Practice implications

Social workers and social care practitioners

Practitioners need to be aware of the possibility of abuse and the vulnerability of some adults. What situations automatically require the involvement of adult protection colleagues, and what other signposting to advice and support needs to be provided?

Partnership working

Are approaches to adult protection sufficiently embedded in local partnership working? What works well and what doesn’t? What would improve practice?

Organisations representing service users

What needs to happen to improve people’s awareness and understanding of what constitutes abusive behaviour and what people should do if they find themselves in such situations?

Policymakers

Is the concept of “elder abuse” meaningful or does it fail to identify many situations which people would not understand to be “abuse”?

Is the framework for the protection of vulnerable adults adequate, or should further legislation be developed to create a framework that is more comparable to that in child protection?