Concerned About an Adult Being Abused or Neglected?

Raise a Safeguarding Concern to get help for adults at risk of neglect, abuse or not being looked after properly

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Safeguarding Adults in West Berkshire

Every adult has the right to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect. Sometimes this is more difficult for those adults in our community who have care and support needs.

Safeguarding is about all of us working together to reduce the risk of abuse or neglect, whilst making sure that the wishes of any person experiencing abuse or neglect are central to the solution.

Most adults (in this context, an adult is defined as someone over the age of 18) are able to make decisions about how they manage their own lives, and will do so without needing help. However, there are some who may need support for a variety of reasons.

If you think that you, or someone you know is being abused, there are ways in which you can get help.

Don't ignore the problem, blame yourself, or keep quiet about it - it's unlikely to go away on its own.

Take action straight away if:

you or the person are in immediate danger of being harmed or you think a crime might have been committed - call the police on the emergency number 999, or the non-urgent contact number 101 if you are not sure whether the police should be involved
there is an immediate risk to your or the person's health, or there is a medical emergency - call 999 and ask for the ambulance service

Get in Touch

You can report your concerns to us online (this is known as raising a "safeguarding concern").

Please contact the Safeguarding Adults Team if:

you think that someone may be abused or neglected by someone who is paid to provide care and support in the person's own home, or in a residential setting
you think that someone may be abused or neglected by any person who has contact with an adult at risk, either professionally or socially, in their own home or in the community
you have a general enquiry about how we work to protect adults at risk

If you would like advice about someone you think might need help, or for more information about our Adult Care Services, please contact contact Adult Social Care.

Sometimes an adult at risk may need to be cared for in a way that might restrict their liberty. For more information about this visit our Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards webpage.

Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB)

Preventing abuse and neglect and promoting good practice, The Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB) covers the West Berkshire, Reading and Wokingham areas, and brings together agencies that work together to prevent abuse.

Pressure Care Awareness

As one of our Safeguarding Adults Board priorities, we are helping promote pressure care awareness. The Berkshire Safeguarding Adults Policies and Procedures - Appendix Five: Pressure Ulcer Pathway aims to support decisions about appropriate responses to pressure ulcer care. Further information can be found on the Public Health England Pressure Ulcers: applying All Our Health page. You can also find guidance on the React To Red pressure ulcer prevention campaign.

The West of Berkshire Safeguarding Adults Partnership Board has produced a Video on Pressure Care Prevention and Monitoring.

Making Safeguarding Personal

We are committed to implementing Making Safeguarding Personal, a national initiative that aims to make sure that every response to a safeguarding concern is personalised.

Making Safeguarding Personal aims to support people in resolving or improving their circumstances and to help ensure that safeguarding is done with, and not to, people.

This means working with a person, or their representatives, to make sure the outcomes they would like are central to any work we carry out in response to a safeguarding concern.

You can find more information on the Local Government Association's Making Safeguarding Personal website, including a guide to the initiative, reports about progress, and toolkits of responses.