Unhappy anniversary?
| Date | 08 April 2014 |
| Pages | 104-112 |
| Published date | 08 April 2014 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JAP-07-2013-0031 |
| Author | Joe Hanley,David Marsland |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Vulnerable groups,Adult protection |
Unhappy anniversary?
Joe Hanley and David Marsland
Joe Hanley is a Social Worker,
based at London Borough of
Hounslow, Hounslow, UK.
David Marsland is a Lecturer,
based at School of Social
Sciences, University of Hull,
Hull, UK.
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the importance and nature of relationships of trust in care
settings. The paper addresses the central question of what is it about these kinds of relationships that is
associated with harm and abuse?
Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes a discursive approach, based, implicitly, on an
ecological framework of analysis.
Findings – The conclusion is that the relationships between staff and service users in residential care
settings are characterised by non-mutual dependency, isolation and unequal decision-making powers.
Therefore such relationships deserve special focus and attention in order to safeguard and protect the
people concerned.
Practical implications – The paper implies that practitioners and policy makers should find ways to ensure
that they listen more closely to people living in residential settings. Practitioners should ask more about the
quality of relationships that people enjoy with the staff that support them.
Originality/value – The paper suggests that in order to safeguard people more effectively, practitioners
and policy makers should reconsider the central focus of their energies and revisit issues such as isolation,
in the lives of disabled and older people living in residential care.
Keywords Relationships, Older people, Safeguarding, Learning/intellectual disabilities, Residential care
Paper type Viewpoint
1. Introduction
1993 saw the publication of a critical document in the development of adult safeguarding
analysis in respect of residential services: “It Could Never Happen Here” (Churchill et al., 1993).
This document focused on the sexual abuse of people with learning disabilities in residential
services and identified strategies that may help in preventing and addressing such abuse.
The document’s central theme is that of acknowledgement and recognition:
It is no longer acceptable for those involved in services to believe that “It could never happen here”.
They must realise that “it can happen here” and unless something is done “it will happen here”
(Churchill et al., 1993, p. xi).
This paper takes the opportunity provided by the 20th anniversary to suggest that the
challenges raised in that original document remain as pertinent as ever. By implication, we
are still failing to fully acknowledge that harm and abuse will happen in staffed settings for
people with intellectual and cognitive disabilities, as well as other adults at risk of harm, and,
therefore, we are not succeeding in preventing such occurrences. What we have “done” since
1993 has, unfortunately,not yet been effective and the evidence continues to suggest that harm
and abuse still affect many people in residential services (Healthcare Commission, 2006, 2007;
Flynn, 2011, 2012; Care Quality Commission (CQC), 2012a; Department of Health (DoH),
2012a).
We suggest that a consequence of this failure is that we continue to ask the wrong questions,
or, to be more precise, that we have stopped asking the most important questions. Alongside
continuing to enquire: “How can we reform and adjust safeguarding systems to ensure that
appropriate steps are taken when relationships become abusive and broken?” We should also
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THE JOURNAL OF ADULT PROTECTION
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VOL. 16 NO. 2 2014, pp. 104-112, CEmerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1466-8203 DOI 10.1108/JAP-07-2013-0031
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