To think this is a safeguarding issue?

[Turtleyturtles]

SIL has a moderate learning disability and long term health conditions, mid-forties. She is very naive and trusting. She has regular care and support but lives on her own. In the last few months she has met a man on a dating app (without a learning disability) who has just come out of prison, multiple convictions of very serious violence and harrassment. SIL knows about his conviction and but says he has changed. SIL is travelling many miles to stay with him for most of the week in his halfway house accomodation that he rarely leaves because he has restriction orders placed on him. There are already signs of coercive control, he doesn't want her speaking to her family, asks her to bring him food, phoned her thousands of time when she was in hospital for 3 weeks from complications relating to infections he had given her. He also moved in with her for several weeks until the police found him and took him back (and then placed a restriction order on him from the town where she lives). Apparently nothing can be done at his end until he harms her.

My question is about safeguarding. SIL's main care worker is stressing her automony and freedom to make decisions. But I think she is at serious risk of harm because she is increasinly being isolated by him, i.e. undue influence and pressure. SIL has no friends, only her very frail mother in her eighties and her brother. SIL's health is increasingly poor too, she's in constant pain, in and out of hospital etc. She however is going willingly to see him and says she loves him.

Her brother is considering raising a safeguarding concern. If he does, what should he say on the form to get someone to protect her? We all think it's now time for her to go into care because of her vulnerability. It's not the first time she has been targeted. I'd appreciate any advice from anyone who understands the system.

This with some real life examples to back it up.

Just to warn you, ‘learning disability’ is a wide definition, not all learning disabilities will meet the criteria for lacking mental capacity.

Case law changed it was the JB case around sexual relations where the functional test is completed first so asking the questions, looking at it in a wider context and then the diagnostic test. This was to avoid any assumptions based on the persons diagnosis and also to avoid assessmwnts not being completed because of lack of diagnosis.You don't actually need a diagnosis of impairment of mind or brain to be assessed as lacking mental capacity.

Thanks, I think those are the criteria for an adult at risk rather than critera for lacking capacity? So hopefully she will be assessed as at risk.

I know you do not need a diagnosis to be assessed under the MCA, any more than you need a diagnosis to be assessed under the MHA.

Fingers crossed the LA will act.

If I was the triaging social worker I would be putting through for further enquiries under section 42 of the Care Act

I hope so too.

I just have personal experience of this and they were deemed as not being at risk because they had ‘capacity’ despite years and years of being financially abused and clearly demonstrating when interviewed they didn’t understand they were being financially abused.

Good luck. I hope you're listened to.

Capacity is decision specific. Someone may have capacity to go to the swimming pool as opposed to the cinema, but decisions about whether to spend all their money in Primark before paying their bills is different. She clearly lacks capacity in some areas, if her mum has to make decisions about money, health etc. I'm not convinced she has capacity in this area, but obviously I don't know her.

Poor woman, she sounds so vulnerable.

Okay thank you, I understand and agree. She definitely has a diagnosis of a learning disability, it was very clear when she was born and it is very obvious now, just from looking at her.

Safeguarding is about ANY vulnerable adult. You don’t have to go via any social worker to report this or even consider if she has capacity. It’s taking advantage of a vulnerable woman. Yes it’s safeguarding and look up how to report it via your lical system. They might well want to know why you are concerned but you have the details.

Thank you yes, that is what her brother is doing right now and I've offered to look at it when he's finished to see if I can add anything. There's a form on our local council website. The only worry is that it drives a wedge between SIL and family, but he will ask for it to be confidential.

I’m a social worker for adults. The law is - Does the person have care needs? Is the person at risk of abuse or neglect? If so do those care needs prevent the person from being able to protect themselves. If you answer yes to all three then yes it is a safeguarding.

what social care can do about it is a compeletely different matter as safeguarding is not ‘done’ to someone but rather with them. If she has capacity to not engage then the they are limited in what they can do. They will also really want your SIL to know about the referral. But I’d report it as that’s the social workers job to unpick etc

SIL's main care worker is stressing her automony and freedom to make decisions.

She is in an abusive, coercive and controlling relationship. This prevents her from having the autonomy to make decisions at the moment.

Thank you. The answer is definitely yes to all three. But yes, what they do about it, especially if she doesn't engage, is a different matter. Slightly worrying that the social worker will want SIL to know about the referral (and who made it?) because that does run the risk of her reducing contact with mum and BIL therefore allowing him to control her further.

They shouldn't share who the referrer is especially when it could impact on her relationship with her brother and potentially further isolate her. However they will need to discuss the concerns with her which will highlight any vulnerabilities within her decision making.

Ah op this is incredibly difficult because while yes she has vulnerabilities, they don't necessarily mean that she's incapable of autonomy in this relationship which can make it extremely difficult to safeguard her.

What I think you should do is link her in with womens aid for educative work around relationships, and I'd actually try to link in with police as well - if he's had similar offences and has orders in place it might be good to see if she can be supported to apply for a clares law disclosure and maybe local police could speak with her. Speaking to his probation officer would also be important. The difficulty you'll have is that each organisation will be bound to protect both his and her confidentiality, so it'll be difficult for you to get information but I'd pass as much on to them as you can. Best case scenario here is she engages with womens aid and they can arrange a MARAC but she'll need to consent to that.

I'm sorry op, it really should be easier to intervene in this type of situation and is heartbreaking to watch. The most important thing you can do is to tell her constantly that you love and care about her and you'll be there for her no matter what, even in the middle of the night etc.

I'd also work on a safety plan with her - things like having access to her keys at all times, money and keeping her phone charged and on her. If he's taking her phone you could give her an emergency phone with all useful numbers already in it if you think she would keep it hidden and charged. Identify where she could go if she needed to leave the house urgently- a neighbour or garage or a taxi depot close to her/ his home. I'd also speak to the police about red flagging her and both her and his address for rapid response by police. I wonder if there's anything the probation officer could do to get her barred from his accommodation?

I also think you need to be straightforward with SIL about your worries but make it clear you don't want to cause trouble, but you're worried and you love her and you're scared she's going to be hurt. It's extremely likely he'll start to manipulate her to reduce contact with you and your family so you'll need to work hard to make sure she knows the door is always open if he's telling her it's not.

Thank you, this is all really helpful. Police have already spoken to her following a Clare's law disclosure but she believes he will change. I'll suggest all your practical ideas about support and a safety plan to her brother, thank you. Do you know how to find and speak to a probation officer? Her brother has been told he can't speak to the probation officer because SIL's social worker does that.

Sometimes there will be push back, like I said it’s all about partnership working and sometimes if the person isn’t aware of the referral they may pushback, but just insist it’s safeguarding and but explain why you feel it needs to be anonymous they will honour that

The ex offender has rights too of course. I would imagine his probation officer might not speak to you about him but speaking to the safeguarding team might be another matter.

Blunt is good, thanks. They currently can't have sex because she is in too much pain from her health issues plus the infection that he gave her. He is using her to go and buy shopping for him. He isn't allowed to be in her town or her house fortunately due to a restriction order. Hopefully he will move on as her health deterioates further which it will and then she will be of no use to her. I am hoping she is re-admitted to hospital for a few weeks to enable him to move on and for her phone to be taken off her and for the safeguarding process to make progress.

I don't have any useful advice I'm afraid, but I didn't want to read and run. I think you are absolutely wonderful to be concerned and supportive of your SIL. It sounds like she needs more people like you in her life to back her up. Good luck, OP

You could ask for a meeting with the social worker and ask for them to explore what information can and cannot be shared with probation. I would imagine probation officer should be OK with receiving information but won't obviously be able to give any. I think the key would be establishing if there is anything specifically related to disclosing intimate relationships in his probation order. If womens aid were able to complete an honest DASH form with her they might be able to get her put forward for MARAC which would make information sharing much easier. But she's going to need to be honest about red flags she's experiencing and she'd need to agree to do it unfortunately. You can ring womens aid for advice on how best to help her as well. There's also one stop shops you could maybe arrange to bring her to, you'd have womens aid, police, housing, a legal advisor and benefits representative as well as a crèche in the one place.

It doesnt have to be via safeguarding route if you report DV (coercive control). I believe police have to attend but not sure beyond that, as its so hard to prosecute.
Hope that piece of shit 'man' gets bored soon.

See if she will join the Freedom course?

The police won’t do anything! The lady here isn’t complaining! It’s safeguarding.