Models of safeguarding: a study exploring and comparing models of adult safeguarding

Introduction

Adult safeguarding has received increasing attention over the past decade, and continues to be a government priority. Developing good models of safeguarding practice is of prime importance for local authorities to ensure that attempts to protect people thought to be at risk of abuse, mistreatment, and neglect are effective but do not over-protect them or deprive them of their human rights.

The research aimed to describe different approaches to safeguarding that are being taken in a range of local authorities and which appear to be representative of most. This included a review of the literature to identify the most important ways approaches might differ, and interviews with local authority adult safeguarding coordinators, to ask them to describe the way that safeguarding is organised locally and to give the reasons why it is organised in particular ways.