“Adults at Risk” are vulnerable adults who may be at risk of various forms of abuse and may require intervention by social services.
Data from 2017-18 for “Adults at Risk” in Bridgend county – and where they are – was recently published following a request from a BCBC scrutiny committee as part of future work into safeguarding (pdf). If you’re unfamiliar which which ward is which, then look here.
In total, during 2017-18 there were 344 adults deemed to be “At Risk”. 32 of them weren’t within a particular community – presumably, this includes the homeless and others.
This would mean there’s around 1 Adult at Risk for every 420 people living in Bridgend county.
Of those who were located in a particular ward, the vast majority (37.5%, or 129 people) were at risk of neglect. 22.4% (77 adults) were at risk of physical abuse, 10.5% (36) were at risk of financial abuse and 4.4% (15) were at risk of sexual abuse.
44 adults (12.8%) were deemed to be vulnerable to more than one type of abuse.
The map looks something like this:
There’s no clear pattern as to where the most vulnerable adults are, but there appears to be a much higher concentration in the Pyle/Cornelly area than the rest of the county. There are also large pockets in parts of Porthcawl, the Oldcastle area of Bridgend, Brackla, Blackmill, the upper Llynfi Valley and Ynysawdre.
The obvious explanation would be a higher concentration of care homes and sheltered housing in these areas, which suggests the elderly make up a higher proportion of “Adults at Risk”.
There’s also no real correlation to poverty either as some of Bridgend’s wealthier wards (Oldcastle, Coychurch Lower, Rest Bay) have higher proportions of Adults at Risk.
