Safeguarding Adults and the Inherent Jurisdiction (£4,400)

Aim
The project, funded by the Civic University Fund at Royal Holloway (£4,400), aims to provide knowledge exchange workshops for adult safeguarding practitioners to support their understanding and legal literacy in relation to the Inherent Jurisdiction relating to vulnerable adults at four local authorities in the area proximal to Royal Holloway. Local authorities can seek to invoke the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court to safeguard a category of ‘vulnerable adults’ who do not lack capacity for the purposes of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. However, findings from Safeguarding Adult Reviews suggest that local authorities have not always effectively used the inherent jurisdiction to protect vulnerable adults. The purpose of this small-scale, exploratory pilot study is to explore how the inherent jurisdiction is understood in adult safeguarding practice and the impact that knowledge exchange activity has on practitioner confidence and legal literacy. This will enable the development of a larger project identifying potential in the legal literacy of safeguarding practitioners, and in the decision-making frameworks within which they operate, to promote better protection of vulnerable adults who fall within the scope of the inherent jurisdiction. The project will enhance the partners’ safeguarding activity through supporting the local workforce with an area that is known to be challenging and links closely with the researchers’ interests.