Exam Pass Notes

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Key Takeaways

• Domestic abuse in care settings can continue through visits, calls, financial control, threats, shaming, intimidation, or pressure from a partner, ex-partner, or family member.
• Coercive control is often hidden and may present as overprotectiveness, restricting access, or being dismissed as "difficult family dynamics".
• Adults with care and support needs may be at higher risk because illness, frailty, disability, dementia, or dependence reduce their ability to protect themselves.
• Frontline staff are not expected to investigate alone. They must notice concerns, respond in ways that keep the adult safe, record clearly, and escalate promptly.
• Legal frameworks vary across the four nations, but frontline practice is consistent: follow local safeguarding procedures and take patterns of fear or control seriously.

Recognising Abuse

• Look for patterns: anxiety or fear around visits, new withdrawal after calls, missing money, restricted private conversations, or repeated changes linked to one person.
• Do not wait for injuries: economic abuse, intimidation, isolation, sexual coercion, and emotional abuse may leave no visible signs.
• Consider barriers to disclosure: loyalty, shame, fear of retaliation, communication needs, and dependence can prevent people from telling.
• Avoid assumptions: do not attribute concerning signs automatically to dementia, disability, or "family stress".

Responding Safely

• Act on suspicion or disclosure: if there is immediate danger call 999 and stay with the adult if it is safe to do so.
• Listen calmly: thank the person for telling you, believe them, and be honest about confidentiality limits.
• Do not interrogate or mediate: your role is to protect, record, and escalate, not to resolve private family disputes.
• Create private opportunities to talk: abusive behaviour is harder to detect when the controlling person is always present.
• Plan contact safely: avoid sending messages, leaflets, texts, or routine updates that could alert the person causing harm and increase risk.

Capacity, Recording, and Escalation

• Capacity does not remove risk: an adult can have capacity and still be frightened or coerced.
• Record facts clearly: note what you saw, heard, or were told, when it happened, and what action you took.
• Share information safely: follow local safeguarding and confidentiality procedures, especially if the alleged abuser may receive routine updates.
• Escalate early: internal safeguarding leads, the local authority, police, health professionals, and specialist domestic abuse services may all need to be involved.
• Challenge minimising responses: domestic abuse is not "just family business".