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The purpose of this paper is to consider the importance of professional curiosity and partnership work in safeguarding adults from serious harm, abuse and neglect.

The paper draws on a range of materials including: review of published materials in relation to professional curiosity, reports from adult serious case reviews (SCRs) and safeguarding adult reviews (SARs); relevant materials drawn from the SAR Library, thematic reviews of SARs and Google searches; observations from practice and experience. It also refers to the relevant academic literature.

Lessons from SCRs and SARs show that a lack of professional curiosity and poor coordination of support can lead to poor assessments and intervention measures that can fail to support those at risk of harm and abuse. There are a number of barriers to professionals practicing with curiosity. Working in partnership enhances the likelihood that professional curiosity will flourish.

There are clear implications for improving practice by increasing professional curiosity amongst professionals. The authors argue that there is a scope to improve professional curiosity by utilising and developing existing partnerships, and ultimately to help reduce the number of deaths and incidents of serious harm.

The paper considers the importance of employing professional curiosity and partnership work in safeguarding adults’ practice, so enabling practitioners to better safeguard adults at risk of abuse and neglect.

The purpose of the study is to explore the contribution of safeguarding adult reviews (SARs) to the contemporary stories of what social work practice is and what social workers should do. Evidence of this contribution is sought by analysis of SARs as publicly available documents capturing contemporary social work alongside considering social worker’s views of these reports.

This paper presents two components of the wider research study as follows: documentary analysis exploring discussions of social work practice held within a sample of SARs xD;xA; and analysis of focus groups and semi-structured interviews established to explore the knowledge, experience and views of front-line social workers in relation to SARs.

It is suggested that social workers locate the value of SARs within the arena of learning and development often celebrating the SAR processes in bringing agencies together more so than the actual report. This paper argues that SARs hold considerable power in their ability to present a narrative about contemporary social work in England, and that social workers themselves can be wary of this power.

The research is limited by the scope of the data which includes a sample of SARs from one geographical area and data collected from social workers who volunteered to participate.

This paper draws on the evidence gathered and presents some recommendations to support the potential for SARs to positively enhance social work identity and practice.

This paper explores the stories about social work that are found within a sample of SARs and seeks to explore how these stories fit with the stories that social workers themselves share about SARs.

There has been considerable research interest in SARs; however, to date there has not been a research exploration of the impact of SARs on professional social work and front-line social workers in practice. This paper presents early findings and analysis from research in progress as part of a Doctorate of Social Work Study at University of East London who provided ethical approval and supervisory support.

The purpose of this paper is to review safeguarding adult reviews (SARs) pertaining to individuals with acquired brain injury (ABI) since 2014. This extended literature review also explores the lessons and recommendations from these reviews in relation to social work practice within the UK.

The literature review reported and discussed findings across reviews and then used a thematic analysis to synthesise the findings and recommendations from the SARs reviews.

This paper identified four main themes: a lack of awareness of the needs of those with ABI and their families and around the symptoms and nuances of brain injury, particularly executive impairment and mental capacity, among social workers; poor interdisciplinarity led to a lack of shared communication and decision-making with professionals with such knowledge; a poor understanding of aspects of the mental capacity legislation, particularly surrounding unwise decisions, led to inappropriate or absent mental capacity assessments; and a lack of professional curiosity led to a lack of action where intervention or assessment was required.

This review identifies significant shortcomings in social work practice, education and training within the UK with regards to ABI.

This paper provides recommendations to current social work practice and highlights the need for significant improvements in pre-qualification and post-qualification training and supervision of social workers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, while there have been extensive reviews conducted on SARs, this is the only review that has focused solely on ABI.

This paper presents the results of a thematic analysis of safeguarding adults reviews (SARs) where homelessness was a factor to illuminate and improve safeguarding practice and the support of adults who are homeless in England.

SARs were identified from a variety of sources and a thematic analysis was undertaken using data extraction tables.

In addition to identifying shortcomings in inter-agency co-operation, SARs highlighted a failure to recognize care needs and self-neglect among people with experience of homelessness and evidenced difficulties in engagement between professionals and people with experience of homelessness.

The authors may have failed to find some SARs in this category (there is no central registry). SARs vary in quality and in detail; some were not full reports. The approach to people’s experience of homelessness was broad and covered more than the circumstances of people who were rough sleeping or living on the streets.

This paper contributes to the current practice debates and policy initiatives in respect of homelessness and safeguarding in England. It may have wider relevance in the rest of the UK and internationally.

Across the UK and Ireland, there are a range of processes and interventions offered to adults who, because of personal characteristics or life circumstances, require help to keep themselves safe from potential harm or abuse. The ways in which the statutory and voluntary sectors have chosen to safeguard these adults varies. Different models of intervention and the utilisation of a range of assessment tools, frameworks and approaches have evolved, often in response to policy and practice wisdom. Empirical research in this area is limited. The primary research purpose of the project on which this paper is based is to gather information on the range of tools and frameworks that are used in adult safeguarding practice across the UK and Ireland. In so doing, this paper seeks to contribute and inform the future development of an evidence based adult safeguarding assessment framework.

A team of academics from England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland wanted to explore the possibility of adapting a pre-existing assessment framework currently in use in family and childcare social work to consider its utility in assessing carers involved in adult safeguarding referrals. This paper reports on a small pilot study which sought to inform the adaptation of this framework for use in adult safeguarding. This paper is based on a qualitative study involving 11 semi-structured telephone interviews with adult safeguarding social work managers and experienced practitioners. Two to four professionals from each region of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland were interviewed to elicit their perceptions and experiences of engaging in adult safeguarding assessment processes and their views about models of assessment.

This study identified considerable variation in and between the nations under review, in terms of the assessment frameworks and tools used in adult safeguarding practice. To a large extent, the assessment frameworks and tools in use were not evidence based or accredited. Participants acknowledged the value of using assessment frameworks and tools whilst also identifying barriers in undertaking effective assessments.

There is limited evidence available in the literature regarding the utility of assessment frameworks and tools in adult safeguarding practice. This primary research identifies four themes derived from professional’s experiences of using such frameworks and identifies broader recommendations for policy and practice in this area.

This paper aims to describe four ways learning professionals can harness curiosity to navigate learning environments marked by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA).

A review of theory and research on curiosity, VUCA, and learning and development challenges was conducted.

When applied to talent development, the attributes of curiosity (inquisitiveness, openness, creativity, and disruption tolerance) can help learning professionals innovate their offerings.

Organizational development and learning professionals are encouraged to implement measures for harnessing the power of curiosity within their processes to optimize their organizations’ learning programs.

VUCA has placed significant pressures on learning professionals to continually evolve employee development offerings to keep pace with dynamic organizational skill needs. Curiosity is presented as a plausible mechanism for enabling learning professionals to more successfully navigate these pressures.

This paper describes the ways automation and artificial intelligence are shifting the business landscape and how learning professionals can use curiosity to enhance their own and their organizations' success.

A review of theory and research on automation and artificial intelligence, curiosity, and learning and development challenges was conducted.

Although technological advancements are already transforming the workplace, the optimal benefits of these technologies will be realized only in collaboration with human capital. In particular, as certain manual and technical skills are replaced by automation, the jobs that remain will require more highly developed social and cognitive skills such as creative problem solving, interpersonal skills and empathy, and adaptability and continuous learning.

Learning professionals are encouraged to use strategies that leverage the power of curiosity to cultivate the soft skills critical for success in technologically advanced workplaces.

Technological advancement creates an ever-changing organizational and learning landscape for employees and development professionals. Cost-effective strategies are needed to close the growing skill gaps that result. Curiosity is a helpful tool for growing needed competencies.

The purpose of this paper is to use hope theory as a foundation from which to understand the global dual‐career exploration phenomenon. Additionally, the concept of curiosity is explored as a triggering mechanism for dual‐career couples to explore and learn about career options in a global context.

Hope theory is used to provide theoretical support for the proposed conceptual model.

It is concluded that hope and curiosity are important elements for dual‐career couples to leverage in order to reduce stress, maintain marital status, and allow the trailing spouse to resolve the potential dramatic and negative impact on their career path.

Both hope and curiosity have been argued to have developmental aspects, meaning that individuals can nurture and strengthen their level of hopefulness and curiosity. Organizations which aid individuals in developing these abilities will likely increase the probability that their global employees will successfully complete their foreign assignment.

The paper explicitly examines dual‐career exploration as it occurs in a global context. More specifically, it takes the perspective that global dual‐career exploration is a continuous and adaptive process in which individuals who are hopeful and curious will be more successful in exploring and adapting to career options.

The purpose of this paper is to present findings from a mixed-methods study on the impact that COVID-19 has had on adult safeguarding. The research sought to explore the challenges and opportunities presented by COVID-19 to both frontline and non-frontline professionals working in adult safeguarding.

A mixed-methods project was undertaken comprising a literature review, survey, semi-structured interviews and a small number of freedom of information requests. This paper presents the findings predominantly from the survey and interviews.

Unsurprisingly, COVID-19 has presented a variety of challenges for professionals working in adult safeguarding. The themes that occurred most often were the day-to-day changes and challenges, relationships across sectors, information and navigating the ethical questions in safeguarding.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the findings represent the first focused qualitative mixed-method study aimed at understanding more about the impact the pandemic has had on adult safeguarding through the eyes of those professionals working in that field.