Agenda Item - East Sussex County Council

5 Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Summary
Performance Management
4. Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Performance Management
Summary
4.1 The following information refers to specific elements of Safeguarding data.
An “alert” refers to an individual reporting a suspected instance of abuse. If
an alert goes onto be investigated, this is called a “referral”. Not all alerts
go on to become a referral. If for example, as a result of further evidence
gathering, it is found that no form of abuse has taken place, a referral will
not take place.
4.2 This section summarises the Safeguarding activity from April 2009 to
March 2010. It sets out activity information relating to the number of alerts
and referrals for investigation, the sources of the alert and a break down of
the information by a number of different categories.
4.3 In 2009/10 there were 2,117 alerts recorded in East Sussex. This is an
increase of 536 alerts compared to 2008/09. The number of alerts in East
Sussex has continued to rise since 2007, highlighting improvements in
people’s level of understanding of safeguarding and their ability to
communicate their concerns.
4.4 The largest increase in alerts relates to people with a learning disability,
increasing from 548 alerts in 2008/09 to 737 alerts in 2009/10, an increase
of 189 alerts. This is possibly as a result of a successful hate crime
campaign that took place with the aim of developing service provider’s
knowledge of hate crimes against people with learning disabilities. The
event was extremely well attended and provided some insight into the
experiences of people with learning disabilities who have been the victims
of hate crime.
4.5 Not all alerts are required to be investigated, whilst there has been a
decrease in the percentage of alerts investigated in 2009/10 with 70.6% of
alerts investigated compared to 84% in 2008/09, the overall figures mean
that in 2009/10 there were an additional 171 investigations completed
compared to the previous year.
4.6 The 13.4% drop in alerts that went on to become referrals is attributable to
improvements that have been made in the processes involved in
identifying which alerts need to become a referral, allowing an increased
focus on the investigations that need to be undertaken.
Table 1: Number of Alerts and Referrals for investigation
2007/08 2008/09 2009/10
Category of
Vulnerable Adult
Total
alerts
Total
alerts
Total
referrals for
investigation
% of alerts
referred for
investigation
Total
alerts
Total
referrals for
investigation
% of alerts
referred for
investigation
Older People (65+) 405 726 673 92.7% 860 729 84.8%
Mental Health 99 143 110 76.9% 212 177 83.5%
Learning Disability 503 548 403 73.5% 737 376 51.0%
Physical Disability 76 121 104 86.0% 208 148 71.2%
Other Vulnerable
Adult 21 43 33 76.7% 100 64 64.0%
Total 1104 1581 1323 84.0% 2117 1494 70.6%
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