Citation
Penhale, B. and Flynn, M. (2015), "Editorial", The Journal of Adult Protection, Vol. 17 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAP-10-2015-0031
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Editorial
Article Type: Editorial From: The Journal of Adult Protection, Volume 17, Issue 6.
Bridget Penhale and Margaret Flynn
Welcome to the final issue for this year, and to begin, we have more topsy-turvy lessons about collective behaviour seen through a safeguarding lens! The College of Social Work, which operated across England, has closed; charities are not the institutions we imagined they were; and the Conservative government is not the fan of charities it once was. The tactics used by some charity call centres are as shocking as those deployed by any cold callers, and “boiler room” scammers. While it was the suicide of poppy-seller Olive Cooke earlier in the year that was linked to the hundreds of letters she received and the persistent telephone calls from charities (Google Think Jessica), we all have experience of how slick these unethical practices have become. Intrusive telephone calls and letter plaguing should surely not be the signature tune of charities.
Earlier in the summer (during July), the Welsh Government published “In search of accountability: a review of the neglect of older people living in care homes investigated as Operation Jasmine”[1]. This major Gwent Police investigation began in 2005, cost £15 million and delivered a legal impasse. The review was commissioned by the First Minister for Wales during December 2013. It points to a disquieting dynamic arising from GPs and their partners becoming owners of residential and nursing homes – where they have directly sourced their residents from their patient lists. It confirms that reliance on the consciences of care home owners is insufficient to ensure the delivery of compassionate care and support. The “market” failed since owners received fees irrespective of the severe suffering endured by residents. There was nothing in place to prevent providers from providing care home places at as low a cost as possible. Some nurses have rightly been de-registered, unlike the GPs …. The insensitive haste with which the Crown Prosecution Service stated that it would not be enacting a recommendation that its decision should be reviewed gets a thumbs down. It would appear that it has no desire to bring maverick care home owners to account. It ignores the scholarly critique of Aled Griffiths and colleagues concerning case law, the critical role of a jury in determining gross negligence, the missed opportunities for earlier intervention. The CPS does not appear to understand how concerning it is that offences resulting in the hideous suffering of frail older people are not prosecuted (just as with Orchid View in Hampshire). An organisation which declined to even engage with a Welsh Government commissioned review has demonstrated what a poor student it is. Serious miscalculation failed to put GPs and other care home owners on notice.
We learned that the Judge leading the UK Government's child sex abuse inquiry is to receive around £2.5 million in pay and allowances over the course of the inquiry and that the inquiry itself will cost taxpayers £17.9 million in its first year[2]. Needless to say that there is no dedicated funding for the Safeguarding Adult Reviews, which became statutory in England through the implementation of the Care Act in April this year.
It was in July too that we were reminded about the perceptual implications of how we describe people. The foreign secretary, Philip Hammond claimed that millions of “marauding” African migrants posed a threat to security, the standard of living and social structure of the EU[3]. Since migration and conquest put many of us where we are, we know from family histories that the odysseys of people have many impacts. Forcible resettlements, escaping carnage and tyranny, sometimes in bondage, has many costs, not least in terms of severing personal ties and separating us from all that is familiar. Contrast Britain's promise to take 20 k refugees with the “refugees welcome” signs that have appeared in Germany[4].
We're finding that justice is so expensive these days. During the summer (in August), we learned that the sneaky Criminal Courts Charge has triggered the resignations of over 50 magistrates[5]. It was introduced by the former Lord Chancellor Chris Grayling just before the general election. During September one frustrated senior magistrate resigned “after he was suspended for offering to pay towards the iniquitous criminal court charge imposed on a penniless asylum seeker”. Nigel Allcoat contributed £38 to one defendant's charges, resulting in his suspension and an investigation over whether or not his action could have brought the court into disrepute or undermined its impartiality[6]. As noted earlier – topsy-turvy.
Also during August the Catholic Church in Scotland offered its “profound apology” to victims of paedophile priests, abuse by staff at the Fort Augustus Catholic Boarding School and the admission of sexual misconduct against adult priests perpetrated by Cardinal Keith O'Brien. The apology acknowledged that it had neither investigated nor punished culprits. This had been recommended by the inquiry chaired by Andrew McLellan[7]. We also note that the former Vatican Ambassador Jozef Wesolowski died during August. The former archbishop was to have been the first Vatican official tried on charges of sexually abusing children while he was the ambassador to the Dominican Republic[8].
A research team at Mount Sinai hospital in New York studied Jewish men and women who had either been interned in a Nazi concentration camp, witnessed or experienced torture or had had to hide during the Second World War[9]. The study confirmed that genetic changes stemming from the trauma suffered are capable of being passed onto their children – that is, one person's life experience can affect subsequent generations.
Do black lives matter? The extrajudicial killings of black people by the police and vigilantes has not resulted in memorials or unified international demands for justice[10]. We have to pay attention to the inattention of the newsrooms and print journalists to acknowledging the deadly violence associated with white supremacy. After the killings of nine black churchgoers in Charleston it was three weeks before the Confederate flag – a symbol of bloody racial conflict – was removed from South Carolina's statehouse. And still, the American indulgence of “gun rights” thrives.
With £200 k gouged from the public health budget in the UK, now is not a good time to read Sir Michael Marmot's book The Health Gap: The Challenge of an Unequal World. This Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health highlights the limitations of technical approaches to improving health. Within countries, the higher a person's social status is, the better their health but there are dramatic differences in health both within and between countries. It is the creation of conditions for people and communities to live flourishing lives that is critical to reducing health inequalities. Professor Marmot states that inequality is costing 550 lives a day. Average life expectancy figures mask a 16-year variation between those in the best and worst off neighbourhoods.
This issue contains a number of papers to provide food thought in relation to safeguarding, which can be broadly be grouped around the overall theme for this issue of responding to abuse, neglect and mistreatment and to the development of professional responses in this area. Our first paper, by Manthorpe and Lipman, provides a review of the literature concerning the prevention of abusive situations through pre-employment checks, and does so on an international basis. Countries such as Norway, Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland and the USA are covered, as well as the UK. The review found a variety of different practices in use and also differing policy imperatives, for example around rights to individual privacy and rehabilitation for individuals, as opposed to an emphasis on minimising risks of harm to individuals. In current contexts this provides useful food for thought about the processes involved and the potential costs (including human) of lack of this type of action.
The following research paper, by Matthews and Reynolds considers the specific issue of bruising in older adults and what social workers might need to know to enhance their responses in practice. In addition to reviewing the literature in the area, use of a small number of focus groups found that social workers had some awareness of the issue of bruising but were generally not clear about differences between accidental and non-accidental injuries and older adults and received limited training on these aspects. Implications for social work (and other) professionals working in the area are elaborated from the findings. A further small-scale piece of research is reported by Fenge and colleagues and concerns the issues surrounding mass-marketing fraud. The paper reports on the findings from a small number of interviews with victims of such fraud and recommendations for practitioners working in the area of elder abuse are developed. Risk factors for such abuse appear to lie within psychosocial factors and the emotional vulnerability of victims, but there is also a focus on the sustained involvement of individuals in such schemes (through various devices used by the perpetrators) and the need for an increase in professional understanding of this type of crime and its victims.
The conceptual paper by McGarry and colleagues that follows this covers the issue of professional education and discusses the development of safeguarding education for nursing and the approaches that have been developed in one area. Some useful material and insights are contained in the paper, which will provide some useful pointers for consideration of how best to equip professionals to deal with abuse and abusive situations. This is followed by a review paper by Ruck-Keene and colleagues that discusses the use (and potential) of the Court of Protection, particularly in relation to safeguarding. The paper is written by practicing barristers and a Mental Capacity Act (MCA) lead who has a social work background so some helpful information and guidance is provided here, particularly in an analysis of when and how applications could be made to the Court.
Our final paper is another international offering, by Fulmer and colleagues in the USA, and concerns the issue of repeated visits (or referrals) about older adults to adult protective services. Although relatively small scale in nature, findings about the perceptions and opinions of caseworkers concerning this issue provides information that could be usefully fed into training programmes for professional staff working in this area across different countries.
We hope that you have enjoyed reading this issue of the journal and that the papers have provided useful food for thought, perhaps particularly in relation to developing responses, interventions and professional practice in this area. As ever, if you are considering contributing to the journal but wish to discuss ideas ahead of any submission, please do contact one of the editors, who will be pleased to assist. We hope that you all have a happy festive, or holiday season, wherever you might be.
New safeguarding adults seminar series
We are pleased to announce a new seminar series on Safeguarding Adults under the Care Act that will start in January 2016 and run for three years. The aim of the series is to explore how the new legal rules developed through a policy process, the challenges of interpretation that emerge and how practitioners and their organisations can be supported to deliver the intentions and requirements of the Care Act 2014 and keep people safe from abuse and harm.
The series is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and consists of three seminars per year. Seminars will bring together researchers, educators, students, practitioners, policy-makers, service users and carers to consider how the Care Act 2014 has been made, how it is being and should be interpreted and how different stakeholders can learn about its provisions. A key focus will be on whether in practice the Act is delivering the outcomes that have been anticipated for people at risk of abuse and harm, namely that the adult safeguarding process is made personal for those at risk, and whether the outcomes that matter for them are realised.
Seminars in 2016 will take place on 21 January, 20 May and 22 September. For further information, please contact Editorial Board Member Alison Brammer at Keele University, who is co-ordinating the series. She can be contacted on: mailto:a.k.brammer@keele.ac.uk
Notes
1. http://gov.wales/topics/health/publications/socialcare/reports/accountability/?lang=en
2. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33511233
4. www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/02/refugees-welcome-uk-germany-compare-migration
5. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/criminal-courts-charge-mass-resignations-amid-judicial-revolt-against-extremely-unfair-fees-10492130.html (accessed 1 October 2015).
8. www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2015/09/01/former-nuncio-jozef-wesolowski-died-after-cardiac-incident/
9. www.nature.com/news/searching-chromosomes-for-the-legacy-of-trauma-1.15369