1.1 Introduction to Adult Safeguarding

1. What is Safeguarding?

Safeguarding adults is everyone’s responsibility.

Safeguarding means protecting an adult’s right to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect. It is about preventing and responding to concerns of abuse, harm or neglect of adults, while at the same time making sure that the adult’s wellbeing is promoted including having regard to their views, wishes, feelings and beliefs when deciding on any action.  This must recognise that adults are the experts in their own lives and that they sometimes have complex interpersonal relationships and may be ambivalent, unclear or unrealistic about their personal circumstances.

Practitioners should work in partnership with adults so they are:

• safe and able to protect themselves from abuse and neglect;
• treated fairly and with dignity and respect;
• protected when they need to be;
• able to easily get the support, protection and services that they need.

Organisations should always promote the adult’s wellbeing in their safeguarding arrangements and when considering how to respond to any safeguarding concerns. People have complex lives, and being safe and well means different things to different people, as well as being just one aspect of what they want to achieve. Practitioners should work with the adult to establish what being safe means to them and how that can be best achieved. Responses to any safeguarding concerns must take account of individual wellbeing.

1.1 The safeguarding duty

Under section 42 of the Care Act 2014, local authorities have legal adult safeguarding duties to:

• make enquiries, or cause others to do so, when a concern has been raised about an adult in its area (whether or not they are ordinarily resident in it) to establish whether any action should be taken to prevent or stop abuse or neglect.

This duty applies to an adult who:

• has needs for care and support (whether or not the local authority is meeting any of those needs); and
• is experiencing, or at risk of, abuse or neglect; and
• is unable to protect themselves from either the risk of, or the experience of abuse or neglect.

Regardless of whether the local authority is providing any services, it must follow up any concerns about either actual or suspected adult abuse.

The adult experiencing, or at risk of abuse or neglect will be referred to as the ‘adult’ throughout this MAPP.

Local authority statutory adult safeguarding duties apply equally to adults with care and support needs:

• regardless of whether those needs are being met;
• regardless of whether the adult has mental capacity (see Mental Capacity chapter);
• regardless of setting, except prisons and approved premises.

1.1.1 Young adults

Where a person is 18 or over, but still receiving children’s services and a safeguarding issue is raised, the matter should be dealt with through adult safeguarding arrangements. This may be, for example, when a young person with substantial and complex needs continues to be supported in a residential educational setting until the age of 25.

Where appropriate, adult safeguarding services should involve local authority children’s safeguarding colleagues as well as any relevant partners (for example, the police or NHS) or other people relevant to the case.

The young adult does not need to be receiving any particular service from the local authority, in order for the safeguarding duty to apply, so long as the conditions set out in Section 1.1, The Safeguarding Duty are met.

2. Aims of Adult Safeguarding

The aims of adult safeguarding are to:

• prevent harm and reduce risk of abuse and neglect for those adults with care and support needs;
• stop abuse or neglect wherever possible;
• safeguard adults in a way that enhances individual choice and control as part of improving their quality of life, safety and well-being;
• work alongside the adult to identify strengths-based and outcomes focused solutions;
• raise public awareness so that communities as a whole, alongside professionals, play their part in preventing, identifying and responding to abuse and neglect;
• provide information and support to help people understand abuse, how to stay safe and how to raise concerns;
• address the causes of abuse.

Safeguarding is not a substitute for:

• providers’ responsibilities to provide safe and high quality care and support;
• commissioners assuring themselves of the safety and effectiveness of commissioned services;
• the Care Quality Commission (CQC) ensuring regulated providers comply with the fundamental standards of care or by taking enforcement action; and
• the core duties of the police to prevent and detect crime and protect life and property.

(See Care and Support Statutory Guidance, chapter 14).

3. Making Safeguarding Personal

See also Making Safeguarding Personal

While the aim of adult safeguarding arrangements is to prevent harm and reduce the risk of abuse, it is also important to remember that everyone has different preferences, life histories, circumstances and lifestyles. These differences mean it is not helpful to prescribe a process which must be followed whenever a safeguarding adults concern is raised.

Making safeguarding personal is about making sure that safeguarding processes are person led and focused on the outcomes the individual adult wants to achieve. Practitioners should always engage with adults and talk to them (and their representatives, where appropriate) about how they want services to respond to their situation in a way that helps them to:

• be involved;
• have choice and control; and
• improve their quality of their life, wellbeing and safety.