Welcome

Domestic abuse can continue after someone moves into residential care or begins receiving more support. A partner, ex-partner, adult child or other family member may use fear, pressure, intimidation, financial control, visits, phone calls or dependence on care staff to maintain power. In care settings this may be dismissed as difficult family behaviour instead of recognised as a safeguarding concern.

This course is for care assistants, senior carers, support workers, team leaders, supervisors and other frontline staff in residential care homes, nursing homes and related adult social care settings across the UK. The core practice applies UK-wide: notice patterns of fear and control, create safer opportunities to talk, record concerns clearly and escalate through safeguarding and emergency routes. Legal frameworks and referral processes differ in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, so always follow your local policy alongside the principles in this course.

Why This Course Matters

• Abuse may stay hidden: people may still care about the person harming them, fear retaliation, or worry about losing contact with family if they speak up.
• Coercive control is often not obvious: it can appear as overprotectiveness, persistent 'family tension' or someone else taking over decisions.
• Adults with care and support needs may have reduced capacity to protect themselves: frailty, illness, disability, dementia, communication difficulty and reliance on others can increase risk.
• Care settings retain safeguarding duties: staff must act on abuse and neglect, including harm by visitors, family members or intimate partners.
• Frontline responses make a difference: a calm private conversation, an accurate record and timely escalation can reduce ongoing harm and help plan safer support.

How This Course Will Help You

On completion you should be better able to recognise domestic abuse and coercive control in residential care, understand how this overlaps with adult safeguarding, respond safely to disclosure or suspicion, record concerns clearly, and escalate in ways that protect the adult's safety, dignity and wishes.