The Annual General Meeting of Registered Charity PAVAUK was held on Tuesday 20th October 2009 and chaired by Pete Morgan, Chair of PAVAUK

Agenda

1. Attendees

    As for the EGM there were THIRTEEN MEMBERS in attendance

2. Apologies

   Apologies were received from Glyn Jones, Emma Seymour, Jan Burnell, Julia McNaney, Bridget Penhale, Gary Fitzgerald, Lady Fiona Beare and Mick Collins.

3. Minutes of last Annual General Meeting (04.11.08)

    Minutes were accepted with apology to Leo Richards who had been listed as Leo Williams

4. Matters arising

    There were no matters arising other than above at 3)

5. Election of Trustees

   Trustees remaining and confirmed as of todays date:- Dr Leslie R Angell,  Pete Morgan, Julia McNaney making the three required at all times.  By rotation Dr Mervyn Eastman and Mick Collins stood down but were re-elected. Having been co-opted since 2008 Stephanie Angell was elected a Trustee, she to fill the vacancy  left by Dr Karen Dodd who resigned earlier in 2009 on her promotion and movement away from Safeguarding. Mr Glyn Jones who has been appointed Director of Services for Bracknell and in the main was no longer eligible as a Trustee, agreed to stand down and this fact  later in the meeting received enthusiastic praise of Glyn's work since almost the start of PAVA within which he has held most offices and made a tremendous contribution. He was thanked sincerely.  Two new Trustees were then formally elected - Ann Rouine and Caroline Coats.   All Trustees voted en block by the meeting.

6. President’s Report

     

   In reviewing the past year , I wish firstly to thank our trustees who have shown their ongoing commitment in progressing the work of PAVA. The support of those who hold office and have taken a great deal of activity in the management and administration of the charity is especially acknowledged, Pete Morgan our chair , Dr. Les Angell and Stephanie who have in a large part ensured the sustainability financial management and development. Mick Collins who leads PAVA national work in Wales has ensured a robust and well regarded profile and peter and I were privileged recently to have contributed to a very successful all Wales conference.

   
    

   Our work programme (2008 -2011) has been under regular review and evaluation by the board and seeks to be realistic but also aspirational !

   
    

   The newsletter and website co-ordinated and managed by Steph and Les have over the year been revamped and we hope members find them informative and accessible . The need for contributions remains and we encourage all members to reach for their PCs or pens and send in their literacy efforts.

   
    

   PAVA exists for practitioners: and though we are a relatively small charity , we believe that those workers facing the almost daily dilemmas in safeguarding need a platform to share their perspectives and experiences . We would especially welcome memberships from the police and housing agencies all in addition to those practitioners working within the acute trusts.

   
    

   One area of concern for the board is that of sustaining and developing local or even regional PAVA groups. This has always been one of our unique attributes.. Unfortunately many groups have floundered over the past twelve months despite the fact we have increased our individual membership, so in looking forward to our next year we will be focusing on this particular aspect of our work. Any members interested in starting a local PAVA group do please let us know. We are able to provide a modest start up sum of money as keen to meet with anybody willing and able to give your time in forming /co-ordinating such a forum of local practitioners

   
    

   We have over the past year regularly contributed to national consultation papers from government deptartments and other bodies that impact on protection and safeguarding and we are grateful for the opportunities . Again my thanks to the officers of the board who have given PAVA's view on these various documents.

   
    

   Finally, PAVA is also about partnerships and over the past twelve months we have retained and developed our association with organizations that have an interest and role in safeguarding, both third sector, statutory and others. Our thanks too to those who share our vision of empowering practitioners to protect.

   
    

   We are very much looking forward to next year.

   Dr. Mervyn Eastman

   Co-Founder and President.

7. Treasurer’s Report

     

   Treasurers Report 2008/2009

   I act as Treasurer for the Board of Trustees of The Registered Charity PAVAUK plus as the 'responsible person' under The Charities Act. I confirm that all statutory details and recording under The Charities Act have been complied with as has the annual return of trading and declaration of Officers and Trustees.

   Our bankers are HSBC, Fore Street, Tiverton, Devon. Transactions carried out by conventional means with emphasis on e banking to reduce costs and charges. The cheque signatories are two of :- President, Chair and Treasurer.

   Like the majority of charities and charitable causes the 'credit crunch' and recession has seen a great deal of change in the ability and desire of people and organisations to join charities such as PAVAUK.

   
    

   I place on record our thanks to Mr Norman Campion, a retired NHS Records Executive who has worked tirelessly to send out over 600 approaches to individuals and structures involved in safeguarding and adult protection, plus all police forces who are not currently members. The police force approaches received two enquiries so far and of the some 600 we have had only a handful of responses.

   
    

   For the first time in the history of PAVAUK we have fallen below the threshold limit requiring full account auditing but accountability has been proven by independent validation of an accounts officer of Devon County Council. These figures have been accepted by The Charity Commissioners.

   
    

   Figures of 2008-2009 were:- Credits 7095.95

   Debits 5812.85

   Income 1283.10

   
    

   For sake of completeness the balances at bank as of 28^th September 2009 stand at:-

   
    

   Current account:- 2380.00

   Deposit account:- 5701.71

   Short term investment bond :- 22,500.00

   Total:- 30,581.71 (31,774.77 31.10.2008)

   
    

   Given without erasure

   
    

   
    

   Dr Leslie R Angell KOV KT Hkt.B FRGS MMRS MCPara PhD

   Hon. Treasurer

   
    

8. Chair’s Report

     

   This AGM brings PAVAUK back into its normal cycle of AGMs, held each autumn and is also the second to be held as part of an annual seminar co-hosted with the Birmingham Safeguarding Adults Boards. This relationship will hopefully continue to grow to the benefit of both organisations, but I would like to express my thanks to the ‘Board for their support in arranging and organising this seminar.

   
    

   As part of the return to the AGM cycle, we will be holding elections to the position of Trustee. This year, the Trustees have endeavoured to expand the range of skills, knowledge and experience contained within the Board of Trustees; hopefully the elections will have continued this process with a number of co-opted Trustees standing for election in their own right. However, we continue to look for new Trustees, both from within and external to PAVAUK, so if you are interested in being considered for co-option onto the Board, please let myself or another of the Trustees know.

   
    

   Despite the Trustees all being volunteers with full-time jobs, a lot has been achieved since the last AGM;

   • Membership continues to grow – up by 50% - details of which will be provided in the Treasurer’s Report.

   • The Good Practice Guide project, jointly managed with Action on Elder Abuse, continues, despite something of a lull during negotiations with Comic Relief over on-going funding. A grant has now been agreed for a further 18 months. Sadly, the Project Worker, Rosanna Thurlow, resigned in April having been appointed to a permanent post with AEA. We delayed replacing her until the position was clear re the Comic Relief grant, but adverts will be placed in the near future.

   • PAVAUK continues to attend the ADASS National Safeguarding Network.

   • PAVAUK is a Full member of the Safeguarding Alliance, a group of organisations committed to lobby the Government for the introduction of at least framework legislation to underpin safeguarding activity.

   • PAVA Wales goes from strength to strength, recently holding its annual conference which was a well attended and very productive day.

   • PAVAUK has been invited to provide keynote presentations and facilitate workshops at a number of events, including the MS Trust Annual Conference, a seminar addressing the issue of BME communities’ involvement in safeguarding and other local safeguarding seminars and conferences.

   • PAVAUK has made submissions to a number of consultations, including those on the Review of No Secrets, making representations to the Department of Health at the continuing delay in a formal government response to the consultation, the ISA, CRB checks on Safeguarding Childrens Board members, and will be making submissions to the consultations on Serious Incidents and the Assisted Suicide protocol for the CPS.

   • PAVAUK has produced 2 newsletters for members this year and another is due to be published later this year.

   • The Website has been updated after a number of difficulties but is now fully functioning again. The Trustees are looking into the possibility of establishing a ‘members forum’ to enable members to share concerns, difficulties, solutions and good practice. Practitioners can find themselves both feeling and being very isolated by the nature of safeguarding activity. The forum may be one way of limiting the impact of that isolation. The difficulty is the infrastructure to set up and maintain the forum. Again the Trustees would be grateful to hear from any members with the technical knowledge or time to help with this important potential development.

   • PAVAUK has continued to be a member of the Advisory Group established by the Department of Health to support the Consultation on the Review of No Secrets. The consultation’s unsatisfactory outcome to date is not something we would accept ownership of or responsibility for. It is a matter of ongoing concern that little or no progress appears to have been made by the Government to honour the commitment made by Liam Byrne in March 2006 to review No Secrets and consider the need for legislation to safeguard adults.

   • PAVAUK looks to develop links with research projects and has established links with Hull University with a view to a project to look at indicators of failing care homes for older adults.

   • PAVAUK has been given the opportunity to contribute a regular article to Action Points, the newsletter of Action on Elder Abuse, giving a practitioner perspective on current issues within safeguarding.

   • The Board has reviewed the Action Plan they agreed for the coming 3 years, which is available on the website.

   • One area where the Trustees feel they haven’t been as successful as they would’ve liked is the development and support of local forums. Historically, these have been the backbone of PAVAUK and their demise is to be regretted. The Trustees are willing to attend local forums or assist in their development as far as we are able, given that we are all volunteers. If you know of any local forums that are meeting or are willing to help establish a forum local to you, please let myself or one of the other Trustees know.

   
    

   PAVAUK has continued ‘to punch above its weight’ despite its minimal infrastructure, thanks to the commitment of its members, particularly the Trustees. The apparent evaporation of Government commitment to or even awareness of the Safeguarding Agenda makes the need for the practitioner voice to be heard even important than ever, if safeguarding is not to be subsumed in the Personalisation Agenda. The dilemma of balancing empowerment against protection is one that practitioners have to grapple with on a daily basis; sadly it is one that politicians and civil servants seem to be unaware of – a problem that can be mirrored in elected members and senior managers. The current and future political and economic climate of public sector cuts is likely to make that situation worse. If the Government has little interest in the Safeguarding Agenda, the Conservatives would seem to have even less. The need for PAVAUK to ensure that the practitioner perspective is heard in the policy and strategy forums relating to safeguarding nationally is going to grow rather than diminish.

   
    

   I hope the activity over the past 12 months will assure members of the commitment of the Trustees to the above and that you will want to support us in implementing the Action Plan that will both develop PAVAUK as an organisation and take forward the realisation of the Safeguarding Agenda.

    

   I would like to express my appreciation of all the work undertaken by my fellow Trustees over the past 12 months, but particularly to Les and Steph for the admin support they provide and without which PAVAUK couldn’t function. I would also like to express my appreciation of the work undertaken by Norman Campion, who, as a volunteer, has been assisting Les and Steph.

   Pete Morgan - Chair
    

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9. Any Other Business

    There was no other business and the meeting closed at  1.45