Extra staff to improve adult response times

Two-day target only hit in one in every 10

Extra staff have been drafted in to improve the response times to safeguarding concerns linked to vulnerable adults in Devon.

Four temporary social workers have had to be hired by Devon County Council as part of efforts to increase the number of safeguarding cases it responds to within its two-day target.

Only around 10-15 per cent of cases are responded to within that timeframe, with the average being 12 days and the longest 53 days.

The underperformance was outlined at a health scrutiny committee at Devon County Council, whose chair Councillor Jess Bailey (Independent, Otter Valley) requested an update next year on progress.

The committee heard the extra agency staff were focusing on addressing the backlog of cases that needed assessing, and that the council’s normal team was adequately sized to deal with the usual flow of incoming work.

Councillor Rosie Dawson (Liberal Democrat, Dawlish) said she was “struggling to understand” why some people were waiting so long for safeguarding concerns to be assessed.

“The longest wait of 53 days is quite a significant wait, and I’m a registered nurse and such a length of time could be life and death,” she said.

However, council officers said the most urgent risks were assessed in two days.

They added that only around a quarter (23 per cent) of the 7,715 safeguarding referrals the council received in the previous financial year met the threshold for a safeguarding enquiry, albeit that had risen throughout 2025.

That meant nearly 6,400 referrals were dealt with by the likes of the voluntary sector or needed no further action.

The committee heard, however, that even if a safeguarding concern was passed to another organisation, Devon County Council remained the responsible authority.

The Torbay and Devon Safeguarding Adults Partnership, which has an independent chair, oversees how councils oversee vulnerable adults.