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Anyone can report a safeguarding concern about an adult. 

Speak to the person:

• if you are concerned about the risk of abuse or neglect of a person with care and support needs
• about your concern where it is safe to do so to see what they think.

Contact us if you are still worried or you are unable to speak to the person directly. 

How to report a concern

As a member of the public

Report a concern here: 

• Report a safeguarding concern as a member of the public

Professionals

Report a concern here:

• Report a safeguarding concern as a professional

Please Note: All of the safeguarding concerns reported will be looked at to ensure that they are appropriate for safeguarding as defined by the Care Act 2014. Where a concern is not passed on to our safeguarding teams we will look at how best to respond to the issue raised.  We may signpost the person to other professionals or organisations if we feel the person would benefit from alternative support.

Information is gathered so that we understand the concerns.  When we have enough information, we decide whether a safeguarding enquiry is required under the Care Act 2014 to determine what actions are required to support the person to stay safe. 

We will usually speak to the person if we can, about what they would like to happen. We may also speak to other professionals or people to understand more. 

If a person is not able to fully understand their own situation, we will communicate with their appointed family member or advocate. 

If the person appears to be at risk we will work with them, or their representative to put a plan in place to make sure the person is safe while we are gathering information.

We will consider the information gathered and decide whether the concern reported meets the statutory criteria for a Safeguarding Enquiry (Under Section 42, Care Act 2014) or if there is a risk to other people. Safeguarding enquiries are undertaken when there is reasonable cause to suspect: 

• a person has needs for care and support
• is experiencing, or at risk of, abuse or neglect; and
• as a result of their care and support needs, is unable to protect themselves against the abuse or neglect, or the risk of it

If is it decided the criteria are not met, we will inform the person, or their representative and discuss the best way to keep themselves safe. 

We will contact the referrer to advise that we have looked into the safeguarding concern they reported, but we may not be able to provide further information. 

We may decide to undertake an enquiry where we have decided that the criteria for an enquiry under the Care Act 2014 are not met, but we are concerned that there may be other people who are at risk of abuse or neglect as result of the information reported.  These enquiries are sometimes called other enquiries.  The focus of other enquiries will be different.  For example, concern about a carer or other residents in a care home.  For this reason, it may not be possible to provide detailed feedback in relation to the original concern and the person reporting the concern may be advised to make a complaint.

A safeguarding enquiry is undertaken to find out what actions are needed to help that person to be as safe as possible. During a safeguarding enquiry we will look at what has happened in more detail, this will include:

• what the risk is,
• what the person, or their representative, wants to happen now and
• how to support the person to be safe in the future

We will let the person, or their representative, and other agencies involved know what has been found and provide details of any further action which will be taken.

If a person is still at risk of abuse or neglect following the safeguarding enquiry, a plan will be agreed with the person to help to keep them safe.

The safeguarding plan will be reviewed regularly to make sure the person is still safe, and the plan is working or actions may be incorporated into another plan, for example a care and support plan.