Oldham Safeguarding Adults Board (OSAB) commissioned a Safeguarding Adult Review (SAR) in relation to an individual known by the pseudonym Amanda. The full report is available here: OSAB SAR Amanda Executive Summary.

The recommendations made by the Independent Author included ‘that OSAB seeks assurance from agencies which support people with learning disability who present with behaviour which challenges that risk assessments of behaviour which could result in self-injury are promptly and thoroughly completed, and appropriately reviewed and updated when risk appear to be increasing’, and ‘that OSAB requests all local providers of care, support and treatment to people with a learning disability to adopt the use of pain assessment tools’. In Amanda’s case, there had been no risk assessments or care plans in place in relation to head banging.

While it was recognised that Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust (PCFT) and Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA) had pain assessment tools in place, other service such as Supported Living, Care at Home, Care Homes and Primary Care/GPs did not. OSAB is pleased to introduce generic pain assessment tools that can be used across all OSAB partner agencies. The tools have been developed by an appropriate multi-agency task and finish group and approved by the OSAB Statutory Leadership Group.

The tools can be used for individuals with a cognitive impairment. The Oldham Cares My Pain Profile.pdf is an easy read document that has been designed for use with the individual and/or their family members and the Oldham Cares Pain Assessment Monitoring Tool.pdf has been designed for staff working with the individual to monitor the pain. 

It will be each service’s responsibility to make the tools available to their staff. Use of the documents is not mandatory however it is recognised that pain should be monitored routinely and therefore services should ask themselves, if they do not use the tools, what alternative methods do they have in place as evidence of pain assessment.

The multi-agency group who led the development of these documents welcome further feedback from practitioners using the tools. If you would like to make any comments or suggest changes, please contact: OldhamSafeguardingAdultsBoard@oldham.gov.uk.