Care Act 2014 safeguarding duties: section 42 enquiries and making safeguarding personal

The Care Act 2014 put adult safeguarding in England on a statutory footing for the first time. Before it, safeguarding ran on guidance called No Secrets and on local goodwill. Now there is a duty to make enquiries under section 42, a duty to have a Safeguarding Adults Board under section 43, a duty to commission safeguarding adults reviews under section 44, and a statutory guidance chapter that sets out six principles and the approach known as making safeguarding personal. This guide explains the duties section by section, what a section 42 enquiry actually involves, what it means when the local authority asks your home to carry out the enquiry, and what registered providers must do to meet their own part of the framework.

The short answer

Section 42 of the Care Act 2014 requires a local authority to make enquiries, or have them made, whenever it has reasonable cause to suspect that an adult in its area has needs for care and support, is experiencing or at risk of abuse or neglect, and because of those needs is unable to protect themselves. All three limbs must be met, and the duty applies whether or not the authority is meeting any of the person's needs. The enquiry decides what, if anything, should happen and by whom. Care providers are not the duty holder, but they are usually the people who raise the concern, they are often asked to carry out the enquiry on the local authority's behalf, and they carry their own duties under the regulations to protect people, to notify CQC and to be open when things go wrong. Everything is supposed to run on the six principles, with making safeguarding personal at the centre: ask the adult what they want to happen, and measure whether they got it.

What changed when the Care Act came in

Under No Secrets, published in 2000, adult protection was statutory guidance to councils with no duty attached. Practice varied enormously, adults were often not asked what they wanted, and the process was driven by categories and thresholds rather than outcomes.

The Care Act, in force from April 2015, created duties instead of expectations, defined an adult at risk through needs rather than a label, put safeguarding boards and reviews on a statutory basis, and required the whole system to work to the wellbeing principle in section 1. In practice it also changed the language. "Vulnerable adult" is out, because the vulnerability is created by circumstance and by how services respond, not by the person.

The wellbeing principle: section 1

Section 1 requires anyone exercising a function under the Act to promote the individual's wellbeing. Wellbeing is defined to include personal dignity, physical and mental health, protection from abuse and neglect, control over day-to-day life, participation in work, education and recreation, domestic and family relationships, suitability of living accommodation and the individual's contribution to society.

Protection from abuse and neglect is one item in that list, not the whole of it. That matters, because a safeguarding response that keeps someone safe while destroying their relationships, their choice and their dignity has not met the duty. It is the legal basis for proportionality.

Section 42: the three tests

Section 42(1) applies where the local authority has reasonable cause to suspect that an adult in its area:

1. has needs for care and support, whether or not the authority is meeting any of those needs;
2. is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect; and
3. as a result of those needs is unable to protect themselves against the abuse or neglect or the risk of it.

Where all three apply, section 42(2) requires the authority to make whatever enquiries it thinks necessary to decide whether any action should be taken and, if so, what and by whom. Two features are commonly misunderstood. The trigger is suspicion with reasonable cause, not proof. And the duty is not limited to people the council funds, so a self-funding resident in a private home is covered in exactly the same way.

Applying the three tests to real situations

Note the fourth row. Not everything that feels wrong meets the section 42 threshold, and a home that refers everything is as unhelpful as one that refers nothing. What matters is that a named person applied the three tests and wrote down the reasoning. The decision not to refer is a decision that must be recorded and reviewed.

The six safeguarding principles

Chapter 14 of the Care and support statutory guidance sets out six principles that apply to all safeguarding work.

• Empowerment. Person-led decisions and informed consent. "I am asked what I want as the outcomes and these directly inform what happens."
• Prevention. It is better to take action before harm occurs.
• Proportionality. The least intrusive response appropriate to the risk presented.
• Protection. Support and representation for those in greatest need.
• Partnership. Local solutions through services working with their communities.
• Accountability. Accountability and transparency in delivering safeguarding.

These are not decorative. An inspector or a safeguarding board will ask how proportionality shaped your response, and a home that suspends a worker, moves a resident and bans a relative in the first hour has usually failed that principle even if it has satisfied protection.

Making safeguarding personal

Making safeguarding personal is the approach developed by the Local Government Association and ADASS and adopted in the statutory guidance. Its argument is simple: safeguarding done to people produces compliance and resentment, safeguarding done with people produces safety that lasts.

In practice it means four things. Ask the adult at the start what they want to happen. Keep asking as the enquiry develops, because wishes change. Shape the response around those outcomes wherever it is lawful and safe. And at the end, record whether the outcomes they wanted were fully achieved, partly achieved or not achieved, and say why.

That last step is the one providers skip. Recording the outcome of the enquiry is not the same as recording whether the person got what they wanted.

How to ask the outcomes question

Do not ask "what outcome do you want from this safeguarding process?" Nobody talks like that. Ask what would make this better, what they are most worried about, what they want to happen next, and what they definitely do not want to happen. Write the answers in their words.

Take Jordan, 43, who has a learning disability and whose support worker has been taking cash from his wallet. Asked properly, Jordan says he wants his money back, he does not want the police involved, and he does not want to move. Those three sentences shape everything: the money is a recovery question, the police decision has to be explained honestly rather than assumed, and the plan protects his home. If you never ask, you will produce a plan that solves your anxiety rather than his problem.

Where the person cannot express a view, you still ask. You use their known wishes, their communication passport, their family and an advocate to build the best picture you can, and you record how you did it.

Who makes a section 42 enquiry

The duty sits with the local authority, but the Act says "cause to be made", which means the authority can ask someone else to carry out the enquiry. In practice, a large share of enquiries in care homes are delegated back to the provider. This is usually called a provider-led enquiry.

When your home is asked to lead an enquiry, get four things in writing from the local authority: the specific questions the enquiry must answer, the deadline, who to send it to, and who will review it. Then decide who in your organisation is independent enough to do it. If the concern is about your own management or staffing levels, someone above the home must lead it. A provider-led enquiry into your own conduct is worthless.

Delegation is not a transfer of the duty. The local authority remains responsible for being satisfied that the enquiry was adequate and for deciding what action follows.

What an enquiry has to establish

1. What happened, as a timeline based on records rather than memory.
2. Whether the adult is safe now, and what is protecting them today.
3. What the adult wants to happen, in their own words.
4. Whether the adult has capacity for the relevant decisions, and if not, who decides and on what basis.
5. Whether anyone else is at risk, including other residents, and what has been done about that.
6. Whether the concern is substantiated, partly substantiated, not substantiated or inconclusive.
7. What caused it, including systems, staffing, training, supervision and culture.
8. What action is needed, by whom and by when, including referrals to the police, CQC, the DBS and professional regulators.
9. Whether the outcomes the adult wanted were achieved.

Write it as a report with those headings. Local authorities have their own templates, but a report that answers those nine points will satisfy any of them.

Timescales

The Care Act sets no statutory timescale for a section 42 enquiry, which surprises people. Local multi-agency procedures fill the gap, and most look broadly like this.

Check your own local safeguarding board's procedures, because they vary, and keep a copy in the office. The variation is real and no one thanks you for working to a neighbouring authority's timescales.

The Care Act duties at a glance

Safeguarding Adults Boards and their procedures

Section 43 requires every local authority to establish a Safeguarding Adults Board, with the authority, the integrated care board and the police as core members. The board must publish a strategic plan and an annual report, arrange safeguarding adults reviews, and set the multi-agency procedures your home has to follow.

Registered managers should know their board's name, know where its procedures and referral forms live, and read the annual report. It tells you what is going wrong locally, which is usually what will go wrong in your home next.

Safeguarding adults reviews

Section 44 requires a board to arrange a review when an adult with care and support needs has died or suffered serious harm as a result of abuse or neglect, and there is concern about how agencies worked together. A board may also commission a review in other cases it thinks would produce learning.

If your service is involved, you will be asked for a chronology, for records and for a manager to attend a learning event. Give the full record, including what went wrong. Reviews that find defensiveness produce harder recommendations. Published reviews are one of the best free training resources available: read the ones from your own board with your senior team.

Advocacy: section 68

Where an adult would have substantial difficulty being involved in an enquiry or a review, and there is no appropriate individual to represent and support them, the local authority must arrange an independent advocate. Substantial difficulty covers understanding information, retaining it, using or weighing it, or communicating views.

A family member can be the appropriate individual, but not where they are implicated in the concern, not where the adult does not want them involved, and not where they are also a paid carer. Homes should ask directly whether an advocate has been arranged, because it is missed regularly and it is a clear legal requirement.

What providers must do under the regulations

The Care Act duties sit with the local authority. A registered care provider's duties come from the Health and Social Care Act 2008 regulations and run alongside.

• Regulation 13: safeguard people from abuse and improper treatment, including having systems and processes to prevent abuse and to investigate allegations. Breach can be prosecuted where harm results.
• Regulation 12: safe care and treatment, which covers risk assessment and the competence of staff.
• Regulation 17: good governance, which is where your safeguarding log, audit and learning sit.
• Regulation 20: duty of candour, so you tell people what happened and apologise.
• Regulation 18 of the registration regulations: notify CQC of allegations of abuse and other incidents, covered in CQC notifications.
• Regulation 19: fit and proper persons employed, which is where DBS and reference checks live.

There is also a duty to refer a worker to the Disclosure and Barring Service under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 where you dismiss or would have dismissed them for harm or risk of harm to an adult. Managers forget this one, and forgetting it is an offence.

Capacity, consent and when you can act anyway

Where an adult with capacity asks you not to refer, you should normally respect that, but not always. Refer despite refusal where other people are at risk, where a crime may have been committed, where a member of staff is implicated, where coercion may be affecting the person's decision, or where the risk is serious and ongoing. Tell the person you are referring and why, unless doing so would increase risk.

Where the adult lacks capacity for the relevant decision, act in their best interests under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, involving the people it requires you to involve, and record the decision. The Mental Capacity Act and DoLS checklist sets out how to document capacity properly, and the general duty framework is covered in duty of care for care home staff.

Write the reasoning down at the time. Six months later, the difference between a defensible decision and an indefensible one is usually whether anyone recorded the thinking.

Self-neglect

Self-neglect was brought within the scope of safeguarding by the statutory guidance, and it is the hardest area to get right. It covers neglecting personal hygiene, health or surroundings, and hoarding. There is no duty to intervene simply because someone is living in a way you find unacceptable.

The approach that works is persistence with relationship, a multi-agency meeting, an honest capacity assessment about the specific decisions involved, and a written record of the risks the person is accepting. Safeguarding adults reviews into self-neglect deaths almost always find the same failures: agencies closed the case when the person declined, nobody held the whole picture, and nobody assessed capacity for the actual decision in question.

Domestic abuse, coercion and modern slavery

Domestic abuse is one of the ten categories of abuse in the guidance, and it applies to residents and to relationships between residents. Coercive or controlling behaviour is a criminal offence under the Serious Crime Act 2015, and the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 strengthened the framework further. Where a partner or adult child is controlling a resident's money, visits and decisions, that is domestic abuse rather than a difficult family.

Modern slavery also reaches care homes, usually through the workforce rather than the residents. Signs include a worker whose wages go to someone else's account, who is housed by an agency and moved without notice, or who has no access to their own documents. Report through the modern slavery helpline and the police, and tell the local authority.

A worked example: Priya

Priya is 79, has capacity, and lives in a residential home. She tells a care worker that her nephew, who holds her bank card, has been buying things for himself. She becomes distressed and says she does not want a fuss and does not want him to know she said anything.

The manager applies the three tests. Priya has care and support needs. Financial abuse is suspected. The third test is the difficult one: she has capacity, but she is frightened of her nephew and depends on him for visits and contact with her great-grandchildren, so her ability to protect herself is genuinely limited. The manager refers, records the reasoning, tells Priya she is referring and why, and asks her what she wants to happen.

Priya says she wants the card back and she wants to keep seeing the children. The local authority leads the enquiry, involves the bank and the police financial abuse team, and Priya is supported by an advocate. The outcome: the card is cancelled, a new account is set up with the home's finance office keeping records of personal spending, contact continues supervised at first, and no prosecution is pursued because Priya does not want one and she has capacity to make that choice. The record notes her outcomes as fully achieved. That is making safeguarding personal working properly.

A worked example: Marcus and a provider-led enquiry

Marcus, 34, lives in a four-bed learning disability service. A relative reports that he has lost weight and that his room smells of urine. The local authority screens it as a section 42 concern and asks the provider's regional manager to carry out the enquiry, because the concern is about care delivery rather than an individual allegation.

The regional manager, who does not manage the service, reviews the weight records, food and fluid charts, personal care records, rota and supervision notes. She finds a genuine weight loss of 6kg over four months that was recorded but never escalated, a broken washing machine that took three weeks to replace, and two vacant posts covered by agency workers with no induction. She reports honestly: the concern is substantiated as neglect at an organisational level rather than by any individual, and the causes are supervision and staffing.

The safeguarding plan includes a GP and dietitian referral, weekly weights with a clear escalation trigger, a filled rota, and a monthly audit by the regional manager for six months. CQC is notified, the family is given a candour conversation and an apology, and the actions are reviewed at eight weeks. Honesty in that report made the plan work. A defensive report would have left Marcus in the same service with the same staffing.

What your safeguarding records must show

Keep one safeguarding log for the service with a row for every concern, whether or not it was referred. For each entry: date and time raised, who raised it, the resident, a factual summary, whether the three tests were applied and the reasoning, the decision and who made it, referral reference and date, CQC notification reference, what the adult said they wanted, the actions taken to make the person safe immediately, the enquiry outcome, the safeguarding plan, the date actions were verified, and the lessons.

The log must be reviewed for patterns at least quarterly. Three concerns about night care on one unit is a service issue, not three incidents. Having the safeguarding log in the same record as incidents, body maps and daily notes, as Kiwi does through its care records, makes that pattern visible without a data exercise. What you cannot outsource is looking.

Working with the police

Abuse is often a crime. Assault, theft, fraud, sexual offences, ill treatment or wilful neglect under section 20 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, and coercive control are all police matters. Where a crime may have been committed, call the police early and do not conduct interviews that could compromise the investigation.

Preserve evidence. Do not wash clothing or bedding, do not clean the area, keep any relevant items in a sealed bag, and note who handled what and when. Record what the person said in their exact words without asking leading questions, and record the time you wrote it.

Outside England

The Care Act 2014 applies to England. Wales has the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, which includes a statutory duty to report adults at risk under section 128 and provides for adult protection and support orders. Scotland has the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007, with duties to inquire and with protection orders. Northern Ireland works to the Adult Safeguarding policy framework and the Health and Social Care Trusts. Providers operating across nations need separate procedures rather than a single one relabelled.

Training your team on the duties

Care workers do not need to recite section numbers. They need to know four things: what abuse looks like, that they must report it the moment they suspect it rather than at handover, that they can go outside the home if they need to, and that nobody will be punished for raising a concern that turns out to be nothing. Managers and seniors need more: the three tests, the six principles, making safeguarding personal, local procedures and timescales, capacity and information sharing, and the DBS referral duty.

Test it with scenarios rather than a quiz. Give the team a real anonymised case and ask what they would do in the first hour. The gaps in the room are your training plan. The routes staff can use to raise concerns when normal channels fail are covered in whistleblowing in care homes, and the full list of abuse types and signs is in safeguarding adults in care homes.

Common mistakes

• Treating section 42 as a council process you wait on. Your duty to protect the person today is immediate and separate.
• Not applying or not recording the three tests. Every decision not to refer needs written reasoning.
• Never asking the person what they want. The single most common making safeguarding personal failure.
• Accepting a provider-led enquiry into your own management. It must be led by someone independent of what is being examined.
• Forgetting the DBS referral. A legal duty with criminal consequences for ignoring it.
• No advocacy. Section 68 is a requirement, not an optional extra.
• Investigating before the strategy discussion. It can contaminate a police investigation.
• Closing when the person declines. The commonest finding in self-neglect reviews.
• A log of referrals with no outcomes. Outcomes and verified actions are what an inspector reads.

Final conclusion

The Care Act 2014 gives adult safeguarding its shape in England: the wellbeing principle in section 1, the enquiry duty in section 42, boards in section 43, reviews in section 44, information in section 45 and advocacy in section 68, all run through six principles with making safeguarding personal at the centre. As a provider you are not the duty holder, but you are the eyes of the system and often the hands of the enquiry. Learn the three tests and apply them to every concern. Ask the person what they want and record whether they got it. Be honest in provider-led enquiries, because the honest ones are the ones that change anything. Keep one log, review it for patterns, and make sure the actions you promised were actually done. If you want to see safeguarding concerns, incidents and outcomes tracked in one place, book a demo.

Frequently asked

What is a section 42 enquiry?

A section 42 enquiry is the enquiry a local authority must make, or have made, under the Care Act 2014 when it has reasonable cause to suspect that an adult has care and support needs, is experiencing or at risk of abuse or neglect, and because of those needs cannot protect themselves. It establishes what happened and decides whether action is needed, what action, and by whom.

What are the three criteria for a section 42 enquiry?

The adult must appear to have needs for care and support, whether or not the authority is meeting them; must be experiencing or at risk of abuse or neglect; and must be unable to protect themselves from that abuse or neglect as a result of those needs. All three must be met, and the trigger is reasonable suspicion rather than proof.

What are the Care Act safeguarding duties on care providers?

The section 42 duty sits with the local authority, not the provider. Providers must co-operate with enquiries, supply information the Safeguarding Adults Board requests under section 45, and meet their own regulatory duties: Regulation 13 to safeguard people from abuse, Regulation 12 for safe care, Regulation 17 for governance, Regulation 20 for candour, plus CQC notifications and the duty to refer a dismissed worker to the DBS.

What is making safeguarding personal?

Making safeguarding personal is the approach in the statutory guidance of asking the adult at the start what they want to happen, involving them throughout, shaping the response around their outcomes wherever it is lawful and safe, and recording at the end whether those outcomes were fully achieved, partly achieved or not achieved. It replaces a process-led approach where things are done to people rather than with them.

Is there a time limit for a section 42 enquiry?

The Care Act sets no statutory timescale. Local Safeguarding Adults Board procedures set the expectations, and typically these are a same-day concern, a decision within one to three working days, a strategy discussion within five working days for higher risk, and an enquiry concluded in around 20 to 28 working days. Check your own board's procedures, because they vary.

Can a care home be asked to carry out the enquiry itself?

Yes. Section 42 says the authority must make enquiries or cause them to be made, so it can ask the provider to carry out the enquiry, which is usually called a provider-led enquiry. Get the questions, deadline and contact in writing, and make sure the person leading it is independent of what is being examined. The local authority remains responsible for judging whether the enquiry was adequate.

What if the adult has capacity and does not want a referral?

Normally respect their decision, but refer anyway where other people are at risk, where a crime may have been committed, where a member of staff is implicated, where coercion may be affecting their decision, or where the risk is serious and continuing. Tell them you are referring and why, unless telling them would increase the risk, and record the reasoning at the time.

When is a safeguarding adults review required?

Under section 44, a Safeguarding Adults Board must arrange a review when an adult with care and support needs has died or suffered serious harm as a result of abuse or neglect and there is concern about how agencies worked together. Boards may also commission reviews in other cases where there is useful learning. Providers involved will be asked for records, a chronology and attendance at a learning event.

Sources

• Care Act 2014, sections 1, 42 to 47 and 68
• GOV.UK: Care and support statutory guidance, chapter 14, safeguarding
• Local Government Association and ADASS: Making Safeguarding Personal
• Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, Regulations 12, 13, 17 and 20
• Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009, Regulation 18
• Mental Capacity Act 2005 and its Code of Practice
• Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 and Disclosure and Barring Service referral guidance
• Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, section 20, ill treatment or wilful neglect