Date of Request: 22/09/2015
Date of Disclosure: 21/09/2015
Request and Response
Please see below for answers to your Freedom of Information request. Data is for the financial year 2014-15 (1 Apr-31 Mar) for people aged 60 and over. The areas used are based on the Devon County Council Care Direct Plus (CDP) Areas (map attached).
- Between April 2014 and April 2015 how many adult safeguarding referrals did you receive involving people over the age of 60?
– Out of these referrals, could you please provide a breakdown to the amount received in each area of Devon that you cover.
Number of Alerts (initial contact)
| Area | Alerts |
| Unknown | 144 |
| East | 743 |
| North | 267 |
| South | 513 |
| Total | 1667 |
Those Alerts which went on to become Referrals (ie seen to require further investigation)
| Referrals | |
| Unknown | 62 |
| East | 341 |
| North | 136 |
| South | 248 |
| Total | 787 |
- Out of these referrals, how many had substantive evidence and/or supporting documentation?
Of the alerts in the financial year, there were 197 concluded referrals which were substantiated.
The following table shows those with a case conclusion of “substantiated” (either fully or partially)
| Substantiated – fully | Substantiated – partially | Total | |
| Unknown | 7 | 7 | 14 |
| East | 54 | 52 | 106 |
| North | 16 | 7 | 23 |
| South | 24 | 30 | 54 |
| Total | 101 | 96 | 197 |
- How many of these referrals have been completed? With how many going to a case conference?
Of the original alerts received during 2014-15, 610 were completed before 31 Mar 2015, with 62 case conferences being held.
| Completed cases | Case Conference held | |
| Unknown | 39 | 2 |
| East | 262 | 26 |
| North | 109 | 18 |
| South | 200 | 16 |
| Total | 610 | 62 |
- How many investigations were dropped in total?
Data not held.
And of the investigations dropped, were they due to:
– Incidents being purely accidental and not relating to any form of abuse
– Force having to be used to prevent harm to person or another individual within the property, but not defined as abuse?
– Any other relevant reason
- Out of the referrals received, what was the most common form of abuse reported? Could you provide percentages for each form of abuse if possible?
For the 787 referrals, the percentage breakdown was calculated using the total number of referrals and the number of times a specific type of abuse was recorded. Since some cases have multiple forms of alleged abuse, the percentages add up to more than 100%. Please note that not all referrals have had the abuse confirmed; there were only 197 cases where the allegations were substantiated in some way.
| Physical Abuse | Sexual | Financial | Neglect | Psychological | Discriminatory | Institutional |
| 32.7% | 3.7% | 21.0% | 26.7% | 18.2% | 0.4% | 6.5% |
- Out of the referrals received and investigated, who was responsible for the abuse? Total for each category if possible please.
– relative
– neighbour
– friend
– carer
– other professional
– other
The following table shows the categories reported on our forms (Other Professional and Other are amalgamated). Please note the Council cannot provide an exact match to the requested categories since they are not broken down on our system in the way requested. The only confirmed abuse is recorded in concluded referrals where the concern is fully or partially substantiated, therefore the total in the table below is 197 (as in the answer to Q2).
| Relative/ family carer | Individual-known but not related | Other Professional | Other | Total | |
| Unknown | 4 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 14 |
| East | 30 | 26 | 48 | 2 | 106 |
| North | 9 | 4 | 9 | 1 | 23 |
| South | 9 | 8 | 36 | 1 | 54 |
| Total | 52 | 42 | 98 | 5 | 197 |
- Out of the referrals received, did any result in the death of the individual, and if so, how many?
Yes, one
- How many serious case reviews relating to older people over 60 took place?
One