Purpose Three deaths at Cawston Park Hospital shed a bright light on Norfolk’s services for people with learning disabilities and autism, including those operated by the company that ran the hospital. The purpose of this paper is to review Norfolk County Council's current position from the...

Purpose In 2014, the Health Service Executive (HSE) in Ireland published its Safeguarding National Policy and Procedures (HSE, 2014). Under this policy, all agencies providing services through the social care directorate must ensure a robust culture of safeguarding is in place. Concurrent to...

Purpose – This paper seeks to describe the experiences of people visiting elderly relatives in hospital, detailing the lack of care and negligent attitudes of nursing staff with regards to providing appropriate food and drink to the elderly patients. Design/methodology/approach – This paper...

Purpose – Serious case reviews (SCRs) are one means of learning the lessons arising from adverse, salient incidents and tragedies. Adult Safeguarding Boards in England are expected to have an SCR policy and procedure, to commission SCRs, to abstract and act on the learning, and to monitor the...

Purpose – This paper seeks to consider the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) and, in particular, the extent to which the functions of supervisory bodies can, or should be, performed as part of wider “safeguarding” responsibilities. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reports...

The recent incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into UK domestic law as the Human Rights Act 1998 is predicted to have a major impact on all aspects of life. Here, Alison Brammer provides a comprehensive overview of the Act and looks specifically at how it may affect adult...

Behaviour programmes containing aversive elements came under scrutiny in Norway following the de‐institutionalisation of people with learning disabilities in the early nineties. A special act was introduced to limit and regulate the need for such measures. This paper describes the situation...

This article considers the experiences of people with learning difficulties as victims of hate crime. It considers how the Crime and Disorder Act and No Secrets can help identify and prevent hate crime, and examines an example of good practice designed to produce an effective response.

The current adult safeguarding system is failing people with mental health problems. Despite the introduction of the Department of Health's No Secrets guidance in 2000, abuse is still widespread in private homes, the community, and health and social care settings. New research from Mind...

Abuse has received much attention over the past decade and many definitions abound. However, there has been a lack of research into the interpretations that care staff give to this concept. This article describes this aspect of a research study in which care staff views relating to vulnerability...