Public lecture on safeguarding adults

The lecture by Dr Margaret Flynn takes place at the Elystan Morgan Building in the Llanbadarn Centre.

One of the UK’s leading experts on adult safeguarding will deliver a public lecture at Aberystwyth University on Wednesday 22 March, 2017.

Dr Margaret Flynn’s lecture ‘The imperfect art of safeguarding: learning from two reviews’ will take place at 6:30pm in the Elystan Morgan Building at the Llanbadarn Centre.

Dr Margaret Flynn is the independent chair of Lancashire's Safeguarding Adults Board.

She has chaired several serious case reviews, and her lecture will draw on lessons learned from two of these - the Winterbourne View Hospital case and the independent review of the alleged neglect and abuse of older people living in care homes in Gwent, investigated by Operation Jasmine.

The lecture has been organised by the Centre for the Study of Ageing, Abuse and Neglect, based at Aberystwyth Law School, and is part of a programme of activities by the Centre’s Choice Dewis research project on elder abuse.

Speaking ahead of the event Professor John Williams from Aberystwyth Law School said: “We are very pleased that Margaret Flynn has accepted our invitation to come to Aberystwyth.  Margaret is one of the country’s leading experts in adult safeguarding.  Her insight into adult safeguarding, based on her extensive experience of undertaking reviews and her wider work, makes her ideally suited to identify the changes that are essential for the protection of adults at risk.

“The abuse and neglect of adults at risk is a major problem facing society.  Media investigations show that adults at risk are abused and neglected in care homes and hospitals as well as their own homes.

“A Panorama investigation in 2011, exposed the extensive physical and psychological abuse suffered by people with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour at the private Winterbourne View Hospital. Highly vulnerable residents were bullied, and physically and emotionally abused by staff.

“In Wales, the appalling treatment of residents in several care homes in Gwent led to the police undertaking one of the biggest investigations into the abuse and neglect of older people, known as Operation Jasmine. The deaths of 63 people were investigated by police and it’s alleged over one hundred older people experienced what local MP Nick Smith described as “blood-chilling” abuse in the care homes.  

“Margaret’s report on Operation Jasmine, In Search of Accountability, is a thorough and hard hitting analysis of the many failures that led to the distressing events.  The Review highlighted how we must work towards ensuring that people in care homes, hospitals and similar settings are treated with dignity and respect.”

Dr Margaret Flynn is the co-editor of theJournal of Adult Protection. 

She was recently appointed by the Welsh Government as the first chair of the National Independent Safeguarding Board. 

Choice Dewis, the £1.3m research project on Elder Abuse and Justice, was awarded £890,000 grant by the Big Lottery Fund in 2015.  

The project team includes Co-Principal Investigator and Senior Research Fellow Sarah Wydall and Co-Principal Investigators Professors Alan Clarke and John Williams.

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