Adult Safeguarding: Information for Professionals and Volunteers
This section of the website is designed to support professionals and volunteers who work with adults who have care and support needs. Its purpose is to help you safeguard adults effectively and promote their wellbeing.
Use the menu on the left-hand side (or above when using a mobile device) to explore the content.
What Do We Mean by Safeguarding?
People often interpret the word safeguarding differently. Common everyday definitions may include:
- Actions taken to protect a person’s safety, rights, or wellbeing
- Support provided to ensure someone’s needs are met
- Concerns about a person’s welfare or vulnerability
These are all valid ways of thinking about safeguarding and often involve support or intervention from the local authority or partner agencies.
However, formal adult safeguarding has a specific meaning under the Care Act 2014.
Section 42 of the Act sets out when a local authority must make enquiries or take steps to protect an adult who:
- Has care and support needs
- Is experiencing, or at risk of, abuse or neglect
- Is unable to protect themselves because of those needs
The Care and Support Statutory Guidance defines safeguarding as:
“Protecting an adult’s right to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect. It is about people and organisations working together to prevent and stop both the risks and experience of abuse or neglect, while at the same time making sure that the adult’s wellbeing is promoted — including, where appropriate, having regard to their views, wishes, feelings and beliefs. This must recognise that adults may have complex relationships and may be ambivalent, unclear or unrealistic about their personal circumstances.”
Types of Abuse
The statutory guidance identifies the following categories of abuse. Understanding these helps practitioners recognise concerns and respond appropriately:
- Physical abuse
- Sexual abuse
- Psychological or emotional abuse
- Modern slavery
- Self‑neglect
- Discriminatory abuse
- Neglect or acts of omission
- Domestic abuse
- Financial or material abuse
- Organisational abuse
What if the person I'm worried about doesn't want to work/engage with professionals?
Please read over the following guidance here
This guidance has been developed to promote meaningful engagement with adults who find it difficult to engage with services, and to support practitioners across Warrington to respond in a consistent, compassionate and effective way. It reflects a trauma‑informed, strengths‑based approach, recognising that apparent “non‑engagement” may be a response to trauma rather than non‑compliance, and that safety, trust and collaboration are often the foundations for progress.
The document is intended as a practical aid for day‑to‑day practice: helping practitioners plan and deliver engagement‑focused work, apply Making Safeguarding Personal (MSP), and use professional curiosity and respectful uncertainty when risks are unclear or fluctuating. It reinforces that cases should not be closed solely because appointments are missed or contact is withdrawn, and that coordinated multi‑agency working should be considered early where concerns persist.
Throughout, the guidance provides prompts and principles to help services avoid re‑traumatisation, reduce power imbalances, and offer informed choice and empowerment—supporting person‑centred, proportionate safeguarding and defensible decision‑making through clear recording and appropriate management oversight.