Government Pledges New Safeguarding Board and Urgent Review Following Casey Commission Call to Action
The government has moved swiftly to respond to urgent calls from Dame Louise Casey, Chair of the Independent Commission on Adult Social Care, pledging sweeping action on adult safeguarding, dementia care and motor neurone disease.
The commitments were set out in a formal reply from Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, published on 5 March 2026 — just days after Baroness Casey’s letter of 3 March and her address to the Nuffield Trust Summit.
For care home providers and professionals working across residential and nursing settings, the safeguarding commitments are likely to prove the most immediately significant, with the government acknowledging that the current legislative framework may no longer be fit for purpose in protecting the most vulnerable adults in high-risk situations.
In his letter, Mr Streeting confirmed that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) will create a new national safeguarding board, to be chaired by the Chief Social Worker and reporting directly to the Minister of State for Care. This body will be established immediately, ahead of the broader review, to begin driving coordinated national oversight of adult safeguarding.
Crucially, Mr Streeting confirmed that a central part of the board’s remit will be to examine whether it requires new statutory powers to operate most effectively — a direct response to Dame Louise’s recommendation. The government has been explicit that it will not pre-judge this question, but that the matter will be formally tested through the urgent review.
Alongside the new board, the DHSC will conduct an urgent review of adult safeguarding statutory duties and powers. The Secretary of State stated clearly that this review will test whether the current framework provides sufficient clarity and leverage in high-risk situations — wording taken directly from Dame Louise’s original recommendation.
In her letter and its accompanying appendix, Dame Louise had set out three specific areas she believed the review should examine:
• Clarifying what triggers the Section 42 duty for local authorities — the statutory requirement to make enquiries where it is suspected an adult with care and support needs is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect. Dame Louise indicated that ambiguity around this threshold has created inconsistency and potentially left vulnerable people without the protection they need.
• Considering whether mechanisms such as powers of entry could strengthen safeguarding outcomes, whilst remaining consistent with adults’ rights and civil liberties. This reflects longstanding debate within the sector about the limitations faced by practitioners who suspect abuse but cannot access a person to assess their safety.
• Strengthening the links between safeguarding, inspection and regulation — potentially through clearer pathways for how the findings of Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SARs) can inform regulatory action and the focus of future inspections. This proposal would create a more direct feedback loop between lessons learned from serious cases and the work of regulators such as the Care Quality Commission.
The review is intended to address what Dame Louise described as the risk of the current framework lacking sufficient “clarity and leverage” when professionals encounter the most complex and dangerous situations — particularly in care settings where an adult may be unable to advocate for themselves.
“Any form of abuse or neglect is unacceptable. My department will create a new national safeguarding board and undertake an urgent review of adult safeguarding statutory duties and powers.”
— Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, 5 March 2026
Safeguarding was just one of three priority areas Dame Louise highlighted ahead of the commission’s Phase 1 report, which is expected later in 2026. She also called for urgent action on dementia, including an accelerated timetable for the government’s Dementia and Frailty Modern Service Framework and a new national leadership role to drive dementia strategy across health and care. In his reply, Mr Streeting committed to publishing an interim version of the framework by September 2026 and the full framework by the end of the calendar year.
On motor neurone disease, the Secretary of State pledged to develop a fast-track assessment and care ‘passport’ for people diagnosed with MND — recognising the urgency of their needs and the devastating pace at which the condition progresses.
In acknowledging the severity of the challenges before the commission, Mr Streeting accepted that social care had been placed in the “too difficult” pile for too long. He reaffirmed the government’s commitment to working with Dame Louise and the commission to establish a national care service and forge the broad political consensus that sustained reform requires.
Dame Louise Casey’s commission is expected to launch a national conversation later this year, giving the public the opportunity to contribute to the future shape of adult social care. Cross-party political engagement is also continuing, with another cross-party session scheduled in the coming weeks.
