Report a safeguarding concern about an adult

If an adult is in immediate danger, or missing, you should contact the police directly and/or an ambulance using 999.

When to report a concern

Before you report a concern, consider if the adult is:

• in need of care or support
• experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect
• unable to protect themselves against abuse or neglect

You may want to refer to The Care Act 2014 or NHS guidance on different forms of abuse and neglect.

Consent

When reporting a concern you may need to gain the consent of the person involved, but this is not always possible. This is also known as a person's 'capacity' to understand what is happening.

The Mental Capacity Act states to have capacity a person must be able to:

• understand the information that is relevant to the decision they want to make
• retain the information long enough to be able to make the decision
• weigh up the information available to make the decision
• communicate their decision by any possible means, including talking, using sign language, or through simple muscle movements such as blinking an eye or squeezing a hand

How to report

Online

Please complete the following form to report an incident of alleged abuse or a safeguarding concern about an adult.

Phone us

You can also call 0300 126 3000, and select Option 1, Option 2 and Option 1.

Adults Risk Management (ARM) Framework

The ARM process should be used only as an exception in more extreme cases.

It aims to provide professionals with a framework to facilitate effective multi-agency working with adults who are deemed to have mental capacity and who are at high risk due to the following reasons:

• severe self-neglect
• refusal to engage with services
• when someone is being targeted by an unknown third party

The ARM guidance can be used to consider other risk situations, such as where an adult is a frequent caller to services or where a single agency struggles to maintain a high risk situation and a risk management meeting is needed.

See ARM procedures and guidance.

Last updated 11 April 2024