Policy and practice developments in adult safeguarding in Northern Ireland

: A qualitative comparative study between Northern Ireland, Great Britain, and Ireland

Abstract

This research explores policy and practice developments in adult safeguarding in Northern Ireland, Great Britain, and Ireland. The research objectives included examining the views of key professionals within, and between, the voluntary and statutory sector; and how these views compare between Northern Ireland, Great Britain and Ireland. A qualitative approach was selected in order to explore, in-depth, the experiences and views of key professionals involved in adult safeguarding policy and practice. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of key voluntary and statutory professionals from across the different jurisdictions, with follow-up participant interviews conducted nine months later to explore possible developments over time. The three theoretical approaches considered to help inform this research were Bronfenbrenner's (1979, 2005) ecological model; Payne's (2005) version of general social systems, and the work of Donabedian (1986, 1988, 2005) on evaluating complex health and social care systems. Four overarching themes were identified from the participant's data. These four overarching themes were identified by both voluntary and statutory professionals and remained consistent across both phase one and phase two. The four overarching themes were: partnership working in adult safeguarding; governance and management in adult safeguarding; supporting and empowering adults at risk of harm; and safeguarding is a continuum and everyone's responsibility. Adult safeguarding policy and practice has developed rapidly over the last three decades. This research evidenced a genuine commitment from key professionals across voluntary and statutory sectors to make safeguarding everyone's business. This was demonstrated by continuous improvements in partnership working, better understanding of roles and responsibilities, including the involvement of adults at risk of harm in the decision-making process, all of which have been aided by the introduction of new and revised adult safeguarding policies and legislation.

Date of Award	Jul 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Supervisor	Lorna Montgomery (Supervisor) & Gavin Davidson (Supervisor)