Adult social care and safeguarding during COVID-19: a large-scale mixed methods study Keele University

The COVID-19 pandemic presented significant challenges to adult safeguarding law and practice. A survey by the British Association of Social Workers found that many local authorities were underprepared and struggled to meet their legal obligations during the pandemic. Moreover, the Coronavirus Act 2020 included scope for widespread suspension of key duties under adult social care legislation, which resulted in concerns that adults who required care and support were not having their needs met.

This research looked at how adult safeguarding practice changed through the pandemic, and whether changes to key legal obligations have affected safeguarding practice. 

Focusing on services across local authorities and safeguarding adults boards in England and Wales, the research involved a frontline practitioner survey, interviews with frontline and non-frontline practitioners, Freedom of Information requests, and a literature review.

A key finding was that while COVID-19 has impacted adult safeguarding in many ways, it also exacerbated many other issues that pre-dated the pandemic.

It found that there has been a significant impact on the legal obligations in adult social care, for example, needs or carers assessments, and mental capacity assessments. Some local authorities reported doing significantly more of these assessments during the pandemic, while others reported a large decrease.

Many of the research findings related to the increased use of remote working. While non-frontline staff often reported the positive aspects of this, frontline staff had concerns, particularly in their confidence in using technology to undertake assessments. 

There were concerns reported about the impact of the pandemic on people’s legal rights, and how the increase in technology and changes to access in care homes and hospitals meant that people’s legal rights were not being upheld. 

The research findings have been widely disseminated, including the production of a series of practitioner-orientated research briefings and a webinar, as well as conference presentations and journal papers.

Contact

For more information about this project, please contact Dr Laura Pritchard-Jones, Senior Lecturer in Law, Keele University.