Editorial
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14668203200000017 |
| Pages | 2-3 |
| Published date | 01 September 2000 |
| Date | 01 September 2000 |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Sociology |
2© Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) Limited The Journal of Adult Protection Volume 2 Issue 3 • September 2000
Editorial
As local authorities, and their partner
agencies, in England and Wales begin to
come to terms with No Secrets (DoH, 2000)
and Protection of Vulnerable Adults in Wales
(SSI Wales, 1999), this issue offers a number
of papers which will assist those with
responsibility for the development and
implementation of adult protection policy.
Claudine McCreadie’s paper provides a
stimulating and insightful introduction to
No Secrets, its content and what is required of
the agencies charged with implementation. It
takes the form of a dialogue between an adult
protection co-ordinator and a social services
assistant director which highlights both what
needs to be done and comments on what is
missing or unclear. Using this format
McCreadie provides a very readable introduc-
tion to No Secrets which will be invaluable to
anyone seeking to understand the strengths
and weaknesses of this important policy
development and set an agenda for working
groups up and down the country.
As an adjunct to Claudine McCreadie’s
analysis, Hilary Brown’s brief paper picks up
on the one new form of abuse introduced
in No Secrets – discriminatory abuse. The
inclusion of discriminatory abuse in No
Secrets, alongside those categories of abuse
with which we are already familiar, marks an
interesting development and shows that the
boundaries of adult protection are still being
set. We understand that discriminatory abuse
was added to No Secrets late in the day,
primarily to meet the government’s agenda.
As such it has been accorded relatively little
professional debate, which needs to be
remedied. Claudine McCreadie touches on
the difficulties discriminatory abuse may
pose for those monitoring adult abuse, while
Hilary Brown provides further consideration
of this way of conceptualising abuse.
A key element in No Secrets concerns the
monitoring of adult abuse and the outcomes
of adult protection work. Hilary Brown and
June Stein have for some time now been two
of the country’s leading researchers in this
field. Therefore it is timely that the Journal
is able to feature a paper describing work in
ten local authorities, to record the level of
adult abuse referrals and the work involved
in dealing with these. No Secrets requires
agencies to develop monitoring and this
paper, alongside Hilary Brown and June
Stein’s other work (Brown & Stein, 1988),
provides a baseline. It is to be hoped eventu-
ally that a common national monitoring
system may be developed, as has happened
with child protection. Until this becomes
available however, those with responsibility
for meeting No Secrets’ requirements in this
area will find this paper a good starting point
for examining the options.
Another key theme within No Secrets is
the application of a generic approach to adult
abuse across all user groups. As is widely
appreciated (Brown et al., 1999), adult protec-
tion policy and practice has differentially
focused on some users groups more than
others, with older people and people with
learning disabilities receiving greater atten-
tion than others. Without doubt, the situation
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