Safeguarding Children – Policies & Procedures can be found at www.wolveslscb.org.uk

Role of Adult Services

The following section is based on the statutory guidance ‘The Right to Choose: Multi-agency Statutory Guidance for Dealing with Forced Marriage’, and Safeguarding Adults: Multi-Agency Policy and Procedures for the West Midlands.

The Right to Choose Guidance sets out the audience who has responsibility under the guidance;

'This guidance is also given to all persons and bodies in England and Wales who exercise public functions to protect adults with support needs from abuse'.

The guidance is also given to:

‘...Any third party who is exercising public functions on behalf of a person or body mentioned in paragraph 14’.

The Safeguarding Adults: Multi- Agency Policy and Procedures for the West Midlands have been developed in accordance with Government Guidance No Secrets. No Secrets defines an adult at risk (vulnerable adult) as someone;

"...Who is or may be in need of community care services by reason of mental or other disability, age or illness; and who is or may be unable to take care of him or herself, or unable to protect him or herself against significant harm or exploitation".

The response from Adult Services will depend if the adult who is at risk of forced marriage is deemed to be an adult at risk under the remit of The Safeguarding Adults: Multi- Agency Policy and Procedures for the West Midlands www.scie.org.uk/publications/reports/report60

Information relating to an adult who is at risk of being forced into a marriage should go through the normal process in line with existing Safeguarding Adults process:

• Imminent threat or risk dial 999
• Outside of immediate risk a referral should be made to Adult Care Access Point on 01902 551199 or 01902 552299 if out of hours
• The alert will go to the appropriate social work team for consideration for investigation
• In addition to the normal risk assessments, in the case of forced marriage the allocated social worker must follow the guidance on page 8 of this document complete CAADA DASH Risk Assessment, if high risk, refer to MARAC
• Do not attempt to mediate with the person's family or community members
• A case conference should be called to establish a protection plan for the person's long term safety