Prevention of abuse: a brief review of the literature

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on prevention in adult safeguarding and to identify the themes that emerge, with particular reference to personalisation and the views of service users. Design/methodology/approach - Primarily a brief literature review; the review began with a scope on data, literature, and best practice in relation to prevention in adult safeguarding. Using reference harvesting and expert recommendations, the project manager identified further material, achieving a final list of 52 documents. Findings - There are many factors that may contribute to preventing abuse in the context of adult safeguarding. However, it is difficult to demonstrate that abuse has been or is being prevented with any certainty. The views of service users consulted for the review of No Secrets are that they would prefer to be empowered to make their own decisions with regard to safeguarding - and not to have all of the decisions made for them in an overly protective or risk-averse approach to safeguarding. It is recommended that local authorities consider risk enablement for service users as a parallel process to adult safeguarding. Practical implications - There are some practical suggestions for how local authorities who are tasked with co-ordinating adult safeguarding can work to prevent abuse within different communities. Originality/value - Prevention of abuse has not always been high on the adult safeguarding agenda; this article and the accompanying material now occupying the SCIE web site seek to redress this balance.