A NEW hub is being set up where authorities can join forces to protect vulnerable adults from abuse or neglect.

The hub, which will open in Bradford Council’s city-centre office Britannia House next month, is based on a trailblazing hub set up in the city five years ago to protect children from abuse.

It will be jointly staffed by a team of social workers, a police detective and a police co-ordinator.

There, the team will screen and triage any concerns raised with them that a vulnerable adult, such as someone with learning disabilities or mental health needs, is being harmed or exploited.

Councillor Val Slater, whose portfolio at Bradford Council includes safeguarding, said: “The children’s hub works really well and its about taking learning from that and moving it across to the adults’ world.

“This is about the exchange of information without delay, so that helps us look at the whole picture whenever we are looking at issues people have got.”

She said one issue they were increasingly facing was scammers targeting “older or more vulnerable people”.

Cllr Slater said the legislation for safeguarding adults wasn’t as proscribed as for children, as adults had a right to make decisions that the authorities were uncomfortable with.

She said: “Sometimes it can be quite frustrating because to you and I, we think this is an issue, we really must do something, but depending on their capacity, a vulnerable person might not want something done about it.”

Last week, it emerged that a backlog of 1,000 concerns about adults at risk of abuse had built up at Bradford Council in 2016.

The situation, once discovered, meant the authority had to spend £34,000 bringing in extra staff to clear the logjam.

Cllr Slater said one of the reasons for setting up the hub was to “ensure we don’t get in this situation again”.

In 2012, Bradford became one of the first places to set up a multi-agency child safeguarding hub, which has since dealt with many thousands of tip-offs from people like teachers, nurses and members of the public.

Since then, the idea has spread to many other cities.

Bradford’s hub, based in the city centre, sees police officers, social workers, health professionals and charities working round the clock to help abused children through the legal process, from first making a complaint to the completion of court proceedings.

They aim to stop sexual offenders at the grooming stage, before they embark on sexual activity with a child.