Engaging with the New System of Safeguarding Adults Reviews Concerning Care Homes for Older People

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Adult Serious Case Reviews (SCRs) investigate situations in which harm to or death of a vulnerable adult has occurred, or where abuse or neglect was suspected and local agencies’ responses were deemed in need of scrutiny. Under the 2014 Care Act, in England, SCRs have moved to a statutory footing, being renamed Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SARs). This paper reports an analysis of SCRs concerning older residents of care homes conducted in 2015. While there is a clear forensic methodology for investigating single cases that indicate multi-agency failings of safeguarding, ‘whole home’ or ‘collective abuse’ investigations are difficult to undertake, requiring review of numerous records and consultations. Failure to recognise abuse may reflect professionals’ uncertainties about thresholds for action when encountering poor care quality or abuse and the exclusion of social workers from involvement with the care and support of care home residents. SCRs sometimes comment on sub-optimal support for care home residents from local social work practitioners or hint at missed opportunities. Reflections on what needs to change in local systems of care and support may include new scope for the development of gerontological social work practice.