its Homeless Thematic Review.
Between June and October 2018 Manchester Safeguarding Adults Board (part of the Manchester Safeguarding Partnership) received seven referrals where an individual who was homeless had died. In the majority of these cases the cause of death was self-neglect and the Board decided that in the public interest they should commission a thematic review to determine what lessons should be learned from these tragic circumstances. The Board commissioned Professor Michael Preston Shoot, Emeritus Professor of Social Work at the University of Bedfordshire, to undertake the review. Professor Preston Shoot pursued a number of key lines of inquiry of factors associated with homelessness that could result in serious safeguarding concerns. These factors included:
- Drug and alcohol misuse
- Mental health needs
- The lack of availability of accommodation for the homeless
- The impact of family breakdown on homelessness
- The incidence of domestic violence and abuse among homeless people
- The influence of criminality and involvement in the criminal justice system among the homeless
The thematic review provides a detailed examination of how these needs related to the homeless people who died and agency responses to their circumstances. The review concludes with 19 recommendations for change to both the City’s homelessness strategy and its approach to the contributory factors. These recommendations have been accepted by the MSP and will be the subject of an interagency action plan overseen by the MSP over the next year.
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