Safeguarding Report: Abuse, Multi-Agency Work, and Care Act 2014

This report delves into the critical topic of safeguarding, focusing on the protection of vulnerable individuals from abuse and neglect. It begins by defining abuse and providing examples of various types, including sexual, psychological, and domestic abuse, highlighting the importance of recognizing these forms. The report emphasizes the significance of multi-agency collaboration in safeguarding, detailing its benefits in terms of early intervention, access to services, and improved quality of care. It then examines the Care Act 2014, outlining its principles and how they contribute to safeguarding efforts. Furthermore, the report explores barriers to multi-agency working, ethical considerations in healthcare, and the application of the Bearchamp & James Childress ethical model. It concludes by discussing the skills necessary for effective multi-agency teamwork, emphasizing the need for collaborative approaches to ensure the well-being and safety of vulnerable individuals. The report aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of safeguarding practices, policies, and ethical considerations within the context of Health and Social Care.

Safeguarding

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Definition of Abuse :..............................................................................................................1
The various example of abuse can be considered in order to understand different type of abuse
................................................................................................................................................2
Importance of multi agency work...........................................................................................2
Care act 2014..........................................................................................................................3
Describing 2 principles which are related to case scenario....................................................4
Describing the barriers of multi agency working...................................................................5
Ethics and describing the ethical problem in HSC.................................................................6
Describing Bearchamp & James Childress ethical model......................................................7
Describing the skills needed for multi agency working.........................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Safeguarding is the term which is used to measure to protect the health, well- being and
human rights of an individuals so that the individuals, children, young people or vulnerable
people will live free from abuse and neglect. Therefore, in the same way, the report main aim is
to describe the importance of safeguarding so that it will help the adults in order to raise
themselves from that situation. It has been realized that adults in need of safeguarding assist
generally elderly and weak or either they live alone or in care homes with the support from their
family. Report will describe the meaning of abuse and also describe the types of abuse by
providing examples. Further, study will show the importance of multi agency work and care act
2014 with their principles. Apart from this, report will show the barrier of multi agency work
and describe the term ethic with the helps of Bearchamp & James Childress ethical model.
Lastly, report will describe the skills which are needed to working in multi- agency working.
Definition of Abuse :
Abuse can be defined as improper use or treatment of any thing. Or it can be defined as
an action which is performed intentionally in order to harm or cause injury to any person. There

can be many type of abuse such as physical abuse, injury, rape, violation, assault etc. Everyone
has a right to live a safe life which is free from any type of abuse and negligence. But some
condition arises in which person has to go through abuse therefore in order to get out persons
from such situation proper care services should be provided(Herman, 2015.).
In simple words abuse is a process or action performed by the individual in order to
intentionally harm the other person it can be in physical way, emotional way or financial way.
According to author view point :
According to James Garbarino abuse can be defined as a serious mistreatment with the
children by their guardians or parents. Families are involved in maltreatment of children tends
to perform low level of social as well as show low responsiveness toward the positive
behaviour.
However according to Ben Mathews, Delphine Collin Vezina. 2017 states that it is not
easy to have a proper definition of sexual child abuse. The author has made systemmatic efforts
in order to find the define sexual abuse(Straus, 2017).
The various example of abuse can be considered in order to understand different type of abuse
Irrespective of gender the people can be abused, the main reason behind why the people are
abused is that they are highly dependent on others therefore the people take advantage of them.
The group of people who are oftenly abused are females, disable people, ethinic minorities,
young children as well as older people. These groups can face the various type of abuse :
Sexual abuse : Sexual abuse means inappropriate touching or looking, rape or being forced for
take part in sexual act(Lachs and Pillemer, 2015.). For example, Jack was a man of 50 years of
age he is suffering with a severe stroke. He has lost all his contact with family and friends. And
is living in the care home the care taker of Jack use to sexually assault him. One day the nurse
has noticed that there is something wrong with the Jack whenever the care taker is around him.
The nurse has complained about the care taker to audit team. This is the case of vulnerable adults
means the older people who are dependent on others in order to take care of them.
Psychological abuse : Such type of abuse happens when a person tries to perform such actions
or speak such words which cause mental or psychological abuse to others. For example there was
a boy who live with his mother. And he use to threat the people by his actions he is suffering
from the autism spectrum disorder(Robert and Kelly, V.A., 2015).

Domestic abuse : There was a man who use to beat his wife. The wife is in critical condition she
is suffering from health issues. Every day the noise is heard by the neighbours. The neighbours
has informed about this to the police, when police came to do investigation the women denies
that nothing like this happen with her she is completely safe. She refused to do any complain
against his husband.
Importance of multi agency work
Collaborative working is needed between the professionals and services in order to avoid
any type of abuse and negligence in workplace. When an individual does work under the multi
agency group it becomes necessary to not just share information but should also take active steps
and review information to deal with such type of issues.
There is huge importance of multi agency working in order to safegaurd vulnerable
adults. The multi agency working in order to safeguard vulnerable results leads to availablity of
of support and guidance. Multi agency working also helps to encourage understanding and create
awareness among people(Felitti and et.al., 2019).
Multi agency working is needed in order to identify the problem and provide early intervention.
It also help in easy access to various services and expertise. Multi agency working also provide
better quality services.
The person who face abuse should be provided with the proper support. Multi agency
working can be defined as to give proper response to the individuals who are in multiple or
complex needs. Multi agency work helps to improve the condition of person who has been faced
various type of abuse, the collaborative efforts put by peoples and there valuable advice results in
improvement in person health(Afifi and et.al., 2016). For example if we see the case of Jack in
which the nurse has reported about the care taker to the audit, secondly in case of a women who
are suffering from domestic abuse the neighbours has reported about this issue to the police it is
known as multi agency work. It help in order to identify the problem at early stage and provide
proper intervention to treat the problem. Multi agency working in the organisation has also
resulted in better quality services.
Multi agency work also helps to promote mutual understanding between the co-workers. The
person within the organisation share the thoughts and information which leads to more
manageable workforce and also result in safeguarding of people.

Care act 2014
This act ensures that the NHS and other authorities provide quality of service to the
clients as well as treat them properly and maintain their dignity and should try to provide them
environment which is free from any type of abuse. The care act 2014 focuses on setting clear
legal framework for the local authorities an others to safeguard the adult and reduce or eliminate
risk due to abuse or negligence. The local authorities should lead multi agency system which
focuses on prevention of abuse and any type of negligence.
Secondly they should establish safeguarding adult board. The person should be provided with the
independent advocate who require it. The main aim of this act is to provide safety to the
vulnerable adult and it focuses on improving the quality of life of vulnerable adults. The
companies should ensure to follow the principles as per stated by the care act 2014.
Six principles of care act :
Empowerment : This principle focuses on encouraging the abused and neglected adults so that
they can make their own decisions. It means giving freedom to the individual to make their own
decision. In order to empower vulnerable adults a proper consideration should be made in order
to make the adult confident about there decision. A information should be provided to them in a
simple and jargon free.
Protection : The main aim of this principle is to provide information to an individual in a simple
manner which helps in identifying the signs of abuse and should inform them to ask for help
whenever they need it. They should provide the information regarding in case of any type of
abuse to which authority they should report(6 Principles of care act 2014, 2019).
Prevention : It is not necessary that if a person is freed from abuse and negligence can result in
positive result. Sometimes people who have suffer from abuse or negligence can result in lasting
psychological and physical damage. Therefore it should be assured that a vulnerable adult is
protected from the negative impact for the long term.
The best way to prevent a vulnerable adult from facing psychological and physical
damage is by providing proper safeguarding training to them. The safeguarding training teaches
the about the signs of abuse and built confidence among them that their issues should be reported
without putting them into further risk.
Proportionality : There is no one approach which fits to safeguard people. It means that every
case should be deal individually and all the facts should be considered in order to provide the

appropriate support and guidance to vulnerable person. It ensures that the safeguarding measures
taken is proportionate by involving the vulnerable adult in decision making. In order to make the
decision proportionate small steps should be taken to resolve such large issues.
Partnership : The companies should be do partnership with the various local communities and
services in order to prevent, report and detect the case of neglect and abuse. When various
authorities recognise a safeguarding issue then they can properly make a quick decision. It
should be assured that the personal information about an individual is protected under the data
protection act. The data should only be shared if the person gave the permission to do so.
Accountability : The vulnerable person as well as other people who are nominated in order to
support individual should be provided with the necessary information and should also be updated
about the changes made. The vulnerable person should be clear about the role every person is
playing in the care plan. Vulnerable adult should be able to contact the person involved in the
care plan as and when required.
Describing 2 principles which are related to case scenario
Care Act, 2014 is based upon some principles and two of them are as mention:
Protection: This principle of safeguarding main aim is to provide the service users with
clear and simple information in which how a person can recognize the signs of abuse. This
principle main aim is to respond immediately and also take action in order to liberate a
vulnerable person from that dangerous situation. At that time, this principle states that they
should contact with appropriate authorities and also follow the sustainable procedure so that the
situation can be handled (Heath-Kelly and Strausz, 2019).
In the context of case scenario, when Mr. Jack live at home with the mother and also
suffer from the autism spectrum disorder, he was also so unhappy and tat is why he make contact
to Day Centre Manager through an e-mail and said that hey wanted to leave home because he
cannot live in such a vulnerable situation (Stevens and et.al., 2019). Therefore, by sharing the
entire problem with Adult Social Care and Health, one worker come and visited his home and
analyse that he was living really in unhealthy place. In order to prevent Mr. Jack from this care
centre take him with them and provide better healthcare facilities.
Accountability: This principle provide transparency about or take responsibility for all
the safeguarding practice which use to support the vulnerable people. Such that by keep the
vulnerable person updated about the person in order to make the changes with the interest of

safeguarding. Therefore, in that time, a person must understand the role of every individual who
are involved in the care plan (Alfandari, 2019). Such that in the case of domestic abuse, when
husband beat his wife because she thinks that due to her ill health she was a burden for her
husband and due to his over drinking problem, which lead to him beating. But it should not be
done because as per the care act principle, a vulnerable person should be communicated clearly
with other so that they take better action and protect the wide from domestic violence.
Describing the barriers of multi agency working
There are different barriers while working in multi-agency and as a result, it leads to
result of complexity when the practitioners are engage in collaborative ventures. These barriers
are as mention below:
 Funding concern is the foremost barrier which affect the healthcare performance such
that it also leads to creates conflict in the Health care service (Joseph and et.al., 2019).
 Time is another barrier for multi- agency working because social worker provide only a
finite amount of time in order to respond variety of priorities and on the other side, some
of the services have waiting list such as Child and Adolescent Mental Health services.
 Communication is also considered another barrier for working in the multi-agency
because in healthcare services, one way communication is generally used and this
delivered unclear message. Therefore, make sure that there should be a clear route of
two-way communication between the agencies and practitioners so that proper exchange
of information should be delivered and this also help to improve coordinated work.
 Lack of clarity is also considered another barrier for multi- agency such that If the lack of
clarity is arises in the health care services regarding the roles and responsibility of
practitioners and the more diverse children's workforce will be affected.
 Language barrier is another problem in multi-agency because sometimes it is not possible
for the social worker to understand the language of client and thus it leads to deliver the
wrong outcomes (Stevens and et.al., 2019).
 In addition to this, If health care have different management and they have multi- agency
services such as staff recruitment, different working hours and 24 hours health care
services then it affects the working in negative way, as a result, it will difficult for them
to engage in a community.

Ethics and describing the ethical problem in HSC
Ethics is mainly concern with what is good and bad for an individual and society.
Therefore, it also covers the the right and responsibility of every worker who are employee in the
workplace, further it is the system of moral principles and also affect how the people make
decision and it also leads to their lives as well (Witt and Peters, 2019). There are different
ethical problem which is faced by health and social care such as:
Building and sustaining the healthcare workforce of the future: In this digitalized
modern world, the health care centre also needs specialist or professional who can manage the
chronic illness and also coordinate the care and also provide many other service as well. Due to
lack of professional, the HSC did not provide actual care to their vulnerable people. Further, it
has been analysed that this also leads to affect the patient relationship in negative way.
Patient relationship: the workers who provide health care services to their patient
should be ethically prohibited from entering into personal relationship with the patients in order
to provide the treatment (Capinpuyan and Miguel, 2019). But many of them violating this policy
and sometimes they also involves in sexual relationship which will lead to losing their licence as
well. Under a medical care, a patient is consider vulnerable, and they are not able to defend
themselves and this affect the patient relationship as well.
Malpractice and Negligence: In HSC, they are always at risk for being charged with the
malpractice such that if the patient is harmed by the defective medical equipment then it may
also lead to cause death as well. At that time, patient can also take action when the providers are
fail to provide the needed treatment. Therefore, this is also consider another ethical problem in
HSC.
Describing Bearchamp & James Childress ethical model
This model is developed by Sir Thomas L Beauchamp and James F Childress who are American
philosophers and also best known for their medical ethics. They develop the Bearchamp &
James Childress ethical model and this is based upon the four principles, which are as mention
below:
 Respect for autonomy: This is mainly talked about the fact of human existence and this
principle mainly encourage an individual to think about the autonomy which creates
positive as well as negative duty (Iserson, 2016). In which the negative duty states what a
person should not do and if done, then an autonomous action should be taken to control

the constraints by others. While on the other side, positive autonomy needs respectful
treatment in disclosing information so that people can take better decision.
 Beneficence: It refers to act of kindness and charity such that a social worker should do
their best in order to make sure that treatment is well. In this, they can easily cope up with
the situation (Mazzella Ebstein and et.al., 2019).
 Non- Maleficence: This state that first of all, do not harm which means that avoiding
anything which is unnecessarily harmful for own (Spike and Lunstroth, 2016). Such that
whether the level of harm is proportionate to the good which may be achieved or, if there
is other procedure which may also achieve the same result without causing any harm.
 Justice: It is the concept which states that there should be equality among all individuals
such that even though the hospitals have limited resources, but they should treat their
patients with equality. Therefore, it is the principle which assist to determine who gets the
priority in such type of cases. For example, many doctors leaving the elderly patient with
no dependents to die so that they may save the parents who already have children which
is not ethical true (Shea, 2019).
Describing the skills needed for multi agency working
In order to work in multi- agency, the social workers requires following skills which are
as mention below:
 Communication skills: It is quite essential for social worker to posses better written and
oral communication skill because it will help them to express themselves in better way in
wider range of people in a diversity of context. Such that if the social worker can easily
communicate with the children and adults, then they easily convince them even though
they belong to different lifestyle or background. In addition to this, they should also have
effective skills especially in consultation and negotiation so that they are able to
summarize or explain the information to children, young people (Skills required in multi-
agency, 2018). A person who work in multi-agency must be aware or ethics and
confidentiality, and they need to be understood how effective communication is work in
working area. An individual who work in the multi-agency must have an effective
communication and they make sure that they will build the relationship during a contract
and goal setting.

 Emotional Intelligence: This Is another important skills which an individual must posses
when work in multi-agency. This skill mainly includes high level of self- awareness,
empathy and sensitivity to others (Traphagan,2019). Apart from this, an individual who
work in multi-agency often require balancing what they know such that symptoms of
certain mental illness, and they should also know comprehend that is reading between the
lines of what they are said. Apart from this, they should have critical thinking abilities so
that they can easily assist their clients by solving their problems. This skill help to
provide creative ways that effectively help to clients (Blackwood and Blackwood, 2019).
 Self reflection and awareness: A person who work in multi-agency should be aware of
all the ethics of a business because in social work there are variety of situation in which a
person feels difficultly to effectively establish the boundary in professional manner.
Therefore, they must be aware of ethical concern and also maintain confidentiality of
their clients even they are children or young people (Beardsley, 2019). They should
understand others in the context of intellectually, culturally and emotionally so that a
worker can easily assist them.
CONCLUSION
By summing up above report it has been concluded that safeguarding helps to determine
the rights of every vulnerable person and report also concluded three different types of abuse
such that physical abuse, domestic abuse and sexual abuse with different case scenario. Further,
study also describe the importance of multi-agency working because it provides different
response to individuals in order to fulfil the multiple needs. Then , report also shown Care Act,
2014 which promote an individual well-being by describing their duty and responsibility with its
principles such as empowerment, prevention, proportionality, protection, partnership and
accountability. Moreover, it also describe some barriers of multi-agency working and concluded
some ethical problem which HSC faces such that patient relationship, malpractice and
negligence. In addition to this, report also concluded Bearchamp & James Childress ethical
model which includes 4 principles and lastly it describes the skills which are needed for a social
working or multi-agency working such that communication skill, emotional intelligence and self
reflection and awareness.

References
Books and Journals
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Internships: Perspectives from Medical Interns in the Philippines. Health and Human
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Felitti, V.J. and et.al., 2019. Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to
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