Many safeguarding referrals are managed without informed consent from the service user, there are many reasons for this, one example is the Police Domestic Abuse or Vulnerable Adult referrals. Frequently the Police do not inform victims of a referral but have a duty to report to the HUB. The referral will not be progressed has not consented and does not meet the eligibility criteria under the CA. If the information has been shared by the Police for substance misuse we have no legal duty or rights to refer for substance misuse (unless they are already open to substance misuse) without consent (AR, 2017). This presents an ethical dilemma in how the law is applied (PCF-5.2), if the eligibility criteria for social care needs are not met under CA, the referral is not progressed. There is also no referral pathway to Mental Health and this opens further ethical dilemmas on only getting one side of the story (social) not medical (psychological) yet we are applying the law to make predictions and decisions on risk with very little information. …show more content…
This information of the suspicious death amplified the importance of communication and sharing information appropriately to safeguard others (7.2; PCF2; 8.2 PCF-7). The information allowed me to prepare and evaluate the risks (14.3 PCF-7) with a broader lens (Mary, 2008). An ethical dilemma occurred that the safeguarding referrals would have been processed against the victims without knowing about the suspicious death (information logged against deceased) with no links to the four