Under Section 42 of the Care Act 2014 the Local Authority must make enquiries, or cause another agency to do so, whenever abuse or neglect are suspected to enable it to decide what (if any) action is needed to help and protect the adult.

When a safeguarding concern is received, the Local Authority will gather enough initial information to establish whether the person meets the 3 criteria for a statutory safeguarding Enquiry. In Camden, we call this the Section 42.1 (Information Gathering).

The purpose of the Section 42.1 (Information Gathering) stage is to ascertain whether the individual:

• appears to have care and support needs
• appears to be experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect
• as a result of those needs the individual appears to be unable to protect themselves against the abuse or neglect, or the risk of it.

A Section 42.2 Enquiry is the formal Enquiry where this criteria has been met and the Local Authority has a statutory duty to make (or cause to be made) whatever enquiries it thinks necessary to establish whether and what action needs to be taken to prevent or stop abuse or neglect.

The objective of a Section 42 Enquiry into abuse or neglect is to:

• establish facts and ascertain the adult’s views and wishes
• assess the needs of the adult for protection, support and redress and how they might be met
• protect from the abuse and neglect, in accordance with the wishes of the adult
• make decisions as to what follow up action should be taken with regards to the person or organisation responsible for the abuse or neglect
• enable the adult to achieve resolution and recovery
• consider any lessons that can be learned for organisations to better prevent abuse or neglect happening again.