Serious Case Reviews in Adult Safeguarding in England: An Analysis of a Sample of Reports

Serious Case Reviews (SCRs) in respect of vulnerable adults, inquiries conducted by English adult protection or safeguarding boards at local level when harm or death has occurred, have been little scrutinised. This article reports an analysis of twenty-two SCR reports exploring: rationale for the review; detail of victim(s), alleged abuser(s) and setting(s); form of abuse (covering also neglect); threshold for the SCR; review personnel; purpose(s); processes or methodology; cost; timescale; lessons or recommendations; and follow-up. Reflections on SCRs are provided in the context of the current review of adult safeguarding policy in England, which received calls for the activity of SCRs to be more consistent and for lessons learned to be analysed and more widely circulated among social workers, other professionals, regulators and policy makers.