A DoH publication on adult abuse, "No Secrets" (2000), defines a
vulnerable adult as a person aged 18 years or over:
"who is or may be in need of community care services by reason of mental
or other disability, age or illness; and who is or may be unable to take
care of him or herself, or unable to protect him or herself against
significant harm or exploitation."
By this definition, we feel that very few of our students would be
classed as 'vulnerable'. However, we are just about to CRB check staff
for the first time, simply because it is possible they may deal with
someone in this category, however rarely.
I have a pdf of the booklet but no web reference.
Sue
Sue Green
Disability Co-ordinator
Disability Team
3 Elms Road
University of Birmingham
UK
Tel. 0121 4145130
www.sscs.bham.ac.uk/disability
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ian F.
Sent: 24 January 2008 01:40
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Safeguarding vulnerable adults within HE - best practice?
I suspect the motive behind requiring CRB checks is more to do with
perceived risk to the organisation, of being held accountable for the
actions of an individual member of staff. Sshould it come to court. the
organisation can claim to have taken reasonable steps to fulfill its
legal duties to protect students by arranging CRB checks, but might not
be held accountable if it doesn't provide funding for ongoing
supervision, training and support to staff or agency support workers
recruited on behalf of the institution to support students. Something
seems wrong there.
I have to say I'm still surprised how terminology like 'vulnerable
adults'
has been accepted without debate until now. When did it a disability
automatically make a person a 'vulnerable adult'? How does a student
feel when they're researching various prospective universities to find
out what kind of support they might be offered if they decide to study
there, to discover they're being referred to as a 'vulnerable adult' in
policy documents or online discussions?
Ian F.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Claire Wickham" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 9:29 AM
Subject: Re: Safeguarding vulnerable adults within HE - best practice?
To pick up on your suggestion Amanda that in HEIs "the risk is often
constructed as risk to the organisation only" - I'm not sure if this is
true as some of the discussions in HEIs are about CRB checking of staff
who come into (close/lone) contact with "vulnerable adults" and here the
risk is centred on the "vulnerable" student. ...
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