Safeguarding: Personal or Political?
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Safeguarding: Personal or Political?
IRAS ID
278805
Contact name
Jeremy Dixon
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Bath
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, days
Research summary
This research aims to explore the views of service users and practitioners towards risk in adult mental health practice. It is now unquestionably clear that risk has come to take a prominent place within health and social care practice, shaping the way services and interventions are organized. Within adult social care, the introduction of the Care Act 2014 brought this issue into prominence by introducing a legal obligation on local authorities to carry out safeguarding enquiries in cases where there is reason to suspect an adult with care and support needs is experiencing harm, or at risk of experiencing harm due to their care needs. The term safeguarding is used in this proposal to refer to measures provided for in legislation and government policy /guidance to ensure that adults with care and support needs are protected from the risk of /actual harm or abuse.
Since the introduction of the Care Act, enquiries by local authorities have been on the rise. Within the first six months of the Act, referrals totalled 100,000 compared to 104,000 for the previous 12-month period (2014/15). Since then, the evidence shows an upward trend. In 2016/17, referrals reached 110,000 reflecting a 10% increase and in 2017/18, the number of referrals reached 131,000 with the figures for 2018-19 (143,390) and 161, 910 for 2019-20. However, it is unclear what is driving this increase, how safeguarding professionals are interpreting the concept of safeguarding or how safeguarding practices are being perceived by service users themselves.
The research aims to seek practitioner and service user views of risk in the context of safeguarding laws and policies, such as Making Safeguarding Personal (MSP)(a government endorsed policy). The research will focus specifically on mental health settings. Within this project I will a).undertake an analysis of safeguarding law, policy and guidance, focussing specifically on the framing of concepts of risk and b) interview mental health professionals and service users
REC name
Wales REC 6
REC reference
22/WA/0293
Date of REC Opinion
21 Oct 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion