Report neglect or abuse of an adult (safeguarding concern)

If someone is in danger right now

If someone is in danger of being hurt right now, call the police on 999.

When to make a report to us

Report something that concerns you even if you're not sure if it's abuse or neglect. We'll look at your report and assess the situation.

What is considered a safeguarding concern

Abuse or neglect can come from anyone, including family members, friends or professionals. 

It can include:

• physical abuse
• domestic or sexual abuse
• neglect
• someone not looking after themselves (self neglect)
• psychological or emotional abuse (bullying someone or making them feel scared)  
• forcing someone to work (modern slavery)
• taking over their home to use it for crimes such as drug dealing (cuckooing)
• financial abuse
• discriminatory abuse

Find out about the different types of abuse and neglect from the NHS

Mental health referrals

We cannot urgently help anyone in crisis or in immediate danger of hurting themselves or someone else. Call 0800 028 8000 to speak to Kingston’s mental health crisis line.

Get information in Easy Read

Find out more about what you can report to us by downloading:

• What is abuse? - Easy Read
• Speaking up about abuse - Easy Read
• Reporting abuse - Easy Read

If you’re worried about a child or young person

If the person is under 18, or there’s a child at risk too, contact the children's safeguarding team.

What you need to tell us

We need enough information about the situation to be able to investigate and make sure the person is safe.

We'll ask for:

• their name
• their address
• their date of birth
• why you're worried about them
• where the neglect or abuse is happening
• details of the person you suspect of mistreating them

If you do not have all of their information, you can still report your concerns to us.

We’ll ask for your contact details in case we need more information, but you don't have to provide them.

Make a report as a member of the public

If it’s safe, try to speak to the person before making a report. This means they’re included in the decision to seek help.

You can tell us about yourself or someone else.

Report neglect or abuse

Make a professional referral

If you work with vulnerable people, use our professional form to refer someone to our safeguarding team.

Report a safeguarding concern as a professional

What happens after you've made a report

After we receive your report, we’ll decide what to do next. This might mean talking to the police or a social worker.

We will take any report seriously and try to help if we can. We’ll keep your report confidential unless we need to tell another organisation about it to help the person being harmed.

Our decision will depend on:

• what the person being harmed wants
• how serious the situation is
• if others might be at risk

If you report on someone else's behalf, we might contact you for more details. 

We might not be able to update you on what happens, but we will always investigate a situation that you’ve reported.

If someone cannot make decisions for themselves

Sometimes people who are at risk may need help making choices or decisions. In these cases, people like family, caregivers, or professionals can make choices for them.

We follow national guidance to help us balance a person’s right to make decisions for themselves with their right to be protected from harm. This is known as assessing their mental capacity. 

Find out how it's decided if someone has mental capacity or not on NHS

Give feedback about the safeguarding process

We’ve asked Healthwatch Kingston to collect independent feedback from people who have been through the adult safeguarding process. We want to learn about your experience so that we can improve how we keep adults safe from abuse and neglect.

Find out about giving feedback about the safeguarding process on Healthwatch Kingston