My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Greengross, for further highlighting the plight of older victims of domestic abuse, and for tabling amendments which
seek to tackle these important issues. I am replying on behalf of my noble friend Lady Williams of Trafford, who I know found their discussion on the matter last week extremely helpful.
The Government are committed to preventing and reducing the risk of harm to people in known or suspected vulnerable situations. An effective adult safeguarding system which works across agencies to identify incidents or risk of harm, as well as acting on and ultimately preventing them, is central to this. We take the issues that the noble Baroness has raised very seriously and know that a well-trained and empowered adult social care workforce will be vital in tackling them. Social work is the lead profession for adult safeguarding duties under the Care Act 2014 and the Government are committed to ensuring that those working in it are well informed and trained to carry out their roles effectively. For this reason, the Chief Social Worker for Adults is developing a practice guide to support adult safeguarding teams within local authorities, to ensure a consistent and person-centred statutory response and quality safeguarding of adults with care and support needs. This guide will be consulted on and published this year.
We have considered Amendments 83 and 84 further and do not believe that they will add value to existing roles and processes, or that they are needed to improve outcomes for older people experiencing domestic abuse. In relation to Amendment 83, all local authority employees are expected to undertake safeguarding training, ensuring that they can identify any concerns of elder abuse and report these through existing escalation routes where necessary. In some instances, this may require making a report to the police, or making a referral under Section 42 of the Care Act 2014, which places a duty on a local authority to make inquiries, or to ask others to make inquiries, where it reasonably suspects that an adult in its area is at risk of neglect or abuse, including financial abuse.
On Amendment 84, the police have existing powers of entry ensuring the protection of victims of domestic abuse and other instances of exploitation and harm. These existing powers are sufficient and appropriately given to the police, who are well equipped to respond to threats from perpetrators of domestic abuse and to gain entry to a home where necessary. Extending powers of entry to social workers risks placing them in potentially unsafe and harmful situations which they are not equipped to deal with. It would also not be appropriate for a social worker to have powers that extend beyond their remit of supporting people with care and support needs, and they would not be trained to respond in these circumstances. Local arrangements will be in place to enable effective joint working to investigate instances where an adult must be safeguarded, which would include the police, health and social care professionals, and providers.
I also point to Clause 73, which enables the Secretary of State to issue guidance relating to the definition of domestic abuse. The draft guidance recognises that older people can be victims of domestic abuse and that they may experience this abuse differently. This guidance is intended to support all responding agencies to understand domestic abuse. Indeed, under Clause 73,
any person exercising public functions to whom guidance is issued must have regard to the guidance in carrying out those functions.
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We will be publishing the updated statutory guidance in draft for a formal consultation shortly after Royal Assent. We would welcome the noble Baroness’s engagement on the guidance, as well as that of the specialist organisations advocating for older victims, such as Hourglass. My noble friend Lady Williams has asked me to say that she would be more than happy to put the noble Baroness, Lady Greengross, in touch with her officials working on the issue.
In addition, Part 4 places a duty on tier 1 local authorities to provide support within safe accommodation for victims and their children. We have been clear in the statutory guidance to accompany Part 4 that victims and their children with relevant protected characteristics, as set out in the Equality Act 2010, must be able to access the support that they need. Under this duty, we expect authorities to ensure the appropriate and adequate support within safe accommodation that meets the needs of all victims, including those with relevant protected characteristics and/or multiple complex needs, and those whose support needs might not be able to be met within more general domestic abuse safe accommodation, such as victims over the age of 65.
We recognise the importance of ensuring that existing processes and practices are robust enough to offer protection to people at risk of or experiencing elder abuse. We also know that Covid-19 has presented new and, in some instances, heightened existing challenges in the adult safeguarding system. There is work under way across government and across health and social care partners better to understand and tackle these issues during and beyond the pandemic.
As I have indicated, there is work under way to improve the quality of practice within adult safeguarding teams, undertaken by the Chief Social Worker for Adults. Although we do not think that it is necessary to take forward Amendment 84 at this time, we will have conversations with interested parties and others to understand whether adult social workers feel empowered within their existing duties and powers, and whether there is anything further that we can do to support them in carrying out their important roles to support known or suspected victims of domestic abuse.
I hope that setting that out from the Dispatch Box this evening, as well as in the helpful meeting that the noble Baroness had with my noble friend, will be enough to reassure the noble Baroness that existing practices and processes are in place to identify and tackle domestic abuse, including instances of elder abuse, and that the Government are committed to improving them. Therefore, I hope that she will be willing to withdraw her amendment.