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Safeguarding vulnerable adults
The protection of vulnerable adults
Adult Social Care has the lead responsibility for the protection of vulnerable adults. This responsibility is undertaken by adult assessment teams and integrated teams within the health trusts. These teams provide services for:
- older people
- people with mental health problems
- people with learning difficulties
- people with physical disabilities
- people with sight and/or hearing disabilities
- people living with HIV
- people who are carers
There are multidisciplinary policy and procedures in place, which are agreed by the police, health trusts, commission for social care inspection and voluntary and independent sector for the alerting and investigating adult abuse. Therefore all adult protection investigations are undertaken jointly with other agencies. If a criminal offence has been committed then the police will take the lead in the investigation.
The requirement for joint policy and procedure has come from the Department of Health (DOH) that launched ‘No Secrets’ in 2000. This is guidance document for vulnerable adults and outlined the need for:
- multidisciplinary policy and procedure
- training for alerting and investigating
- multi agency adult protection committee
Who would be a vulnerable adult?
The definition is someone over the age of 18 years who may be in need of community care services by reason of disability, age or illness or may be unable to take care of him or herself or protect himself or herself against significant harm or exploitation (DOH 2000)What is abuse?
Abuse may:
- consist of a single act or repeated acts
- be physical, verbal or psychological
- be an act of neglect or an omission to act
- occur when a vulnerable adult is persuaded to enter into a financial or sexual transaction to which he or she has not consented, or cannot consent.
Abuse can happen in any relationship and may result in significant harm to, or exploitation of, the person subject to it (DOH (2000).
What are the different types of abuse?
These are the main emerging forms of abuse:- physical abuse - pushing, shaking, pinching, slapping, inappropriate restraint, authorising changes to a persons life without their consent
- sexual abuse - rape, sexual assault and pressuring someone into sexual acts they don’t understand or feel powerless to refuse
- psychological abuse - being called names, belittled and ridiculed, isolating and taking away privacy or threatening to abandon
- financial or material abuse - theft, fraud, misuse of property possessions or benefits
- neglect or acts of omission - withholding food, drink and adequate heating, failure to provide access to health, social and education services
- discriminatory abuse - slurs, harassment and maltreatment because of someone’s race, impairment or illness
- institutional abuse - neglect and poor standards of care in hospitals, day services and care homes
Where can abuse occur?
Abuse can take place in any context. It may occur when a vulnerable adult lives alone or with a relative, it may also occur within a nursing, residential or day care setting, in hospitals, custodial situations, support services into peoples own homes and other places previously assumed safe.Who to contact
Please complete an Application for Social Care Services or contact our Access Team:
Tel: (01273) 295555
Mini-com: (01273) 296388
email: accesspoint@brighton-hove.gov.uk
Protection of vulnerable adults list
This was launched by the Department of Health in July 2004. It is a national list of people who have, or believed to have, caused harm to a vulnerable adult. It currently covers all staff working in residential and community care settings and is intended to extend to cover the NHS in the near future. Access to the list is through Criminal Records Bureau checks and it sits beside a similar list of people that pose a danger when working with children. The Sussex Multi-Agency Policy and Procedures for Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults [PDF 730kb] is available to download from this site.The Brighton & Hove Safe Guarding Adults Annual Report 2008-09 [PDF 447kb] is also available to view and download.
The leaflet, Adults at risk in Brighton & Hove [PDF 262kb], is aimed at helping people recognise the types of abuse adults may suffer, as well as what you can do if you are being abused or suspect that another adult is causing abuse.
The poster, Abuse is everyone's business [PDF 130kb]
The Brighton & Hove Multi-Agency Training Strategy Sub-Group has produced a training accreditation scheme [PDF 135kb] (see below for word format). If you are purchasing training from an accredited trainers [PDF 20kb] you can have confidence that the training they offer meets the standards required by the Brighton & Hove Multi-Agency Training strategy Sub Group. If you are a trainer in Brighton & Hove, and would like to offer extra value and quality assurance to your customers you can apply to the scheme. This a free scheme.