If you suspect abuse is happening to you or someone you know, it is essential that you do something about it. Tell someone you trust, or someone who provides you/the person concerned with help or care, such as a trusted relative, friend or neighbour, doctor, community nurse, hospital nurse, or other health professional, home care assistant, member of staff.

‘Safeguarding adults’ is the term often used when talking about the abuse of adults who are vulnerable or ‘at risk’.

Under section 42 of the Care Act 2014, safeguarding enquiries must be made if an adult appears to:

• Have needs for care and support (whether or not these are being met)
• Be experiencing, or be at risk of, abuse or neglect
• Be unable to protect him/herself from the risk of / experience of abuse or neglect as a result of those care needs

There are ten main types of abuse:

• Physical – this could include hitting, slapping, punching etc
• Financial – this includes theft, deception and withholding your belongings
• Emotional / Psychological – this type of abuse might involve bullying, threats or humiliation
• Neglect – being left without food, heating, medication or personal care etc
• Sexual – rape and other sexual acts to which the person has not given consent
• Organisational – covers neglect and poor practice within an institution or specific care setting, or in one’s own home. Can be through neglect or poor professional practice resulting from policies/culture/systems
• Discriminatory (including hate crime) – being treated unfairly because of age, race, religion, gender, sexuality, disability etc
• Modern slavery – covers human trafficking/forced labour/domestic servitude, forcing individuals into a life of abuse or inhumane treatment
• Self neglect – covers a wide range of behaviour such as neglecting to care for one’s own health/hygiene/surroundings/hoarding, etc
• Domestic violence and abuse – includes psychological/physical/sexual/financial/emotional abuse/’honour’ based violence, forced marriage including female genital mutilation (FGM). Domestic abuse not just about intimate partners – it can involve any family members

Our staff are committed to handling concerns as quickly, effectively and courteously as possible. We work closely with other agencies to investigate all reported concerns and help and support the person involved.

We will always try to ensure that the person affected by abuse is fully involved in the whole process of safeguarding.

This means that you will be provided with support and information, consulted throughout the process, encouraged to make your own decisions and to identify what you need to make yourself feel ‘safe’.

You will be asked what you want to happen and how you can be helped to keep yourself safe.

If the person involves lacks mental capacity to make decisions around their own safeguarding, a Best Interests Decision, will be made on their behalf, and this may involve an independent advocate.

Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) apply to people in care homes and hospitals who lack capacity for a specific decision, and as a result have had some element of their liberty limited.  The DoLS procedure protects a person receiving care by checking and ensuring that the deprivation of liberty is appropriate and in their best interests. Where appropriate the person receiving care will nominate an important person for us to consult about any DoLS application, or they will be provided with an independent advocate.