Official Statistics

Safeguarding adults, England, 2024 to 2025: background, quality and methodology

Updated 27 November 2025

Applies to England

Introduction

This publication provides findings from the safeguarding adults collection (SAC) for the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. The SAC is a mandatory data collection from local authorities in England. Safeguarding adults is a statutory duty for councils with adult social services responsibilities (CASSRs) in England under the Care Act 2014 (the Care Act) to safeguard vulnerable adults from abuse or neglect. The data is collected directly from these councils, which will be referred to as local authorities throughout 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 detailed information about:

• data quality
• how the data should be used
• how the data was collected and collated
• background about safeguarding

The ‘safeguarding adults dashboard’ is a Power BI dashboard (an interactive business intelligence tool) published alongside the data tables. It presents further insight of the data including breakdowns by local authority.

The Safeguarding adults, England: 2024 to 2025 publication consists of:

• a statistical commentary on the data from 2024 to 2025
• associated data tables (in ODS format) providing:
  • data at local authority, regional and national level
  • a data quality assessment, including data completeness and integrity measures
• data tables in CSV format
• a background, quality and methodology document (this page)
• the safeguarding adults dashboard
• a pre-release access list

The publication was previously labelled as experimental statistics. This badge was removed for the 2021 to 2022 publication and the publication continues to be labelled as official statistics. However, limitations remain around the interpretation and usage of the data due to local variation in how safeguarding activity is defined and reported (this is explained further in the ‘Data quality: 2024 to 2025’ section).

In August 2019, the Local Government Association (LGA) published a framework to support local safeguarding decision making. The framework was developed by LGA and the Association for Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) and it is hoped will help reduce local variation by aligning the SAC to the framework. In 2020 to 2021, LGA and ADASS also published a related framework around what constitutes a safeguarding concern. If this is adopted as the standard this should improve the utility of the SAC data. The year 2021 to 2022 represented the first full year after publication of both frameworks. There is some evidence over the last few years that the variation described above is decreasing.

Official statistics on safeguarding adults prior to 2024 to 2025 were previously published by NHS England.

Power BI dashboard

The dashboard tool is presented in Power BI, which does not fully support all accessibility needs. If you need further assistance, contact NHS England.

A set of local authority ‘peer groups’ has been used in the dashboard tool for the last 3 years, replacing the previous Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) nearest neighbours tool. For each local authority, data can be grouped alongside a total of 15 other local authorities that are similar in terms of various socio-economic and geographic factors, such as age profile, ethnicity, density and education. The tool uses different features to CIPFA and has been created from the latest open data from sources such as the 2021 national Census. It is able to be adapted to any future data updates and also any local authority or boundary changes. The full model is available publicly on NHS England’s GitHub page. Local authority data can continue to be displayed by region within the dashboard.

If you have any feedback on the new peer groups, or would like any further detail, email asc.statistics@dhsc.gov.uk.

Data collection

The data used in this publication was collated by NHS England from the SAC mandatory data collection from local authorities in England. Data was provided by all 153 local authorities.

Within the SAC and this publication we distinguish between:

• section 42 part 2 (s42(2)) enquiries that met the criteria under section 42 part 1 (s42(1)) of the Care Act (referred to in the report as ‘section 42 enquiries’)
• enquiries where the adult did not meet all of the s42(1) criteria, but the local authority considered it necessary and proportionate to have a safeguarding enquiry - these are referred to in the report as ‘other’ enquiries

Data on section 42 enquiries is mandatory to collect except for the data on ‘Making Safeguarding Personal’ (MSP), which is voluntary. Data on other enquiries is voluntary to collect and submit, except for one table, which captures the overall number of ‘other’ enquiries that commenced in the reporting period. Similarly, data on safeguarding concerns is voluntary to collect and submit, except for one table, which captures the overall number of concerns received in the reporting period.

Coverage of these statistics

This publication presents information about safeguarding concerns that were raised and where enquiries took place during the year. It also contains case details for safeguarding enquiries which concluded during the reporting period. A safeguarding concern is where a local authority is notified about a risk of abuse or neglect of an adult which could instigate an enquiry under local safeguarding procedures. Statistics on children’s safeguarding are published by the Department of Education on the Statistics: children in need and child protection page.

The SAC was sent to all 153 local authorities and responses were mandatory, regardless of whether safeguarding cases had been handled in the reporting year by the authority. Returns were received from all 153 local authorities. Nil returns were acceptable and are valid, though none were received; all local authorities that submitted a data return reported some safeguarding activity.

In the SAC data tables provided by local authorities, all data relating to individuals involved in safeguarding concerns and ‘other’ safeguarding enquiries are submitted on a voluntary basis (except for table SG1f). Furthermore (in table SG1e) there are 18 reported health conditions for which collection and submission remain voluntary for section 42 enquiries.

How these statistics can be used

Use these statistics:

• to understand trends in volumes of safeguarding concerns raised and enquiries conducted
• to analyse the profile of people involved in safeguarding enquiries, and the nature of the risk of abuse or neglect involved
• alongside other local data on safeguarding practice and outcomes

Do not use these statistics:

• to make judgements about how effective local authorities are at keeping adults safe from abuse and neglect
• to benchmark local authorities against each other, due to the different reporting and practices used to discharge their statutory duties

Who this publication is aimed at

This publication may be of interest to members of the public, policy officials and other stakeholders at local and national level, to support adult safeguarding policy development and reforms and to monitor services.

Local authorities may find this data helpful in shaping services and making improvements, especially in terms of evaluating their services and comparing them with previous years or to share best practice with colleagues in other authorities. It is recommended that this data be used alongside local data and other forms of information (such as audits, peer reviews, feedback from adults themselves and staff) by safeguarding adults boards and local authorities to ask questions and to seek necessary assurances about the effectiveness of safeguarding practice and outcomes.

Members of the public and other stakeholders, such as charity organisations, can also use this SAC publication to help to understand safeguarding procedures and their outcomes. 

Statistical disclosure control methods

To prevent the risk of disclosure of data about individuals, counts less than 5 are displayed as a [c] in the data tables. All other figures have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 5. Percentages are calculated on the unrounded figures.

Data quality: 2024 to 2025

Data quality is measured on submission of annual data by local authorities, and processes are followed to try and improve quality of data submitted. The data quality statement gives further information and presented below is an overview of the data quality issues impacting on the 2024 to 2025 safeguarding adults data.

There is a significant degree of variation between local authorities for certain measures. In many instances this variation will result from differing interpretations of the Care Act and different practices by local authorities, rather than from poor data quality. Attempts have been undertaken to help develop frameworks around elements of the Care Act (linked above), to result in a more consistent approach to defining these important elements and reduce variation. This has been led by LGA and ADASS.

The frameworks support consistent local authority decision making and achieve greater understanding across sectors of what constitutes a safeguarding concern and enquiry. They aim to support safeguarding practice and consistent decision making so that people get a response that is right for them. They also offer clarity on elements of reporting in the SAC around concerns and section 42 enquiries, and the data collection guidance was refined further around this from 2022 to 2023, particularly around safeguarding concerns, to improve consistency of reporting in accordance with these new frameworks. It is hoped these will be adopted and over time this will reduce local variation. Some councils have mentioned changes in practice and there is some evidence that variation in the conversion rates from concerns to enquiries is reducing.

To better understand local practice across England before the LGA frameworks were developed, NHS Digital undertook a voluntary survey of local authorities in 2018 to see how they defined and recorded aspects of adult safeguarding within their SAC submission. Responses to the survey can be used to inform analysis of the data published in this release, to aid interpretation of the data submitted by local authorities and any differences between local authorities.

Additional care must be taken in particular when comparing the following areas:

Safeguarding concerns

The data identifies a wide variety in the numbers of concerns submitted by local authorities. Discussions with local authorities have identified that differing approaches to how concerns are addressed by the ‘front door’ services will vary between them. In some local authorities concerns are filtered out before they reach the safeguarding team and are not included in the submitted data. Where they exist, multi agency safeguarding hubs (MASHs) may have an impact on the numbers of concerns that are reported in the SAC.

Trigger for a safeguarding enquiry

A safeguarding enquiry starts when the initial information gathering has established that there is reasonable cause to suspect that all 3 of the s42(1) criteria are met, or where the criteria are not met and the decision has been made that it is necessary and proportionate to respond as a safeguarding enquiry (called an ‘other’ enquiry).

At present there is still variation in the point at which initial information gathering, following a concern being raised, then triggers an s42(2) enquiry (simply called a section 42 enquiry in the SAC) or ‘other’ enquiry, according to explanations provided by data providers.

There is no fixed point during the early phase of an enquiry when a practitioner must determine how to report activity within the SAC return. It may be that this is determined and therefore recorded and reported as a section 42 enquiry, after the practitioner has already done part of it. Reporting and recording reflect practice decisions.

Section 42 and ‘other’ enquiries

The methodology by which local authorities determine whether enquiries are undertaken under s42(2) of the Care Act or not varies, as can be seen from the counts of ‘other’ queries submitted in the SAC.

As much of the data on ‘other’ enquiries is voluntary to submit, including demographics of the individuals involved and the nature of the risks faced, we are unable to reliably analyse this in further depth. Therefore, care should be taken when comparing data as there may not be a complete picture of safeguarding in those authorities with high numbers or proportions of ‘other’ enquiries.

It should be noted that the distinction between section 42 and ‘other’ enquiries only exists within the SAC. As part of the survey of local practice 43.6% of completed responses stated that the distinction between section 42 and ‘other’ was not used for local operational or reporting purposes.

‘Conversion rate’ of concerns to enquiries

There should be no logical conclusion drawn that the number of safeguarding concerns that lead to a safeguarding enquiry is a reliable indicator of whether people are protected. This must not be used as a comparator for effectiveness and care must be taken in analysing conversion rates. They cannot be used to infer ‘good’ or ‘bad’ safeguarding practice. For this reason, the conversion rate metric can be found within the data quality annex within the data tables.

Local information about those circumstances that do not warrant such a statutory enquiry will support a broader picture about the effectiveness of safeguarding support in a local area. Aspects of the data and related information should serve as a starting point for inquiry, prompting thoughtful questions rather than leading to broad, generalised conclusions.

The data quality issues should also be considered when reviewing the conversion rate data. Further details are provided in the ‘Other issues relating to 2024 to 2025 data’ section below.

Data gaps

The LGA frameworks mentioned above emphasise that the mandatory SAC data reports activity under s42(2) as set out above. The SAC does not reflect significant and effective early intervention and prevention in safeguarding people which takes place after a concern has been raised and within s42(1) information gathering, to find out whether there is reasonable cause to suspect that the 3 statutory criteria are met. The frameworks underline the importance of generating and making available local information (to complement the data in the SAC) to give broader assurance of effectiveness of support outside of s42(2).

In addition to the above, it is acknowledged that the definition of ‘other enquiries’ should be improved to increase consistency of (voluntary) reporting. This has previously been discussed in the SAC working group, but no consensus has been reached due to the complex picture across different local authorities.

Other issues relating to 2024 to 2025 data

Of 153 local authorities, 151 submitted a return for all mandatory cells by the first mandated deadline. A validation report was subsequently sent to each of these local authorities. The report includes a summary of measures of data integrity that identified logically inconsistent combinations of data, such as situations where table totals or total of rows within tables should be logically lower, higher or equal to other tables or rows within the submission template. Local authorities were then given a further opportunity to make amendments to their submission. The summary measures indicate that the data submitted was valid and complete to a high degree.

MSP information is voluntary to submit in the SAC. In 2023 to 2024 there was an 8.0% increase in the number of enquiries for which MSP was provided, from 135,170 in 2022 to 2023 to 146,995 in 2023 to 2024. This has decreased to 144,625 (–0.9%) in 2024 to 2025.

Missing data

Due to a serious cyber-attack in 2020, Hackney Council (called London Borough of Hackney in the data tables) was unable to submit SAC data in 2020 to 2021, 2021 to 2022, and 2022 to 2023.

To present England level statistics that can be compared with previous years, NHS England added 2019 to 2020 Hackney data to 2020 to 2021, 2021 to 2022, and 2022 to 2023 regional and national totals.

We investigated other options for estimating England level statistics, such as uplifting previous years’ data for the missing local authority by a factor equal to either the latest national or regional percentage increase. They all gave similar results leading to a narrow range of estimates. Therefore, the option described above was chosen.

Hackney Council was able to provide a full submission for 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025.

Specific data return issues reported by local authorities

Some local authorities gave comments in their data return to explain errors or issues with their data or explain changes made that impact on comparisons between years. These comments are presented in their original form as provided by local authorities. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) would like to thank these local authorities for their transparency.

The number in brackets refers to the local authority code.

Calderdale (210)

SAC table: SG2b - Counts of enquiries by location and source of risk; Risk assessment outcomes

Local authority comment:

Threshold guidance has been implemented which has led to a slight reduction in concerns this year and a decrease in those reported from care homes, with an increase in those from the community.

Kingston Upon Hull (215)

SAC tables:

• SG1f - Counts of safeguarding activity
• SG4a - For each enquiry, was the individual or individual’s representative asked what their desired outcomes were?

Local authority comment:

Year-on-year increase in the number of safeguarding concerns received. This is the result of work between our local safeguarding board and partner agencies to encourage more early reporting of safeguarding concerns to our Safeguarding and Access Team.

The decrease in the number of ‘other’ enquiries can be explained by changes in working practices to better assess at an early stage, whether a concern meets the threshold of need to require a section 42 enquiry.

Many of the long-term section 42 enquiries commenced before working practices were changed to gather better MSP information. We anticipate a decrease in the ‘They were not asked’ cells for the year 2025 to 2026.

North East Lincolnshire (216)

SAC table: SG1f - Counts of safeguarding activity

Local authority comment:

Safeguarding concerns - there has been an increase in this figure this year, this is due to the streamlining of processes that has discontinued some pre-referral advice for some concerns. This change was made to ensure that all concerns were accurately captured on the system.

Conversion rates - there has been a fall in conversion rates due to the change of process identified above re: the recording of safeguarding concerns that do not meet the criteria for enquiry.

Hertfordshire (606)

SAC table: SG1a - Count of individuals by age band

Local authority comment:

HCC have applied a new triage process in 2024 to 2025 meaning that conversion rate from concern to enquiry has reduced. Following an external review in early 2024, ACS now only progresses to a safeguarding enquiry if there is a current risk to the adult. If the risk is mitigated, a concern is unlikely to progress to a section 42 enquiry.

Norfolk (607)

SAC table: SG1a - Count of individuals by age band

Local authority comment:

In August 2024, NCC reviewed its interpretation of section 42(1) of the Care Act and determined that safeguarding enquiries concerning individuals who are deceased do not meet the statutory criteria. Cases for deceased individuals, but which are carried out to identify actions necessary for public safety or local system assurance are now appropriately recorded as ‘other’ safeguarding enquiries which accounts for the increase in this measure this reporting year.

Reading (616)

SAC tables:

• SG1f - Counts of safeguarding activity
• SG2e - Where a risk was identified, what was the outcome or expected outcome when the case was concluded?
• SG3a - For each enquiry, was the adult at risk lacking capacity to make decisions to the safeguarding enquiry?
• SG4a - For each enquiry, was the individual or individuals asked what their desired outcomes were?

Local authority comment:

All safeguarding processes were looked at this year with a more robust oversight of recording leading to a decline in concerns as more cases were triaged or signposted to other appropriate pathways.

Only those meeting the full safeguarding criteria have been progressed to a section 42 enquiry. Therefore, more of those progressing have come from appropriate concerns so the numbers needing further investigation via the enquiry process has risen substantially.

Those with identified risks have risen which mirrors the increase in appropriate section 42 enquiries.

Numbers of ‘Informal Advocates’ increased. Remains a focus and work has been completed to further improve number of people who have advocate access.

Peterborough (624)

SAC table: SG1f - Counts of safeguarding activity

Local authority comment:

The general increase in section 42 enquiries is due our revised delivery model following a review. The decrease in concerns is also due to those changes.

Bromley (720)

SAC table: SG1f - Counts of safeguarding activity

Local authority comment:

The number of concerns increased significantly compared to 2023 to 2024 which may indicate growing awareness or reporting of issues, changes in the environment or policies.

The data indicates a trend towards better initial handling and triaging of concerns once recorded, leading to fewer escalations on to enquiries despite the increase in numbers being recorded.

Dorset (809)

SAC table: SG1a - Count of individuals by age band

Local authority comment:

Dorset have implemented significant system and process changes during 2024 to 2025 that have resulted in a more realistic view of our section 42 enquiry work.

Portsmouth (813)

SAC table: SG1f - Counts of safeguarding activity

Local authority comment:

Unlike previous years, police reports (PPN1) are now included in the total number of safeguarding concerns received, meaning there appears to be an increase in number received since previous years.

East Sussex (815)

SAC table: SG1f - Counts of safeguarding activity

Local authority comment:

During the HSCC Safeguarding Pilot we have introduced a standardised process where all referrals to the Safeguarding Hub are processed as contact forms and this has significantly increased the volumes of concerns. This process has ensured that all necessary information is captured consistently and efficiently, and has further enhanced our recording allowing for improvement in data capture.

Cornwall (902)

SAC tables:

• SG1f - Counts of safeguarding activity
• SG3a - For each enquiry, was the adult at risk lacking capacity to make decisions to the safeguarding enquiry?

Local authority comment:

The increase in enquiries is due to a change in process and removal of a planning workflow.

The ‘forms’ from which the submission is drawn do not directly correlate to this question. Therefore we have also included within this metric those who were referred at this point for advocacy. There are also a number of other records which record a negative value to this question, however this may not mean that required support has not been provided. It could be a negative return for another reason.

Bath and North East Somerset (908)

SAC table: SG2e - Where a risk was identified, what was the outcome or expected outcome when the case was concluded?

Local authority comment:

In our recording system we have an option for risk inconclusive in risk outcomes which isn’t an option on the SAC return. SAC return only has options of risk reduced, removed or remains. This is leading to a difference in the final count.

North Somerset (910)

SAC tables: SG1f, SG2a - Counts of safeguarding activity

Local authority comment:

We also complete Multi Agency Risk Management meetings (MARM) - which does not fit either a section 42 or other enquiry definition and feel this activity is under represented by this collection and ask that it could be considered in future as it is not in CLD.

Our concluded section 42 enquiries won’t include where the decision has been made that the section 42 criteria are no longer met. This means the number of started enquiries will be larger than our number of concluded.

West Northamptonshire (U6Q5Z)

SAC tables: all

Local authority comment:

Adult social care changed their management information system from Eclipse and Searchlight to Liquidlogic Adults System (LAS) for 2024 to 2025 reporting period and the foreseeable future.

Should there be any discrepancies in the 2024 to 2025 SAC returns, this is due to the data migration into LAS, the new system.

We reported in 2023 to 2024 returns that we had changed the process for managing the contacts at the front door to meet the demand we were experiencing. As a result we used an off-workflow approach and therefore the figures for this year are significantly different. In 2025 to 2026 with the implementation of the new care system the figures will return to the actual workflow for safeguarding contacts.

Supporting information

This section provides further information about the safeguarding adults process and the categories of safeguarding activity captured in the SAC.

Background

The Care Act came into effect on 1 April 2015. It reformed the way the adult social care system works in England, including how care is delivered. The changes included a range of new obligations for local authorities around the provision of information and advice, the integration of care and support with health-related services and eligibility assessments. It also strengthened the rights and recognition of carers in the social care system, and (relevant for the SAC) provided a legal basis for safeguarding adults from abuse or neglect.

Safeguarding adults is a statutory duty of the Care Act, and must be seen within the context of broader Care Act reforms, which introduced a duty to promote wellbeing and to “adopt a flexible approach that allows for a focus on which aspects of wellbeing matter most to the individual concerned”. Application of the 6 statutory safeguarding principles and MSP supports practice capable of achieving a wide range of responses tailored to meet the needs of the individual.

Under the criteria set out in s42(1) of the act:

“Where a local authority has reasonable cause to suspect that an adult in its area (whether or not ordinarily resident there):

(a) has needs for care and support (whether the authority is meeting any of those needs) and

(b) is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect and

(c) as a result of those needs is unable to protect himself or herself against the abuse or neglect or the risk of it,

then the local authority must, as set out in s42(2) of the act, make (or cause to be made) whatever enquiries it thinks necessary to enable it to decide whether any action should be taken in the adult’s case and, if so, what and by whom.”

The SAC has been in place since 2015 to 2016 and is an updated version of the safeguarding adults return which collected safeguarding data for the 2013 to 2014 and 2014 to 2015 reporting periods. Changes were made to bring the collection in line with the Care Act.

Some of the categories collected have remained the same but there are also some significant differences. The main change was in how cases opened in the reporting year are categorised. Previous reports used individuals ‘known’ and ‘unknown’ to the local authority, but this distinction has been removed.

Previous reports recorded details of individuals with safeguarding referrals, but the SAC now records individuals with safeguarding enquiries. While these will be largely equivalent, they may not be directly comparable, and care will need to be taken when comparing recent publications with data prior to the 2015 to 2016 reporting period contained in the 2 safeguarding adults return reports.

The data collection has evolved since then in minor ways, with any changes being signed off by the appropriate governance boards. The approval process involves:

• the SAC working group (comprising a cohort of local authority safeguarding leads and performance leads to advise on the data collection)
• the Adult Social Care Data Delivery Action Group (a national group overseeing adult social care data collections, publications and the working groups), which consists of:
  • NHS England
  • ADASS
  • LGA
  • the Care Quality Commission (CQC)
  • DHSC
  • the Adult Social Care Data and Outcomes Board (a strategic national group setting the priorities for adult social care national data collections, publications and associated developments)

Any changes to the SAC have been communicated to local authorities in a data provision notice and are also detailed in the annual September notice and the associated social care collection materials. For 2024 to 2025 there were no changes to the SAC data collection.

Recent changes to local authorities are as follows:

• on 1 April 2019 Bournemouth and Poole merged to form the new Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole local authority. The inclusion of Christchurch has also reduced the size of the Dorset local authority. Therefore, care should be taken when making comparisons over time for Dorset
• in April 2021 Northamptonshire Local Authority split into North Northamptonshire Council and West Northamptonshire Council
• on 1 April 2023 Cumbria Council split to form 2 new district councils in 2023 to 2024:
  • Cumberland
  • Westmorland and Furness

Safeguarding concerns

For the purposes of the SAC a safeguarding concern is a sign of suspected abuse or neglect that is reported to the local authority or identified by the local authority.

The SAC captures information about concerns that were raised during the reporting year - that is, the date the concern was raised with the local authority falls within the reporting year, regardless of the date the incident took place.

Safeguarding concerns can include cases of domestic abuse, sexual exploitation, modern slavery and self-neglect. Paragraph 14.17 of the Care and support statutory guidance outlines other aspects of abuse and neglect.

Some concerns will trigger a section 42 enquiry or an ‘other’ enquiry as described below. Others will require responses outside of formal safeguarding processes and are therefore not reported in the SAC.

An initiative led by LGA and ADASS aims to achieve greater understanding and clarity across sectors of what constitutes a safeguarding concern (linked above) so that people get a response that is right for them. The SAC guidance was revised in 2022 to 2023 to reflect this framework.

The section 42 duty and safeguarding adults enquiries

Section 42 of the Care Act is the legislation under which local authorities operate when a safeguarding concern is raised. It ensures support to keep people safe who may be at risk of or experiencing abuse or neglect.

As mentioned above, LGA and ADASS have developed a framework to support local authorities in making decisions on the duty to carry out safeguarding adults enquiries. This framework was developed in response to the range of different practices around safeguarding, in part evidenced through the large variations seen in the SAC and the responses to the survey of local authorities in 2018 (linked above).

The framework clarifies that the section 42 duty on the local authority exists from the point at which a concern is received. This does not mean that all activity from that point will be reported under the duty to make enquiries as a safeguarding enquiry in the SAC. This is because the section 42 duty is carried out under 2 parts of the Care Act, s42(1) and s42(2), and it may turn out that the s42(2) duty is not triggered because the concern does not meet the s42(1) criteria. This is explained in more detail below.

Section 42 enquiries

The s42(1) criteria state that where there is reasonable cause to suspect:

(a) the adult has needs for care and support (whether or not the authority is meeting any of those needs)

and

(b) the adult is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect

and

(c) as a result of those needs is unable to protect himself or herself against the abuse or neglect or the risk of it

Then, where all the s42(1) criteria are met, the enquiry and decision on what action to take (including taking no action) will follow under the duty to make enquiries described in s42(2) and should be reported as a section 42 enquiry in the SAC.

Information gathering is done under the duty described in s42(1). The s42(2) safeguarding enquiry that is triggered when the s42(1) criteria are met is set out in the Care Act (s42(2)) as follows:

The local authority must make (or cause to be made) whatever enquiries it thinks necessary to enable it to decide whether any action should be taken in the adult’s case (whether under this part or otherwise) and, if so, what and by whom

An enquiry could range from a conversation with the adult to a more formal multi-agency plan or course of action.

The duty to make enquiries under s42(2) is not a prescriptive process in the way it was before the Care Act but consists of activity to inform decision-making and the actions to be taken.

Other safeguarding adults enquiries

Those enquiries where an adult does not meet all the s42(1) criteria but the local authority considers it necessary and proportionate to have a safeguarding enquiry should be reported as an ‘other’ safeguarding enquiry in the SAC.

While each local authority has the jurisdiction to decide what safeguarding activity they undertake for adults who do not meet the s42(1) criteria, some examples could include safeguarding to promote an individual’s well-being as related to the areas in section 1 of the Care Act, or for activity in respect of carers who do not qualify for section 42.

Type of risk

The SAC captures a breakdown of the types of risk for section 42 enquiries that concluded during the year. It should be noted that of the 11 risk types, 4 (modern slavery, self-neglect, sexual exploitation and domestic abuse) were submitted on a voluntary basis prior to 2017 to 2018. As not all local authorities submitted voluntary data, care should be taken when comparing activity for these risk types with previous years.

Risk assessments and outcomes

As part of an enquiry an assessment of the risk to the individual is made and whether any action needs to be taken as a result. Where a risk is identified the outcome is recorded at the conclusion of the enquiry. This publication reports on the risk assessments and outcomes of enquiries that concluded during the year.

Mental capacity

This publication looks at the mental capacity of individuals involved in concluded enquiries. Mental capacity in regard to safeguarding is assessed as the person’s ability to contribute to making decisions about their protection, including their participation in the safeguarding enquiry, as well as their mental capacity at the time of the incident causing a safeguarding concern and enquiry.

Making Safeguarding Personal (MSP)

MSP is about having conversations with people on how to respond in safeguarding situations in a way that enhances involvement, choice and control as well as improving quality of life, wellbeing and safety. The Care Act advocates a person-centred rather than process-driven approach and many local authorities have already adopted this way of working. There is no set approach; a local authority should consider each case on its own merits, consider what the person wants to achieve, and how the action which the local authority is taking may affect the individual.

Submission of data in the SAC for MSP remains voluntary.

Safeguarding adult reviews (SARs)

An SAR is a process for all partner agencies to identify the lessons that can be learned from particularly complex or serious safeguarding adult cases, where an adult in vulnerable circumstances has died or been seriously injured and abuse or neglect has been suspected. A Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB) would usually make the decision to instigate an SAR and a report will be produced to document the findings and recommendations.

The aim of the process is to promote effective learning and improvement to prevent future deaths or serious harm occurring again, rather than allocating blame to individuals or organisations. This may be where a case can provide useful insights into the way organisations are working together to prevent and reduce abuse and neglect of adults. SARs may also be used to explore examples of good practice where this is likely to identify lessons that can be applied to future cases.

The safeguarding adults process

1. A safeguarding concern is referred to the local authority.

2. The local authority records as SAC category: ‘Safeguarding concern’.

3. The local authority gathers information under s42(1) to consider whether there is reasonable cause to suspect all of the following:

• the adult has needs for care and support (whether or not the authority is meeting any of those needs)
• the adult is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect
• as a result of those needs, the adult is unable to protect himself or herself against the abuse or neglect or the risk of it

4. The local authority also seeks to get the views of the adult on the nature, level and type of risk, and the support they may need to mitigate the risk.

5. Decision: is it necessary to continue to the s42(2) duty to make enquiries and/or take action?

The outcome of the above criteria will result in the following 3 pathways based on need:

S42(1) criteria is met so s42(2) is triggered

The local authority will:

• make (or cause to be made) whatever enquiries are necessary
• decide whether action is necessary and if so what and by whom (this could include, for example, an s9 or s10 assessment)
• record as SAC category: ‘Section 42 enquiry’
• conclude the enquiry: ‘risk remains’, ‘risk reduced’ or ‘risk removed’
• conduct an SAR

S42(1) criteria not met so s42(2) not triggered but local authority feels it is necessary to make enquiry on similar lines to s42(2) - for example, where the enquiry concerns a carer

The local authority will:

• make (or cause to be made) whatever enquiries are necessary
• decide whether action is necessary and if so what and by whom (this could include, for example, an s9 or s10 assessment)
• record as SAC category: ‘other enquiry’
• conclude the enquiry: ‘risk remains’, ‘risk reduced’ or ‘risk removed’
• conduct an SAR

Not progressing to an s42(2) enquiry

Alternative responses include:

• s9 assessment
• s10 carers assessment
• care management
• quality of care concern
• complaint
• Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC)
• community MARAC
• signposted for advice
• no further action

The local authority will:

• not capture as an enquiry in the SAC
• conduct an SAR

When an adult at risk dies or suffers serious harm, an SAR is conducted to identify how local professionals and organisations can improve the way they work together. An SAB will usually make the decision to instigate an SAR.

Related resources and further reading

The links below provide further sources of information around adult safeguarding and the Care Act:

• Care and support statutory guidance
• Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) safeguarding page
• Resources to support MSP
• LGA: framework for making decisions on the duty to carry out safeguarding adults enquiries
• LGA: understanding what constitutes a safeguarding concern and how to support effective outcomes

Data quality statement

This section contains a background data quality report. For more specific information about the quality of the latest year’s data, see the ‘Data quality: 2024 to 2025’ section.

Purpose

This data quality statement will provide users with an evidence-based assessment of the quality of the data used in the SAC official statistics, reporting against the 9 European Statistical System (ESS) quality dimensions and principles appropriate to this output.

In doing so, this meets our obligation to comply with the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) Code of Practice for Statistics, particularly Principle Q3.1 which states that:

statistics should be produced to a level of quality that meets users’ needs. The strengths and limitations of the statistics and data should be considered in relation to different uses and clearly explained alongside the statistics.

Relevance

The purpose of the safeguarding adults publication is to inform the government in its role to monitor the impact of social care policy and practice. It may help support DHSC develop adult safeguarding policy. The data can be used to estimate the amount and type of safeguarding activity taking place. This can help to inform assessments of how policy reforms might impact on the volume and nature of safeguarding work conducted by local social services, the police, the NHS and other agencies. The data also helps to inform speeches and briefings for ministers and senior officials.

It is also used by:

• local government, to assess activity
• SABs, and their independent chairs, to build a picture of safeguarding activity in each local area as part of their remit to provide assurance that safeguarding arrangements are in place

Local authorities have informed us of a number of ways they have found safeguarding data useful to them:

• measuring and monitoring local performance
• sharing best practice
• policy development
• service development, planning and improvement
• management information, local reporting and accountability
• informing business cases
• identifying any immediate priorities or areas for concern

The information can also be used by others such as researchers and journalists looking at local authority performance, charitable organisations and by service users and the public to hold local authorities and the government to account.

Accuracy and reliability

NHS England processes all submissions following the first mandated submission deadline and produces an automated data quality summary report for each submitting local authority. The data quality summary report examines variance in volume of activity in comparison with the previous year volumes, and the completeness and validity of the data submitted. It includes a number of data integrity validations, primarily ensuring that different tables had the same total values where relevant. There is also the facility for submitters to record observations and explanations regarding their data. This leads to clarification being sought and double checking conducted by local authority officials, where figures are deemed to be outliers. Potential errors and misunderstandings are known to have been eliminated.

Local authorities then have an opportunity to amend and resubmit their data and add any supporting commentary if they wish to before the second and final deadline. Senior sign-off is required before local authorities can make their final submission to indicate the data has been subject to full quality assurance.

NHS England works with local authorities to resolve any residual issues, to ensure that the data submitted reflects as accurate a picture of safeguarding activity in the year as possible. In some instances, this is not possible before the final data submission deadline; any data issues that are unresolved are noted in the data quality key information.

The finalised data is subject to the same data quality analysis and the results are shown in the data tables of this publication. This analysis aims to give report users a clearer understanding of the quality controls applied to the underlying data, both nationally and at the individual local authority level.

There is a hierarchical governance structure overseeing the data collection: an SAC working group investigates data quality issues and advises on how to manage these. This in turn reports to the Data Delivery Action Group, and then to the Data and Outcomes Board for senior stakeholder approval.

A repository of the code used to produce future safeguarding adults publications is available on NHS England’s ASC safeguarding adults GitHub page. The code is being iterated while the team makes improvements until all the publication outputs are produced from the code.

Timeliness and punctuality

This report contains data for the financial year and covers the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. The publication is released several months after the final submission deadline when local authorities provide the data to NHS England, following data processing, analysis and validation.

Accessibility and clarity

This publication consists of:

• data tables (including statistics by local authority) in Microsoft Excel format
• reference documents in HTML format
• a web-based Power BI comparator tool

The publication includes many of the Government Statistical Service recommendations on improving accessibility of spreadsheets for users with disabilities.

A list of the data items collected together with their definitions can be found in the guidance notes for the data collection and in the adult social care data dictionary.

The documents under the SAC section can be used to identify what data has been collected from local authorities and to understand the terminology used within the SAC reporting products.

Background information and context around safeguarding adults legislation and the data collection is also presented as part of the publication.

Coherence and comparability

There are no other nationally published sources of data on adult safeguarding activity with which this data could be compared.

Data is sourced from each local authority in England and compiled at national level by NHS England. There is no standard system used to record SAC within local authorities and there are gaps in our understanding as to how these impact on coherence and comparability. However, the metadata defined by NHS England and used by local authorities to extract the data from their systems and provide to NHS England is well defined and accessible to all. An SAC working group, including those who use local administrative systems in their day to day work, exists to provide advice and clarification to NHS England on such matters.

Comparability is the degree to which data can be compared over time and domain - for example, geographic level.

The SAC is an updated version of the safeguarding adults return which collected safeguarding data for the 2013 to 2014 and 2014 to 2015 reporting periods. Changes were made to bring the collection in line with the Care Act. Some of the categories collected have remained the same but there are also some significant differences.

The main change is in how cases opened in the reporting year are categorised. Previous reports have used individuals ‘known’ and ‘unknown’ to the local authority, but this distinction was removed in the SAC. Previous reports recorded details of individuals with safeguarding referrals, but the SAC now records individuals with safeguarding enquiries. While these will be largely equivalent, they may not be directly comparable, and care will need to be taken when comparing to data prior to 2015 to 2016. Since 2015 to 2016, the publication has utilised the Care Act definitions to classify individuals involved under section 42 of the act.

There have also been some changes since 2015 to 2016 in terms of the voluntary or mandatory nature of providing some data items. These are detailed in the guidance notes for each annual SAC collection.

Publications from previous years can be found on NHS England’s safeguarding adults page.

As mentioned above, Hackney Council could not make a submission for the 2020 to 2021, 2021 to 2022, or 2022 to 2023 SAC. The 2019 to 2020 SAC data return was used when calculating the England, regional and council type averages.

Survey of local practice

There is a degree of variation between local authorities in reporting certain measures of the SAC. In many instances this variation will result from differing interpretations of the Care Act by local authorities, rather than from poor data quality. To better understand local practice across England, NHS Digital (as was) undertook a voluntary survey of local authorities following closure of the submission window to understand how they defined and recorded aspects of adult safeguarding within their SAC submission. Responses can be used to inform analysis of the data and have been published (linked above). Users are encouraged to use these responses to aid interpretation of the data submitted by local authorities and any differences between local authorities.

The data and survey responses indicate care must be taken when comparing the following areas:

Safeguarding concerns

The data identifies a wide variety in the numbers of concerns submitted by local authorities, and the ‘conversion rate’ of concerns to enquiries. Discussions with local authorities have identified that differing approaches to how concerns are addressed by the ‘front door’ services will vary between councils. In some local authorities, concerns are filtered out before they reach the safeguarding team and are not included in the submitted data. Where they exist, MASHs may have an impact on the numbers of concerns that are reported in the SAC. Care must be taken in inferring differences in safeguarding practice through the conversion rates.

Enquiry ‘threshold’

The point at which initial investigations following a concern then become an enquiry varies according to explanations provided by data providers. Some apply a higher threshold than others, and this should be acknowledged when comparing volumes of safeguarding enquiries between local authorities.

Section 42 and ‘other’ enquiries

The methodology by which local authorities determine whether enquiries are undertaken under section 42 of the Care Act or not varies, as can be seen from the counts of other queries submitted in the SAC.

Therefore, care should be taken when comparing this data as there will not be a complete picture of safeguarding in those authorities with high numbers of proportions of other enquiries.

It should be noted that the distinction between section 42 and other enquiries only exists within the SAC. Within the survey, 43.6% of completed responses stated that the distinction between section 42 and ‘other’ was not used for local reporting purposes.

Trade-offs between output quality components

To balance aspects of data quality, 2 data submission periods are made available for local authorities.

Data quality reports and support were made available to those local authorities who submitted by the first deadline, to give data providers the opportunity to address any issues found. Local authorities were able to make updates to their data during this validation period. After the second submission period the data set is then finalised. Any issues remaining are noted in the data quality information published, but no attempt is made to amend the data.

Two local authorities did not make a submission by the first deadline and so did not receive a data quality report.

Assessment of user needs and perceptions

The content of the SAC was determined because of a review of the NHS Digital (as was) adult social care data collections which began in 2010. The review considered changes in the delivery of social care and investigated what information should be provided to monitor the most important current and future priorities. With the approval of DHSC, the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG, as was, now the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) and other stakeholder organisations, including ADASS, changes were made to the safeguarding data collection.

A working group exists with the aim of developing the SAC to reflect the requirements of users and policy. The group includes representatives from NHS England, ADASS, DHSC, CQC and local authorities.

We are always interested in knowing if the SAC is meeting your needs and, if not, what improvements we could make for the future. If you would like to make any comments, see the ‘Contact’ section below for information.

Performance, cost and respondent burden

The SAC is mandated for all local authorities. The data collection process used in this publication is subject to assurance by the Data Alliance Partnership Board. This is to ensure that data collections do not duplicate other collections, minimise the cost to all parties and have a specific use for the data collected.

The burden of the SAC has been assessed and approved, the burden of any changes to the SAC are similarly assessed, to ensure that they do not create undue burden for local authorities.

Confidentiality, transparency and security

All statistics are subject to a standard NHS England risk assessment prior to issue. The risk assessment considers the sensitivity of the data and whether any of the reporting products may disclose information about specific individuals. Methods of disclosure control are discussed and the most appropriate methods implemented.

SAC data is submitted to NHS England through a secure electronic file transfer system called the Strategic Data Collection Service (SDCS). The submitted files are transferred from SDCS and stored on a secure network with restricted access folders. Only a limited number of analysts are granted access to the SAC folders.

Contact

We’d like feedback from our users about how you use our products, how well these products meet your needs and how they could be improved.

For feedback and any further questions, contact asc.statistics@dhsc.gov.uk.