BriefingsSafeguarding Adults Data Collection – Findings from an analysis of 2024 – 2025 Data

Introduction

On 27 November, the Department of Health and Social Care  published a statistical bulletin summarising findings from an analysis of data collected in the safeguarding adults collection (SAC) covering the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. This briefing provides an overview of the information in the statistical bulletin and highlights the data which is available to local authorities and how this could be used.

What does the Safeguarding Adults Collection (SAC) Cover?

The SAC is a mandatory data collection from local authorities in England and is used to capture a range of different information about safeguarding adults concerns and safeguarding adults enquiries. It includes the number of concerns raised and subsequent enquiries completed, types of abuse reported, and the age range, gender and ethnicity of adults concerned.

Under the Care Act 2014, councils with adult social services responsibilities in England have a duty to safeguard adults from abuse or neglect; this includes a duty to make enquiries into safeguarding concerns if they have reasonable cause to suspect an adult who has care and support needs, is experiencing or at risk of abuse or neglect, and is unable to protect themselves.

A safeguarding concern is where a local authority is notified about a risk of abuse or neglect of an adult which could lead to a safeguarding enquiry being carried out in line with local safeguarding adults procedures.

Key Findings

During 2024 to 2025:

• there were an estimated 640,240 concerns of abuse raised, an increase of 4.0% on the previous year;
• there were an estimated 185,270 enquiries that commenced under section 42 of the Care Act 2014, which represented an increase of 4.9% on the previous year. These enquiries involved 148,830 individual adults;
• the number of ‘other’ safeguarding enquiries, where there may not be reasonable cause to suspect the Care Act section 42 criteria are met, but where local authorities use other powers to make enquiries, was reported to be 10,285, a decrease of 33.8% on the previous year;
• the most common type of risk in section 42 enquiries that concluded in the year was neglect and acts of omission, which accounted for 40.8% of risks. The most common location of the risk was the person’s own home at 51.9%;
• in 91.1% of concluded section 42 enquiries where a risk was identified, the reported outcome was that the risk was reduced or removed.

Trends over time

(Click on the image to enlarge it – opens in a new window).

The graph shows that:

• the number of safeguarding concerns has increased each year since 2020 to 2021, although the annual rate of growth has slowed over this period;
• the number of section 42 enquiries has increased each year since 2020 to 2021, with the annual rate of growth increasing in 2024 to 2025 relative to the previous year;
• following an increase in 2021 to 2022, the number of ‘other’ enquiries has decreased each year. The rate of decrease was higher in 2024 to 2025 relative to the previous year.

Source, Location and Type of Risk

The Safeguarding Adults Dashboard contains a number of different datasets which can be viewed at local authority level, including the age of the adults involved in enquiries, the type of risk involved, and the location and source of the risk.

The table below shows the type, source and location of risk for completed section 42 enquiries in England during the year 2024-2025.

The data is also available at individual local authority level, back to 2016-2017, allowing for comparisons over time.

Looking at the data for England as a whole, in 2016 – 2017 for example there were just 195 enquiries completed in relation to modern slavery, 5,545 in relation to self-neglect, 700 in relation to sexual exploitation and 930 concerning discriminatory abuse; demonstrating how approaches to, and understanding of, safeguarding adults concerns have changed over recent years.

Using the Information Collected at a Local Level

SAC data can be used by local authorities, safeguarding partners and local policy makers:

• to understand trends in volumes of safeguarding concerns raised and enquiries conducted;
• to analyse the profile of adults involved in safeguarding enquiries, and the nature of the risk of abuse or neglect involved;
• in conjunction with other local data on safeguarding practice and outcomes, such as feedback from adults involved in safeguarding processes, to inform the review of local policies and procedures and feed into learning and development activities.

However, the DHSC are clear that the statistics should not be used to:

• make judgements about how effective local authorities are at keeping adults safe from abuse and neglect;
• benchmark local authorities against each other, due to the different reporting and practices used to discharge their statutory duties.

For more information, and to access the data sets used in the statistical bulletin, see:

Safeguarding adults, England, 2024 to 2025 (GOV.UK)

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