This report provides the findings from the Safeguarding Adults Return (SAR) data collection. This is a mandatory collection which records information about individuals for whom safeguarding referrals were opened during the reporting period (also referred to as adults at risk) and case details (also referred to as allegations) for safeguarding referrals which concluded during the reporting period. The purpose of the collection is to provide information which can help stakeholders to understand where abuse may occur and improve services for individuals affected by abuse.
2013/14 is the first year the SAR has been collected. The SAR was one of the outcomes of the Zero Based Review of adult social care data collections and it has replaced the Abuse of Vulnerable Adults (AVA) return. It covers the same subject area as the AVA return but is much smaller in size and there are no directly comparable data items. Alerts and action types are no longer collected and demographics are recorded based on counts of individuals rather than referrals. Time series analysis across the two returns is not possible.
The SAR data are recorded by adult safeguarding teams based in the 152 Councils with Adult Social Services Responsibilities (referred to as CASSRs or councils within this report) in England. At the end of the reporting year these data are submitted to the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) in an aggregate form through Omnibus, a secure online data collection system.
