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Publication, Part of

Safeguarding Adults, England, 2022-23

Official statistics

Publication Date:
7 Sep 2023
Geographic Coverage:
England
Geographical Granularity:
Country, Regions, Councils with Adult Social Services Responsibilities (CASSRs)
Date Range:
01 Apr 2022 to 31 Mar 2023

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Safeguarding Adults, England, 2022-23

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Introduction and Key Points

Note: Update to Data Tables

An error was discovered in the data tables impacting on a small number of values for three local authorities: Staffordshire County Council, Sefton Council and London Borough of Sutton Council. These have now been corrected in the Data Tables and CSV files accompanying this publication. Some regional and England totals have also been impacted by a very small amount, for example the total number of Safeguarding concerns has changed from 587,965 to 587,970. 

16 November 2023 10:23 AM

Page contents

Summary

This publication provides findings from the Safeguarding Adults Collection (SAC) for the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023. Safeguarding Adults is a statutory duty for Councils with Adult Social Services Responsibilities in England under the Care Act 2014, in order to safeguard vulnerable adults from abuse or neglect. The data is collected directly from these councils, also known as local authorities in this publication.

The aim of this publication is to inform users about aspects of safeguarding activity at national, regional and local level. This page presents the key facts and data tables. Further chapters give more detailed information about data quality, how the data should be used, how the data was collected and collated (Introduction and Key Points chapter) and background about safeguarding (Supporting Information chapter). The Safeguarding Adults dashboard, which is an interactive business intelligence tool published alongside the data tables, presents further insight of the data including breakdowns by local authority.

The England-level statistics for 2022-23 have been estimated as one local authority was not able to submit data.

Highlights

A repository of the code used to produce future Safeguarding Adults publications is available on GitHub: https://github.com/NHSDigital/ASC-Safeguarding-Adults. The code is being iterated whilst the team makes improvements until all the publication outputs are produced from the code. 

We welcome feedback on the methodology and tables within this publication. Please email us with your comments and suggestions, clearly stating Adult Social Care as the subject heading, via [email protected] or 0300 303 5678.

Adult Social Care Data Hub - Safeguarding Adults dashboard

Interactive charts and visualisations

This tool is in Microsoft Power BI which does not fully support all accessibility needs. If you need further assistance, please contact us for help

Safeguarding concerns

There were an estimated 587,970 concerns of abuse raised during 2022-23, an increase of 9% on the previous year, which is the same annual growth rate as last year.

Section 42 enquiries

The number of enquiries that commenced under Section 42 of the Care Act 2014 during the year increased by 7% to an estimated 173,280, this was a slightly higher increase in growth rate from the previous year, and involved 136,865 individuals.

Other safeguarding enquiries

The number of Other safeguarding enquiries, where there may not be reasonable cause to suspect the statutory Section 42 criteria are met but where local authorities use other powers to make enquiries, is reported to be 17,910 in 2022-23.

Type and location of risk

The most common type of risk in Section 42 enquiries that concluded in the year was Neglect and Acts of Omission, which accounted for 32% of risks, and the most common location of the risk was the person’s own home at 47%.

Outcomes

In 91% of concluded Section 42 enquiries where a risk was identified, the reported outcome was that the risk was reduced or removed.

Last edited: 16 November 2023 10:42 am