Between 2019 – 2021, how many safeguarding alerts has Devon County Council received annually, involving sexual assault on a vulnerable adult, in a care setting?
Location of abuse was not recorded on the earlier version of DCC’s concern forms, so we do not hold the information for 2019 or 2020, and only hold the information from June 2021.
Devon County Council is unable to provide the information we do hold from June 2021 onwards, as to do so would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which is £450 or 18 hours of officer time. We are unable to ascertain if the abuse involved “sexual assault” unless we manually check each case. This is because DCC only record “Sexual Abuse” or “Sexual Exploitation” which can cover any number of different areas (including rape, indecent exposure, sexual harassment, inappropriate looking or touching, sexual teasing or innuendo, sexual photography; subjection to pornography or witnessing sexual acts, indecent exposure, sexual assault, sexual acts to which the adult has not consented or was pressured into consenting.)
In the interests of providing advice and assistance, we are able to tell you that there are 86 concern forms that have the location of abuse as a Residential or Nursing home where the type of abuse is recorded as Sexual Abuse or Sexual Exploitation.