SARs Request Form

Please complete this form if you would like to request a Safeguarding Adults Review (SAR) 

Any individual, agency or professional can request a SAR. This should be made in writing to the Independent Chair of the Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB) using this form. All requests received will be shared with the Director of Adult Social Care.  

Upon receiving the request, the Independent Chair of the SAB will request that a Case Review Working Groups (CRWG) is convened, where a panel of multi-agency professionals scrutinise information relating the case and determine whether the criteria for a SAR have been met in line with Section 44 of the Care Act 2014 and associated statutory guidance. The CRWG will make a recommendation to the Independent Chair of the SAB, who will then make a final decision as to whether a SAR is to be undertaken, before informing the requester and all involved stakeholders of that decision. 

The CRWG needs as much information as possible to enable members to make a proportionate decision as to how to respond to a SAR request ensuring if the case is accepted for review that maximum learning can be achieved. Please therefore complete as much information on this form as possible. However, please be mindful that any information shared in this form will be provided to the members of the Case Review Working Group. 

 

The purpose of a SAR is to: 

• Learn from the way local agencies, staff and volunteers worked together to safeguard adults at risk, both what did and did not work well; 

• Agree how this learning will be acted on and what is expected to change as a result; 
• Identify any issues for a multi or single agency policies and procedures 
• Publish a summary report which is available to the public 

 

A SAR is not an enquiry into how a death or serious incident happened. Neither is the purpose to find someone to blame. Such matters will be dealt with by the Coroner’s or Criminal Courts, or other bodies.  

 

The desired outcome of a SAR is: 

• That adults are better safeguarded from significant harm through improved inter-agency working; 
• If there are issues of performance and/or discipline to be addressed arising from the SAR, then these will be dealt with within each agency’s normal procedures; 
• To set out transparently how effective the SAR’s serve the public interest. 

If the incident triggers a mandatory investigation or review within the organisation concerned (e.g. NHS serious incident investigation) this should take place as a matter of priority, but a referral for a SAR (if appropriate) should not be delayed and should be made at the same time. Internal governance processes and multi-agency reviews are not mutually exclusive.