Rethinking the inherent jurisdiction of the high court in safeguarding adult reviews: beyond legal literacy
Abstract
Purpose
The Inherent Jurisdiction of the High Court (the IJ) is used in safeguarding adults work to protect “vulnerable adults” whose autonomy is compromised but who have mental capacity as defined by the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SARs) frequently call on practitioners to develop legal literacy, including regarding the IJ. This study aims to explore and discuss how the IJ is presented in SARs and argues that there are systemic problems beyond legal literacy to consider in this area.
Design/methodology/approach
Relevant SARs (n = 29) were located through the National Network of Safeguarding Adult Board Chair’s library. These were thematically analysed to identify patterns regarding how the IJ is covered in these documents.
Findings
The reviews converged around specific experiential clusters (familial and domestic abuse, community-based exploitation and self-neglect). They entailed accounts of complex mental capacity issues and raised concerns about legal literacy. It was common to find situations where many other avenues for intervention had been exhausted and the IJ was proposed as a measure of last resort. The discussion of the IJ in SARs occasionally differs from prevailing legal accounts of its application, particularly regarding self-neglect and situations where a third party is not exerting coercion or control. The authors close the study with a discussion about legal literacy.
Originality/value
The IJ is an evolving area of law, and practitioners may therefore struggle to grasp its applicability. SARs are important resources for practitioners to learn lessons concerning this less commonly used legal mechanism. As a result, independent reviewers should be cautious about how they frame this legal remedy and consider whether this really is a case of “legal literacy”.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Michael Preston-Shoot and Kate Spreadbury for their helpful and valued feedback whilst drafting this article.
Funding: This article represents one strand of a research project funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme Small Grants Scheme (Ref: SRG2223\230373).
Citation
Mason, K., Bedford, D., Leyman, A. and Bremner, P. (2025), "Rethinking the inherent jurisdiction of the high court in safeguarding adult reviews: beyond legal literacy", The Journal of Adult Protection, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAP-11-2024-0066
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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