Sexual incidents in adults social care: evidence review briefing

Part of Safeguarding evidence and research

The briefing is a summary of a full evidence review about the scale and nature of sexual abuse in adult social care settings. The review looked at statutory notifications data received by the Care Quality Commission; a review of the literature focusing on literature published since 2010; and National Safeguarding Adults Reviews data. The review considered seven key questions: What is the incidence/prevalence of sexual abuse in adult social care settings in the UK?; How is sexual abuse defined in the studies and in the sector?; Which groups of people are most at risk of being affected by sexual abuse in adult social care settings?; What knowledge do we have about the perpetrators of sexual incidents?; What knowledge do we have about the contributing factors which allow abuse to happen in social care settings?; What do we know about how adult social care settings try to prevent or respond to sexual abuse?; and What are the gaps in existing evidence? Recommendations are made under three themes: data and evidence gaps and how these could be addressed; and training and development for staff and people drawing on services.