Recommendation 6

HM Government Accepted

The Department recognises it has a responsibility to support vulnerable claimants and takes this responsibility seriously. All staff working with claimants undertake comprehensive training to equip them with the skills to be able to support claimants who express an intention of suicide or self-harm. The Department has an established Six Point Plan for staff to follow when they identify a claimant who may be at risk of harming themselves. Also, since 2020, the Department has introduced Advanced Customer Support roles. Staff in these roles are responsible for providing personal support to the Department’s most vulnerable claimants. Whilst the Department does not have a statutory safeguarding responsibility, the Department expects all staff who work with claimants to undertake safeguarding awareness training, which is why it is now incorporated into the fundamental learning routeway for all customer-facing staff. All health professionals working for assessment providers are highly trained clinicians and understand the importance of safeguarding and suicide prevention within their role. They carry out their duties to ensure that during the assessment process the appropriate action is taken, if required, to support and protect claimants. All providers continually review their processes and approach to ensure they remain fit for purpose and respond to any feedback provided directly from claimants. Assessment providers: • Deliver mandatory safeguarding training to all health professionals to ensure they are fully aware of their safeguarding policies and the situations in which a vulnerable adult or child should be referred to their GP, social services or the police to ensure they receive appropriate support. • Have designated safeguarding leads or teams and/or area safeguarding leads who have all received additional training in safeguarding. • Share safeguarding statistics monthly with the Department and discuss best practice and overarching themes at quarterly roundtable events, which all assessment providers attend. Safeguarding referrals are supported by the long-established Unexpected Findings process. This serves to ensure a claimant’s GP is informed of unexpected or potentially serious physical or mental health symptoms or clinical findings that may be revealed as part of an assessment. This information is best directed towards the GP as they are in the best position to ensure the claimant gets the correct medical follow-up. Assessment providers recognise that suicide awareness and prevention are interlinked, and that both are required to provide effective understanding and support. Providers deliver suicide awareness and prevention training to all their staff through Zero Suicide’s Suicide Awareness Training module and provide detailed steps on dealing with emergency situations relating to claimant welfare. All provider non-clinical, claimant-facing staff and health professionals undertake safeguarding training to provide an understanding of legislation, and they have the necessary skills needed to invoke safeguarding procedures.