Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 11 April 2019 to Question 244122 on Homelessness: Death, what definitions of abuse and neglect are provided to local authorities.
The Department has published the Care and Support Statutory Guidance, which provides information on what constitutes abuse or neglect. The list is not intended to be exhaustive, rather it provides guidance on the sort of behaviour which could give rise to a safeguarding concern. It includes physical, domestic, sexual, psychological, discriminatory, financial and material abuse. Local authorities should not limit their view of what constitutes abuse and should consider the circumstances of the individual’s case.