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The purpose of this paper is to report the findings from research into the outcomes of adult protection in Scotland, with particular focus on how service users, family members and service delivery professionals perceive the effectiveness of the protection orders in the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007.

The study comprised analysis of Adult Protection Committee biennial reports on implementation of the 2007 Act to the Scottish Government, key informant interviews and workshops with professionals involved in adult protection leadership and practice, and case study interviews with service users, family members and practitioners.

Concerns about the potential for paternalistic practice and excessive use of the protection orders within the 2007 Act have not materialised. The principle of proportionality appears to be firmly embedded in adult protection practice. Service delivery professionals, service users and family members remain acutely aware of the tensions between autonomy and protection but point to beneficial outcomes for adults at risk from the careful use of protection orders, especially banning orders.

Only ten case studies were able to be included in the study. However, the use of mixed methods enabled triangulation of the findings. Common themes emerge from across the data sources. The findings also resonate with conclusions drawn by other researchers.

The paper identifies outcomes and challenges in respect of protecting adults at risk in Scotland. Strengths and limitations of the 2007 Act are identified.

The paper offers a formal evaluation of the outcome of protection orders for adults at risk in Scotland. The findings are of wider policy relevance given the debates on how to legislate for adult safeguarding in England and Wales.

Scotland now has three key statutes that provide a legal framework for the support and protection of adults at risk of harm: Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act (2000), Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act (2003) and Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act (2007). This article provides details of the 2007 act and highlights its interaction with the other two. The author argues that an effective adult support and protection strategy will need to address all three acts. A pyramid of intervention is used to explain the increasing levels of intervention that are now available in Scotland. The article also highlights how Scotland continues to diverge from the rest of the UK. It argues that comparative studies within the UK as well as the wider world, using tools such as the pyramid, could improve our understanding of this important and rapidly changing area of law.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the duties and powers of the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act (ASPSA) 2007 and place them in the wider Scottish adult protection legislative framework. It considers the potential value of a standalone adult safeguarding statute.

The authors draw upon their research and practice expertise to consider the merits of the ASPSA 2007. They take a case study approach to explore its implementation in one particular Scottish local authority, drawing on the qualitative and quantitative data contained in its annual reports.

Skilled, knowledgeable and well-supported practitioners are key to effective screening, investigations and intervention. Protection orders are being used as intended for a very small number of cases.

The lack of national statistical reports means that there is limited scope for comparison between the local and national data.

Adult support and protection requires ongoing investment of time and leadership in councils and other local agencies to instigate and maintain good practice. Aspects that require further attention are self-neglect; capacity and consent and residents in care homes who pose potential risks to other residents and staff.

ASPSA 2007 has helped to raise awareness of adults at risk of harm within the local communities and as social issue more generally.

The authors provide a critical appraisal of the implementation of Scottish adult safeguarding legislation over the last six years. They consider similar developments in England and Wales and argue for comparative research to test these out. Finally, they signpost future directions for bridging separate policy streams.

The protection of vulnerable adults from abuse is paramount for those working in adult protection. However, staff supporting vulnerable adults who are alleged to have abused them can feel very vulnerable and their needs must also be taken into account. The purpose of this paper is to consider the impact of adult protection investigations from the experiences of people who have been identified as alleged perpetrators in adult protection cases in order to identify improvements in practice.

This limited study used qualitative semi-structured interviews to collect data that reflected views of the issues and experiences of participants.

This study shows that expectations set out in the Wales Interim Policy and Procedures document under “support for alleged perpetrators” do not match with the experience of those who took part in this study. The experience of some alleged perpetrators is that the investigation process can be protracted, they may be left isolated with little or no information and feel very vulnerable.

A limitation of this study was the small number of participants who were interviewed and the selection and bias. Participation was on a voluntary basis and the participants were self-selecting. The participants were all paid staff. Vulnerable adults who had been identified as alleged abusers were excluded from the study on the premise that their experiences were likely to be quite different.

It is vital that alleged perpetrators are not themselves abused by the process. The findings from this study should be used to develop recommendations to improve practice.

The effects on staff who have been investigated as alleged abusers under adult protection policy and procedures has been under-researched. This study will make a contribution to addressing this.

This article seeks to explore the difference that adult support and protection legislation may have made to work with adults at risk of harm in Scotland.

The article is based upon findings of a joint academic and practitioner qualitative research project that interviewed 29 social service practitioners across three local authorities.

The legislation was seen as positive, giving greater attention to adults at risk. Views about the actual difference it made to the practitioners' practice varied, and were more likely in new rather than ongoing work. Three differences were noted: duties of investigation, protection orders and improved shared responsibility within the local authority and across other agencies, but to a lesser extent NHS staff. Overall it gave effective responses, more quickly for the adults at risk. Whilst the law brought greater clarity of role, there were tensions for practitioners in balancing an adult's right to autonomy with practitioners' safeguarding responsibilities.

The paper demonstrates that a dedicated law can improve safeguarding practice by clarifying the role of social work practitioners and the responsibilities of other agencies. The right to request access to records and banning orders were seen as valuable new measures in safeguarding adults at risk. As such the study from the first UK country to use dedicated adult safeguarding law offers a valuable insight for policy makers, professionals and campaign groups from other countries, which might be considering similar action.

This paper's aim is to evaluate understanding and knowledge of the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 in a sample of community nurses working in learning disability services in Scotland.

Ten community nurses who worked in learning disability services in one NHS area were tested at two time points, four months apart using a questionnaire designed for this study by researchers and practitioners. Level of previous national training in the Adult Support and Protection Act and length of time working with people with learning disabilities were recorded. Three domains of adult protection were included in the questionnaire: Principles of the Act and definitions; Adults at risk of harm; Protection, assessment, removal and banning orders.

Questionnaire scores varied widely overall and across the three domains. There was no correlation between individual scores and training or length of work experience. The level of knowledge was below what might have been expected for this group, given the level of training and experience. Carefully designed verification of the impact of nationally approved adult support and protection training is needed.

There is an absence of research in evaluating the impact of the approved Scottish Government training materials on staff knowledge and understanding of the 2007 Act, with staff attendance being taken as the main measure of training compliance. This was a small scale pilot study and recommendations are made for the scope and methods of evaluation.

The purpose of the paper is to report the findings from research into the governance of adult protection in Scotland, with particular focus on the outcomes of provision for multi-agency leadership and management of adult safeguarding in the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007. Comparisons will be drawn between these findings and the evidence on the governance of adult safeguarding in England.

The study comprised a thematic analysis of Adult Protection Committee (APC) biennial reports on implementation of the 2007 Act to the Scottish Government, associated documentation, and key informant interviews with professionals involved in adult protection leadership and practice.

A rich and complex pattern of arrangements, activities, experiences and challenges were identified across a number of dimensions, including management structures of APCs, development of policies and procedures, multi-agency working, training, performance assessment and quality management, engagement of service users and carers and operation of the 2007 Act.

Service users and carers were not directly involved in the documentary review or key informant interviews. There remains a need to investigate the impacts on practice and service user experience of different forms of governance of adult protection arrangements.

The paper identifies outcomes and challenges in respect of multi-agency approaches to governance taken by APCs in Scotland.

The paper offers the first formal evaluation of governance of adult protection systems in Scotland and includes comparative analysis with research findings on the governance of adult safeguarding in England.

The purpose of this paper is to measure nurses’ knowledge about Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 before and after a one-day training course using participants’ favoured methods of training activities.

A repeated measures design was used to evaluate the impact of a one-day Adult Support and Protection training on pre-training knowledge of community nurses across one NHS area. Participants’ favoured methods of training activities were used in the training. Participants were community nurses working in learning disability, mental health, older people's services, acute services, substance misuse, and accident and emergency. All completed a training needs analysis and training preferences study. Individual and group scores on an Adult Support and Protection knowledge questionnaire were analysed pre- and post-training.

There was a statistically significant increase in scores post-training (Wilcoxon's signed-ranks test). Individual increases ranged from 2.5 to 27.5 per cent, with a mean score of 15 per cent. Evaluation of the impact of nationally approved Adult Support and Protection training is needed and training should take account of participants’ existing knowledge and preferred methods of training delivery to improve the transfer of learning into practice.

Participants were self-selecting. Existing knowledge was not controlled for in the sample. No longitudinal follow up to measure retention of any improvements in knowledge. No control group. Training methods used were based on the expressed preferences of 40 nursing staff, but only 18 of these staff participated in the training day.

There is a dearth of research in evaluating the impact of the adult protection training on staff knowledge and understanding. Designing training activities and content to take account of participant preferences, and areas where knowledge is weakest may enhance the effectiveness of training in this area. This research was funded as a Queens Nursing Institute Community Project. It builds on a pilot project

The purpose of this paper is to explore debates about the powers social workers may need to undertake safeguarding enquiries where access to the adult is denied.

The paper takes as a starting point a scoping review of the literature undertaken as part of a study exploring social work responses to situations where they are prevented from speaking to an adult at risk by a third party.

A power of entry might be one solution to situations where social workers are prevented from accessing an adult at risk. The paper focuses on the Scottish approach to legal powers in adult safeguarding, established by the Adult Support and Protection Act (Scotland) 2007 and draws out messages for adult safeguarding in England and elsewhere. The literature review identified that debates over the Scottish approach are underpinned by differing conceptualisations of vulnerability, autonomy and privacy, and the paper relates these conceptualisations to different theoretical stances.

The paper concludes that the literature suggests that a more socially mediated rather than an essentialist understanding of the concepts of vulnerability, autonomy and privacy allows for more nuanced approaches to social work practice in respect of using powers of entry and intervention with adults at risk who have capacity to make decisions.

This paper provides a novel perspective on debates over how to overcome challenges to accessing adults at risk in adult safeguarding through an exploration of understandings of vulnerability, privacy and autonomy.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the background to the recent changes to adult safeguarding in Wales as a result of the new measures introduced by the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 and discuss their potential impact.

The paper relies on a range of material including reports published by the Law Commission, the National Assembly for Wales and other public bodies. It also refers to academic and practitioner material in journals and government guidance.

Although the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 introduced many changes in adult safeguarding in Wales, not least the duty to make enquiries, it does not take the opportunity to include statutory powers of barring and removal. The introduction of Adult Protection and Support Orders (APSOs) is a cautious step forward – perhaps it is too cautious. More research in needed on the different approaches across the UK.

At the time of publication, the full effect of the new legislation has not been seen. Local authorities and others are coming to terms with the new provisions. No data on the impact of the new legislation are yet available. The paper identifies future research evaluating the working of the different approaches to safeguarding within the UK.

For practitioners, the new legislation provides opportunities to rethink the approach to safeguarding. The lower threshold for referrals will mean an increase in caseloads and the need to react to both low- and high-risk cases. For authorised officers, the practical issues identified relate to the circumstances in which an APSO may be sought and what can be put in place to protect the adult at risk once the order has been used.

For those who experience abuse or neglect, the new legislation provides additional support when compared to the POVA process. The duty to make enquiries and the duty to report will hopefully strengthen protection and, with a lower threshold for referral, enable more preventative work to be done at an earlier stage. Whether the new APSO will make a difference remains to be seen.

As this is new legislation, there is very little analysis of the implications of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 in relation to safeguarding. This paper presents an overview and, in places, a critical analysis of the new safeguarding duties.