Crossing the divide: the role of inspection units in protecting vulnerable adults
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14668203200100004 |
| Date | 01 February 2001 |
| Pages | 25-34 |
| Published date | 01 February 2001 |
| Author | June Stein,Hilary Brown |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Sociology |
The Journal of Adult Protection Volume 3 Issue 1 • February 2001 © Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) Limited 25
key words
registration and inspection
care standards
residential care
complaints
abstract
The registration and inspection
of residential care services for
vulnerable adults rests with local
government but in 2002 responsibil-
ity passes to the new Commission
for Care Standards.This paper looks
at how inspection units understand
and respond to adult protection
issues, considers how they
contribute to multi-agency adult
protection and speculates on how
the planned changes will impact on
policy and practice.
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It is clear from the Government’s recent guidance document
No Secrets that inspection will play a key role in protecting
vulnerable adults from abuse. While this document identifies
social services as lead agency, it mandates them to work in
partnership with other relevant agencies to safeguard
vulnerable adults and to respond to concerns about abuse
and mistreatment. Many of these concerns are raised in, and
by, residential settings that are regulated and inspected under
the terms of the 1984 Residential Homes Act. As the regulatory
function is strengthened and moved into newly constituted
regional Commissions for Care Standards, it is likely that their
distinctive role will become more clearly demarcated from that
of social services but also that current local arrangements
will give way to regionally or nationally agreed protocols.
Day services, which at the time of writing remain outside the
regulatory framework, will continue to present an anomaly
in this respect.
The work of inspection units in identifying poor practice
and potential abuse clearly complements, and to some extent
overlaps with, social services’ commissioning and care manage-
ment functions. Both inspectors and contracts managers are
concerned with abuse at the level of the establishment as
distinct from care managers whose role focuses on individuals
and the assessment of their needs. There are also potential
overlaps with the police who are responsible for bringing legal
sanctions to bear against individuals responsible for abuse
and these individuals may then be subject to parallel actions
around ‘fitness’ within the regulatory framework, disciplinary
action held under employment law or action by their
professional bodies.
Crossing the divide:
the role of inspection units in
protecting vulnerable adults June Stein
Research Fellow, The Open University
Hilary Brown
Open University and Social Care
Consultant, Salomons, Canterbury Christ
Church University College
Research paper
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