What is a Safeguarding Adult Review (SAR)?

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Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SAR) help to understand the effectiveness of local multi-agency safeguarding arrangements by:

  • Identifying any lessons that we can learn from the way local professionals and agencies worked together 
  • Reviewing the effectiveness of our safeguarding adults policies and procedures 
  • Recommending actions to inform and improve local practice 

By considering whether serious harm experienced by an adult, or group of adults at risk of abuse or neglect, could have been predicted or prevented, reviews can help to prevent or reduce the risk of future deaths or serious harm happening again. SARs may also be used to identify examples of good practice that can be applied to future cases. 

The Care Act 2014  introduced the statutory duty for the Board to undertake a SAR where either: 

  • an adult with care and support needs has died and it is known or suspected that the death resulted from abuse or neglect or 
  • an adult with care and support needs is alive, but it is known or suspected that they have experienced serious abuse or neglect 
  • and there is reasonable cause for concern about how agencies worked together to safeguard the adult. 

In addition to the statutory framework, the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) has produced a set of quality markers to support a consistent approach to the commissioning, conducting and quality assurance of SARs.  The quality markers provide a helpful checklist and can be found here. 

More information on the TSAB Policy and Procedure for conducting SARs can be found here: TSAB SAR Policy and Procedure

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