A safeguarding concern is raised in your service. The local authority contacts you, asks for information and starts asking what happened, while your manager is trying to protect the person, support staff and understand what must happen next. In that moment, it is easy for the provider’s role to become blurred with the local authority’s role.
The key distinction is simple: the local authority leads its safeguarding enquiry, but the provider remains responsible for acting on the concern, working with the local safeguarding arrangements and being able to provide a clear account of what staff knew and did. Good safeguarding is not about deciding who owns the case. It is about making sure the right action is taken by the right organisation, without delay.
What the local authority is responsible for in a safeguarding enquiry
Under the Care Act 2014, s42(1), the local authority’s enquiry duty applies where it has reasonable cause to suspect that an adult in its area has care and support needs, is experiencing or is at risk of abuse or neglect, and cannot protect themselves from that abuse or neglect because of those needs.
That does not make the provider the decision-maker for the enquiry. Under the Care Act 2014, s42(2), the local authority must make, or cause to be made, whatever enquiries it thinks necessary to decide whether action should be taken, and what action should be taken and by whom.
For a provider, this means responding to the local authority’s requests without treating the enquiry as a reason to pause internal action. The local authority may decide the scope and direction of its enquiry, but the provider must still address immediate risks and follow its own safeguarding processes.
The local authority must also establish a Safeguarding Adults Board under the Care Act 2014, s43. The Board must arrange a review where an adult has died or suffered serious abuse or neglect and there is concern about how agencies worked together.
What the provider must do when abuse is suspected
Regulation 13 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 says that service users must be protected from abuse and improper treatment. It also says that systems must operate effectively to prevent abuse and to investigate any allegation or evidence of abuse immediately on becoming aware of it.
That is the point at which a provider’s response must be active, not merely cooperative. Staff need to recognise the concern, pass it through the service’s safeguarding arrangements and ensure that any immediate protection or investigation required by the situation is not delayed while the local authority is contacted or makes its decisions.
CQC guidance on Regulation 13 says providers should work in partnership with other relevant bodies, and staff must follow local safeguarding arrangements. In practice, that means your safeguarding lead and managers need to know which local arrangements apply, how concerns are escalated and what information the service can provide when another organisation asks for it.
The registered person must also notify CQC without delay of specified incidents under Regulation 18 of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009. This includes any abuse or allegation of abuse of a service user and any incident reported to or investigated by the police.
These responsibilities sit alongside the local authority’s enquiry. They are not replaced by it, and they do not depend on the local authority confirming that abuse has occurred.
How to respond when information is requested
A request for information should be handled as part of the safeguarding response, rather than as a separate administrative task. Identify what has been asked for, who is coordinating the response and which relevant staff need to contribute, while continuing to protect the person and address the concern.
The Care Act 2014, s45 says that a Safeguarding Adults Board may request information, and that a person asked must supply it where the conditions in that section are met. The provision binds any person asked, including a provider.
That gives the request a clear legal context, but it does not mean every request should be answered without checking what is being asked or who is making it. A manager should make sure the response is directed to the appropriate safeguarding contact and covers the information requested, rather than relying on informal conversations or incomplete recollections.
The same discipline helps when agencies are working together. A provider should be able to distinguish what it knows, what it has been told and what it is still checking. That makes it easier for the local authority to decide what enquiries are necessary and what action should be taken, while keeping the provider’s own response focused on protecting the person.
Make safeguarding policy access visible to managers
Safeguarding arrangements are harder to apply consistently when managers cannot see whether staff have acknowledged the relevant policy. A signed list may show that a document was circulated, but it does not give a clear, current view of who has acknowledged which version.
PolicyNow records the staff member, policy, version and time for each acknowledgement, and shows managers who has and has not acknowledged each policy. That gives the service a dated record of policy acknowledgement to use alongside its safeguarding response when it needs to show how the relevant policy was put in front of staff.
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