1. How many concerns or incident reports were received from nursing and/or care home providers in 2024?
There were 1520 concerns raised where the referral source was Nursing Care Home or Residential Care Home from 1st January to December 31st 2024.
2. Of those, how many referred to serious injuries or unexpected deaths?
When a concern is raised by a care provider, they categorise the type of abuse the individual is experiencing or at risk of experiencing. To determine whether any of these cases involved serious injury, we would need to manually review each safeguarding concern received in 2024 and from January to June 2025. This would involve examining the details provided by the referrer to identify any mention of serious injury and with reference to the total number of cases given in response to question 1, this would be in excess of the appropriate time limit. This information is therefore exempt from disclosure pursuant to section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
By way of further assistance, we would not expect to receive safeguarding concerns for a person that has died, as Section 42 of the Care Act (2014) does not apply to a person who has died. Information on whether a death was unexpected, would, in our view, fall under the jurisdiction of the coroner.
3. How many investigations resulted in a substantiated concern of neglect or abuse in 2024?
Of those 1520 concerns raised – 120 moved to an enquiry with a risk type of neglect or abuse and of those 120 there were 80 enquiries where a risk had been identified. 4 concerns are still pending a decision.
4. How many investigations resulted in a substantiated concern of medical negligence/drug errors in 2024?
Our enquiries are not conducted to determine medical negligence. If a safeguarding concern meets the statutory criteria under Section 42(1) and progresses to an enquiry under Section 42(2), we work with the individual or their advocate to establish their desired outcomes and aim to meet the objectives of the enquiry as detailed within the Care and Support Statutory guidance. These are to establishing the facts; ascertain the adult’s view and wishes, assess the needs of the adult for protection support and redress, protect the adult from the abuse or neglect in accordance with their wishes; make decisions as to what follow up action should be taken with regard to the person or the organisation responsible for the abuse or neglect; enable the adult to achieve resolution and recovery.
We are not a regulatory or investigative body for medical negligence. However, if a concern involves an allegation of neglect or acts of omission due to a medication error, and it progresses to an enquiry, it may be possible to determine whether a medication error occurred through the objective of establishing facts as part of the safeguarding enquiry. However, as with question 2, identifying such cases would require a manual review of all safeguarding enquiries conducted in 2024 and from January to June 2025 to confirm whether each individual enquiry substantiated whether the allegation of acts of omission/neglect (medication error) had been substantiated or not.
5. Please provide the same data as requested in questions 1-4, but covering the period of January to June 2025.
There were 707 concerns raised where the referral source was Nursing Care Home or Residential Care Home from 1st January to 8th June 2025.
Of those 707 concerns raised – 38 moved to an enquiry with a risk type of neglect or abuse and of those 38 there were 11 enquiries where a risk had been identified. 179 concerns are still pending a decision.