Guidelines To Safeguard People Facing Abuse In South Yorkshire

New procedures have been launched making it easier to detect suspected abuse of vulnerable adults in South Yorkshire.

The policies deal with how organisations should report and refer neglect or ill-treatment to the right agencies, to ensure that victims are protected.

They also provide a common set of guidelines to ensure that work to safeguard vulnerable people is consistent across the county.

A key difference is that all organisations must now have a named person, who takes responsibility for logging and monitoring low level concerns, which are then passed to a more senior manager.

Roger Vickers, the independent chairman of the South Yorkshire Procedures working group which created the new policies with input from councils, police, fire and health services, said: “Unfortunately, a number of tragic cases indicate that very many vulnerable adults are being subjected to behaviour ranging from a basic lack of respect, through poor or thoughtless treatment and on into very serious physical and other abuse.”

He said that research showed there were around 7,500 vulnerable adults in South Yorkshire who may suffer abuse in any year – but added that, as the figure did not cover people living within the NHS or care homes or suffering with dementia, it was likely to be higher.

Mr Vickers said: “For far too long, society seems to have tolerated neglect and ill-treatment of vulnerable adults which seems not to cause the same outrage and revulsion rightly expressed when children are abused.

“This needs to change and the production of the new procedures has demonstrated the continuing determination of all our partners to stop adult abuse.”