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This paper provides a European overview of alternative approaches to integrated care for older people, drawing from a wider European project entitled PROCARE. It discusses the structural complexities that create the challenges in integrated care, compares and contrasts approaches to integrated care through a structure and process framework, and considers the place of person‐centred seamless care in European health and social care models.

This article takes a fresh look at the concept of risk in the light of the Government's plans to modernise health and social care.

Protection of those deemed vulnerable has received increasing attention since 2000. This article reports this aspect of a research study in which care staff views relating to vulnerability and abuse of adults with learning disabilities were explored. In this study, informants' perspectives were explored using semi‐structured interviews. The aim of the study was to conduct a detailed analysis of interpretations of the terms vulnerability and abuse within learning disability services. The results revealed that most informants felt that all people with learning disabilities are vulnerable and that this definition allows staff the authority to take protective measures in order to ensure their safety, based on risk management approaches. An alternative person‐centred approach to safety planning is proposed.

This article discusses the question of risk in the lives of people who are supported by human services. It responds to the way in which risk, as it has traditionally been approached by these services, imposes a barrier to social inclusion and to an interesting and productive life. The article proposes an alternative person‐centred risk process. We argue that, by beginning with a focus on who the person is, their gifts and skills, and offering a positive vision of success, it could be possible to avoid the implied aversion to any form of risk embedded in the traditional approaches and attitudes.

This article explores a number of reported cases of whistleblowing. While this activity is encouraged and has been given certain legislative protection, the costs of whistleblowing evidently remain high. The article concludes that whistleblowing is unlikely to provide a stand‐alone protective framework against abuse, corruption and mistreatment because dynamics in health and social care often mitigate against criticism of powerful personalities and systems.

This paper provides an overview of the Choice Initiative at the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities. It describes the work of the Initiative, the projects represented and the overall findings and conclusions. It is followed by a report on one of the projects included in the Initiative.

This article has three aims: to develop understanding of the case conference in the protection of vulnerable adults; to focus on the role of the chair in order to help those assuming such a position and those who work with them; to consider the case conference as one element of No Secrets and its rolling out into local policy and procedure documents.