National Adult Safeguarding Board - GOV.UK
On 25th June, I updated on the first meeting of the National Adults Safeguarding Board (NASB) that is now established in direct response to Baroness Casey's initial recommendations on safeguarding.
I have received lots of questions about the Board and it is hugely encouraging to see how much interest there is in adult safeguarding and opportunity the new Board creates to have impact on reducing the risks of abuse and neglect to adults who may have care and support needs.
Reflecting on the last 10 years or more since the Care Act was introduced, there is no doubt that experience, expertise and understanding of adult safeguarding has grown considerably. I strongly welcome Baroness Casey's recommendation to review the legislative framework for adult safeguarding. The Board agreed to scope this review, to get on with reviewing the existing statutory guidance and to improve how data can be used at local and national levels.
In March 2026, we established a safeguarding Challenge Group with sector experts to review the Government response to individual Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SARs) that are escalated through the National Safeguarding Adults Boards Chairs network. There were several escalations that required a national response, and I am pleased to say that working together the Challenge Group have now agreed proposed actions on all escalated SARs.
As well as recommendations for national action, the escalation protocol allows local Safeguarding Boards to escalate SARs where there is learning to share nationally. The NASB has a role in ensuring learning is shared and action is embedded in local systems, so I strongly encourage local Boards to escalate SARs that have national learning.
The NASB will need to iterate over the next 12 months as it develops ways to strengthen national accountability and support local practice improvement. This will include evolving membership and strengthening co-production to ensure people-shaped design.
There is a commitment to openness and transparency and to this end we have set up a new page on gov.uk to keep you informed of progress National Adult Safeguarding Board - GOV.UK. This page will contain more detail about Board meetings as they happen, what was discussed and agreed actions. As priorities evolve, it is intended this page will become a repository for the reports on the data and themes we gather and action being taken.
The Board will meet quarterly, and the next meeting will take place on 5 October 2026.
seen at 09:42, 6 August in Social work with adults.