Agenda Item - East Sussex County Council

Appendix 1
Institutional 7 87.5% 1 12.5% 8
Other Classifications 110 69.2% 48 30.2% 158
Totals 986 62.4% 591 37.4% 1577
(There were also 2 cases investigated that had no gender recorded)
Levels of Investigation
4.19 Safeguarding alerts come from a variety of sources and involve a range of
situations. Such variations require different levels of response, depending
on the nature and seriousness of the allegation being made. To ensure a
proportionate response to the investigation, the levels of Investigation are
broken down into four levels:
• Level 1 Investigation- A 'one off', isolated incident that has taken
place in a provider service setting, or involving a provider service,
and has not seriously adversely affected the physical, psychological
or emotional well-being of the vulnerable adult. The Manager of the
relevant provider service is always asked to Investigate the
allegation for Level 1 Investigations
• Level 2 Investigation- The physical, psychological or emotional wellbeing
of the vulnerable adult may be being adversely affected. A
practitioner with relevant skills for example a social worker will
always be asked to investigate concerns for Level 2 Investigations.
• Level 3 Investigation- The physical, psychological or emotional wellbeing
of the vulnerable adult has been adversely affected by the
alleged incident and/or an offence may have been committed
• Level 4 Investigation- A number of vulnerable adults may be or have
been adversely affected and / or Institutional abuse may be
indicated
4.20 The levels of investigation that were undertaken in 2009/10 are shown in
Table 6.
Table 6: Total investigations at each safeguarding level
2007/08 2008/09 2009/10
Total % of Total Total % of Total Total % of Total
Referrals Referrals Referrals Referrals Referrals Referrals
started
Level 1 345 31.9% 343 23.4% 352 22.7%
Level 2 321 29.7% 412 28.1% 454 29.3%
Level 3 289 26.7% 421 28.7% 507 32.8%
Level 4 126 11.7% 292 19.9% 235 15.2%
Total 1081 1468 1548
There were an additional 31 referrals that had no level recorded or were inappropriately classified.
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