Resources by safeguarding type

This describes behaviour or acts of one person, or persons, which causes distress or impacts on the emotional or psychological health of someone. This can be hard to spot and is often seen in controlling or coercive relationships which is a criminal offence. 

Emotional abuse can happen outside of relationships, with carers and even organisations behaving in ways which cause emotional / psychological distress.

Financial or material abuse is about unauthorised or fraudulent access to money, property or any resources of the adult at risk. It is often present with other types of abuse. 

Some forms of this, such as scams, fraud, direct theft are quite easy to recognise, but financial abuse can start small and develop – a neighbour starts by helping with shopping and doesn’t return all the change, begins to charge large amounts for the service, perhaps then puts emotional pressure on an adult at risk to help buy a car, or to change their will. 

Resources that can help: 

• Information for adults and families about how to protect themselves from Fraud is available on the Government website Stop! Think Fraud - How to stay safe from scams as well as what to do if you have been a victim of a scam  What to do if you've been scammed - Citizens Advice 
• Consider Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) to prevent fraud. A LPA is a person chosen by the adult to help them to make decisions about their finances if they lose the mental capacity to make the decisions themselves. LPAs are expected to make decisions in the way that the person themselves would have done, to act in the best interests of that person. They have to keep records around financial issues and cannot use the person’s money or resources for their own purposes. If there is a concern about the actions of an LPA, then the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) can investigate them and may take action to remove the person from the role. The following website set up by someone with direct experience offers more information Abuse By LPAs website.  

The term Modern Slavery is used to describe a range of situations including human trafficking, forced labour and inhumane treatment. Victims of modern slavery can be any age, gender, nationality and ethnicity. 

Traffickers often use violence and threats, forcing people into debt, and is always about controlling people to exploit them for financial or personal gain. They may use concerns about an individual’s immigration status or worries that their families may be at risk if they resist. 

Human trafficking is the process by which people become trapped and exploited. It does not have to involve travel, although people may be moved across borders or into countries. 

Resources that can help: 

• The Modern Slavery Act 2015 is supported by the following statutory guidance. The guidance describes the signs that someone may be a victim of modern slavery, the support available to victims, and the process for determining whether someone is a victim and how to support them. 
• NCLCC County Lines Awareness Video: County Lines is a term used for organised illegal drug-dealing networks, usually controlled by a person using a single telephone number, or ‘deal line’. Serious organised criminals recruit vulnerable children and adults as 'runners' to transport drugs and cash all over the country so that the criminals behind it can remain detached and less likely to be detected. Take a look at the video from the National County Lines Coordination Centre (NCLCC). 
• Safeguarding duties apply where an adult victim of modern slavery has care and support needs, and as a result of those needs is unable to protect themselves from abuse or harm. For example, someone with a learning disability may be employed but work long hours for very little pay, the employer taking advantage of them. In these cases a referral should be made to the AdultSafeguardinghub@trafford.gov.uk 
• The following local resources provides a 7MB on legislation and support for Refugees and Asylum Seekers

The National Referral Mechanism
The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is a framework for referring potential victims of modern slavery to ensure they receive the appropriate support. Modern slavery may involve multiple forms of exploitation including:

• human trafficking 
• slavery, servitude, and forced or compulsory labour 
• exploitation 

Victims may not be aware that they are being trafficked or exploited, and may have consented to elements of their exploitation, or accepted their situation. If you think that modern slavery has taken place, the case should be referred to the NRM so that the relevant competent authority can fully consider the case. You do not need to be certain that someone is a victim.

Consent to refer 
Consent is required for an adult to be referred to the NRM. For an adult to provide their informed consent, you must explain:

• what the NRM is 
• what support is available through it 
• what the possible outcomes are for an individual being referred 

You should also make it clear that information may be shared or sought by the relevant competent authority from other public authorities, such as the police and local authorities, to gather further evidence on an NRM referral.

The online referral should only be completed for adults when a member of staff from a designated first responder organisation suspects someone is a victim of modern slavery and where the adult concerned has understood the implications of, and consented to, the referral. 

If an adult does not consent to enter the NRM, a Duty to Notify referral should be completed instead using the same online process. 

Where you believe the adult also has care and support needs an additional safeguarding referral should also be made for the adult to the Trafford Safeguarding Hub:  AdultSafeguardinghub@trafford.gov.uk 

How to make a referral 
Referrals can only be made by, or via, an eligible First Responder Organisation.

If you think you have encountered a person (adult or child) who has been a victim of modern slavery in England and Wales, you should complete a referral via the online process. Access the form 

The eligible ‘first responder organisations’ are: 

• Police forces 
• Local authorities 
• UK Visas and Immigration 
• Border Force 
• Immigration Enforcement 
• National Crime Agency 
• Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) 
• Salvation Army 
• Migrant Help 
• Medaille Trust 
• Kalayaan 
• Barnardo’s 
• Unseen 
• BAWSO 
• New Pathways 
• Refugee Council

Cuckooing, also known as forced home invasion, is a form of criminal exploitation where individuals or gangs linked to drug networks, take over the home of a vulnerable adult to use it for illegal activities. This can include drug dealing, storing weapons, human trafficking, and financial abuse. 

Cuckooing is closely linked to county lines drug networks and often overlaps with other forms of criminal exploitation.   

Resources that can help: 

• Video advice from West Yorkshire Police https://youtu.be/SmMlcltegCE

This describes situations where an adult has care needs and relies on someone else for support, which is not provided. This can be intentional or unintentional. 

This category will often mean situations where the neglect or omission could reasonably have been prevented, or is intentional, or is persistent. This is because human error or unusual circumstances can mean that things are missed when caring for someone else but is a one-off or temporary issue. 

Resources that can help: 

• The Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 introduced a new criminal offence under Section 44 of ill-treatment or wilful neglect of a person who lacks capacity, or who is reasonably believed to lack capacity at the time of the offence. The key word here is ‘wilful’, and the act has to be proven to have been intentional beyond all reasonable doubt for a prosecution to be successful. There are a number of examples showing the difficulty of this in legal cases collected by 39 Essex Chambers. 
• In safeguarding adult cases where there is not enough evidence to support criminal investigation or prosecution, then disciplinary or similar processes are able to make a decision on the balance of probability, rather than the higher threshold of ‘beyond all reasonable doubt’ in court cases.

Discrimination is where someone treats you differently or unfairly because they think you are different to them. This might be because of: 

• Age (actual or perceived)
• Disability
• Gender / gender identity
• Ethnic, racial, cultural or national origin
• Religious belief / non-belief
• Sexual orientation 

These are “protected characteristics” under the Equality Act 2010. The Act makes it a crime to treat anyone differently because of these things. Discriminatory abuse is particularly where this treatment is harassing, threatening or results in ill-treatment and / or harm and can include:

• Verbal abuse, derogatory remarks or inappropriate use of language related to a protected characteristic 
• Denying access to communication aids, not allowing access to an interpreter, signer or lip-reader 
• Harassment or deliberate exclusion on the grounds of a protected characteristic 
• Poor quality service relating to a protected characteristic, or being refused access to a service 
• Lack of disabled access 

Resources that can help:

• The Local Government Association (LGA) have produced a useful toolkit to help identify discriminatory abuse. The discriminatory abuse self-assessment tool is intended to support councils, Safeguarding Adult Boards (SABs), practitioners from all sectors, staff responsible for reporting adult social care (ASC) performance and safeguarding leads: LGA Discriminatory abuse self-assessment tool: safeguarding adults

This describes where someone has experienced harm due to poor working practices or care within an organisation or institution such as a hospital or care home for example or relating to care provided in a person’s own home. 

It can be restrictive practices which are in place to meet the needs of staff, the service, or the organisation, rather than reflecting the individual needs of the people receiving the services. Organisational abuse can often affect more than one person in that environment. Other examples might be poor quality or limited quantities of food given to adults using the service leading to malnourishment, and then to skin breakdown. It can be a lack of training for staff, or failure to maintain moving and handling equipment, or the environment. It could be community health staff failing to manage wound care because of missed visits as a result of staff shortages and poor prioritisation.

 Resources that can help: 

• Where there are concerns about one or more individuals a referral should be made to the to the Trafford Safeguarding Hub:   AdultSafeguardinghub@trafford.gov.uk. They will review the information to decide if a ‘Large Scale Safeguarding Enquiry’ should be initiated 
• Where appropriate a PiPOT referral should also be made in relation to the Person/People In a position of Trust who have allegedly committed the organisational abuse via the PiPOT notification which should be emailed to PiPoT@trafford.gov.uk 
• More information is available from the CQC who is responsible for regulating hospitals, care homes and residential settings: Safeguarding - Care Quality Commission 

The term self-neglect covers a wide range of behaviours which can present individually or together. such as: 

• Lack of self-care  resulting in neglect of one’s personal hygiene, nutrition, hydration, or medication which impacts on the persons safety and wellbeing
• Lack of care of one’s environment resulting conditions that are dirty or where items or animal are collected in large quantities
• Refusal or failure to seek services
• Inability or unwillingness to manage one’s personal affairs 

Self-neglect and Hoarding can often happen in isolation from each other. And both are different to the other forms of abuse listed here as they do not involve someone else who is initiating the harm. However self-neglect and hoarding may harm other people living in the same property.

Resources that can help: 

• TSAB Self-neglect and Hoarding Policy and Procedure - Coming Soon
• TSAB Self-neglect Practice Guidance - Coming Soon
• TSAB Hoarding Practice Guidance - Coming Soon
• Hoarding Disorders UK provides help and support to people who are affected not only by hoarding and clutter but also chronic disorganisation. They have produced some useful information for people who hoard including the top ten tips for helping someone you know who hoards helping someone who hoards
• Psychological Perspective on Hoarding: DCP Good Practice Guidelines have been compiled by clinical psychologists from the British Psychological Society, including contributions from those living with hoarding issues, as well as their carers.
• Help For Hoarders provides information, support and advice for people who hoard and their loved ones. The site includes a message board for people to contribute their own experiences. 
• Birmingham Safeguarding Adults Board have also produced a powerful video to help raise awareness about hoarding https://youtu.be/fhmfptpwNZc