Case Conference Dissent, Dispute and Complaints
4.1 Any agency, adult or their carers have the right of access to complaints procedures should they disagree with any decision or outcome arising from the Case Conference process. Similarly, all parties retain the right to request a review of their care provision at any time.
4.2 Under the Adult Support and Protection Case Conference procedures any dissent or dispute or complaint occurring, within the proceedings of the Case Conference must be recorded in the relevant minute. The Chairperson holds ultimate responsibility for decision-making within the Adult Support and Protection Case Conference and subsequent ASP Review Case Conferences.
4.3 However, any serious dissent/ dispute or complaint must be reported to senior management and local procedures followed to deal with disputes and complaints.
Escalation
4.4 When staff are working together with an adult, sometimes professional disagreements can occur that those involved are not able to resolve. In these situations, it is critical that such issues are resolved as quickly as possible to avoid potential “drift” in the delivery of support and protection to the adult. The escalation process aims to support positive resolution of professional difference between agencies working with adults at risk in Dumfries and Galloway at the earliest opportunity i.e. issues should aim to be resolved by those directly working with the adult (stage one) before escalation to managers. This could be achieved via a Professionals’ Meeting.
4.5 Where disagreements cannot be resolved by allocated workers, any agency worker may require escalation of issues through the line management structures.
4.6 Professional differences are not, intrinsically, a negative thing when working in an area of such complexity as Adult Support and Protection. One of the key reasons for multi-agency working in this area is the recognition and understanding that no single profession of professional will have the answer or solution in isolation. It should therefore be expected that, at times, professionals may see particular situations in different ways. What is most important, however, is that all professionals should feel comfortable with both challenging a particular view or opinion respectfully and with accepting such challenges occurring.
4.7 For high risk, complex cases (for example, extreme self-neglect) where it has not been possible to effectively address risks (i.e. the adult will not engage and has refused offers of support) multi-agency escalation and planning should occur to ensure all reasonable steps are in place to mitigate risk.