Monitoring adult protection referrals in 10 English local authorities
| Pages | 19-31 |
| Published date | 01 September 2000 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14668203200000020 |
| Date | 01 September 2000 |
| Author | Hilary Brown,June Stein |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Sociology |
The Journal of Adult Protection Volume 2 Issue 3 • September 2000 © Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) Limited 19
key words
adult protection
local authorities
monitoring
abuse referrals
abstract
This paper reports the results of
a study of the monitoring of adult
protection referrals in 10 local
authorities during six months in
1998. The issues are analysed at
various levels.The information
provides a useful window on the
effectiveness of current policies and
provides a baseline from which to
anticipate the implications for
workload and service planning of
recent government guidance.
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Background
In recent years generic policies on protection of all vulnerable
adult client groups have been advocated to provide a frame-
work for multi-agency co-operation in addressing issues of
abuse and neglect. This approach has since been endorsed in
official guidance from the English Department of Health and
the Welsh Office (DoH, 2000; Welsh Office, 1999). These
policies build on separate strands of knowledge about ‘elder’
abuse (MacCreadie, 1996), learning disabilities and sexual
exploitation (Brown, Stein & Turk, 1995) and abuse within
mental health services (Schoener et al., 1990). Guidance had
initially been developed in relation to specific types of abuse
and settings but these were incorporated into a generic frame-
work in many authorities to reflect the generic nature of care
management and the common framework for interagency
arrangements.
This development of ‘adult protection’ as a distinct field
of work has taken place largely as a result of organisational
changes. These have included more generic structures in the
delivery of all social care services to adults; care management;
separation of purchaser and provider functions within health
and social services; arm’s length inspection and regulation;
statutory complaints procedures and user empowerment.
Social services departments are the designated lead agency
in relation to this area of work but in some authorities the
development of policies has been orchestrated through
multi-agency groups which include representatives from
health authorities and trusts, registration and inspection units,
police, user and carer groups. Most policy documents include
Monitoring adult protection
referrals in 10 English
local authorities Hilary Brown
Open University and Social Care
Consultant, Salamons, Canterbury
Christ Church University College
June Stein
Research Fellow, Open University
Research paper
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