Welcome to our Briefings page, which contains short summaries of recently published research findings and other reports useful for practitioners working with adults and children. These briefings help you easily access key information about current topics with a link to the full published report. They are listed under headings of the main relevant discipline or practice area.

Please note: from July 2025, all our briefings will be web-enabled and not added as PDFs.

July 2025

Children’s and Adults Sectors – Accessibility and PDFs

This month’s briefing – for both the children’s and adults sectors – is Accessibility and PDFs. This summarises the regulations about making websites accessible and government guidance about the use of PDFs.

Discipline / Practice Areas:

Care Quality Commission (CQC)

Local Authority Information Return and Self Assessment – March 2024

An overview of the Information Return and Self Assessment which form part of the CQC Assessment of Local Authority Duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014.

Assessment of local authority adult services – April 2023

We produced the following:
  • An overview of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) assessments of local authority adult services. The briefing covers what will happen over the coming year, what the assessments will look at and how evidence will be collected, scored and reported. It also summarises the Local Government Association’s 9 Top Tips.  One of the recommendations from the Test and Learn assessments with Manchester and Hampshire last year, was the importance of communicating with staff and partners about the process, so they know about the assessments and what to expect. Our briefing may be helpful with this.
  • The second document summarises information from the Assessment Framework for Local Authority Assurance (CQC). We have created a table which shows, by theme, each of the quality statements and the corresponding types of evidence (drawn from feedback, policies, procedures and processes and outcomes) which the CQC assessment team will use to measure local authority performance.

Government

Accessibility and PDFs – July 2025

This briefing – for both the children’s and adults sectors – is Accessibility and PDFs. This summarises the regulations about making websites accessible and government guidance about the use of PDFs.

Safeguarding Adults

Second National Analysis of Safeguarding Adult Reviews – August 2024

Good practice briefings – focusing on areas identified in the SARs analysis:

Pressure Ulcers and Adult Safeguarding – February 2024

Pressure Ulcers – Safeguarding Adults Protocol summarises the updated protocol on pressure ulcers and safeguarding adults published by the Department for Health and Social Care. The protocol describes the process to be followed when it is identified that an adult has a pressure ulcer, including how to assess if a safeguarding concern should be raised with the local authority. The protocol makes it clear that – in most cases – the appropriate response to pressure ulcers will be led by health practitioners and will not involve adult safeguarding processes

Safeguarding Children

The Casey National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse – June 2025

This briefing, National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, summarises the audit conducted by Baroness Casey – published in June 2025.

Protecting Children from Online Harms – May 2025

This briefing, Ofcom Statement: Protecting Children from Harms Online, summarises the Ofcom statement regarding increased measures to protect children from online harms.

Proposed Legal Changes to Reporting Child Abuse – March 2025

This briefing, Proposed Legal Changes to Reporting Child Abuse, outlines proposed changes in legislation which will make reporting of child sexual abuse mandatory for practitioners.

Social Care

Workforce Strategy for Adult Social Care – July 2024

Summary of the Workforce Strategy for Adult Social Care in England published by Skills for Care. The Strategy, which was developed in conjunction with the adult social care sector and reflects the input of thousands of stakeholders – including people who access care and support services, sets out where adult social care is now, why change is needed and recommendations for the future.

Decaffeinated Drinks and Falls Prevention – May 2024

Decaffeinated Drinks and Falls Prevention, summarises research findings from Care England and Stow Healthcare (April 2024) of the impact of changing to decaffeinated drinks on the rate of falls in eight care home settings.

Adult Social Care Outcomes – January 2024

This briefings a summary of information included in the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework Handbook of Definitions, published by the Department of Health and Social Care in December 2023.

Society

Gender Identity and the Law – April 2025

This briefing, Gender Identity and the Law, outlines a ruling from the UK Supreme Court that legal gender definitions under the Equality Act 2010 should be based on biological sex.

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