Why focus on adult safeguarding?

This book focuses on how social workers understand adult safeguarding and how they conduct duties related to this. Since the introduction of the Care Act 2014, adult safeguarding has begun to have a higher profile within the literature on social work in England – some would argue, not before time. The Care and Support Statutory Guidance for England describes safeguarding as a process which protects ‘an adult's right to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect’ (Department of Health and Social Care – DHSC, 2022, para 14.7). It involves ‘people and organisations working together to prevent and stop both the risks and experience of abuse or neglect, while at the same time making sure that the adult's wellbeing is promoted including, where appropriate, having regard to their views, wishes, feelings and beliefs in deciding on any action’ (DHSC, 2022, para 14.7). I describe the key duties for local authorities and discuss who safeguarding duties apply to later in this chapter. Before doing so, I want to set out the broad aims for this book.

What this book is about

This book does three things. First, it is a book about adult safeguarding. Within its chapters, I report on a research project carried out in three local authorities in England. The aim of my research was to explore how front-line social workers assess and manage adult safeguarding risks. When looking at this issue, I was interested in the following questions:

• • How do social workers interpret safeguarding duties as laid out by the Care Act 2014?

• • What sources of information do social workers draw on when assessing and managing adult safeguarding risks?

• • How do agency policies, procedures and cultures influence the way in which social workers assess and manage risk?

• • To what extent are the views of service users themselves considered within safeguarding assessments?

Second, this is a book about risk in social work practice. Throughout the book, I attempt to unpack what we mean when we talk about risk and how we seek to manage it. I use sociological theories of risk and uncertainty to think about adult safeguarding practice. From speaking to social work students and practitioners over the years, I am aware that theory is often viewed by them as something which is dusty, dry or difficult, or as having little relevance ‘on the ground’.