Care chiefs in Dorset have been accused of "failing to investigate" 9 in every 10 adult abuse concerns with a protection inquiry amid claims the county council is among the worst in England for acting on this issue.

A charity says Dorset County Council is failing to carry out a safeguarding inquiry in response to almost 9 in 10 warnings about abuse of vulnerable adults.

DCC has hit back, saying the way data has been interpreted is "misleading" and that all concerns are investigated, but using different approaches.

Action on Elder Abuse (AEA) analysed adult safeguarding statistics and found that Dorset was one of the 10 councils least likely to launch a protection inquiry when abuse is suspected.

It says a ‘postcode lottery’ has developed across England, with the chance of receiving an abuse investigation varying dramatically.

It claims 2,865 concerns reported to Dorset would have triggered an inquiry if the abuse victims had lived elsewhere.

Despite 3,210 concerns about abuse being reported to the authority in 2016/17 – covering everything from beatings and thefts to sexual assault and neglect – only 345 (11 per cent) were deemed to merit a safeguarding inquiry.

This is lower than the England average (41 per cent).

In the 11 "best performing areas", councils routinely launched investigations in response to all reports of abuse. This means there were 2,865 cases in Dorset that would have triggered a full investigation if they had happened elsewhere.

AEA has identified "weaknesses" in the Care Act 2014, legislation governing adult safeguarding, which it argues has led to differences in the number of people whose cases are investigated by local authority adult protection units.

In a report, A Patchwork of Practice, the charity highlights the gaps in statistics which make it impossible to confirm how many reports of criminal abuse or neglect actually involved police intervention, despite the Care Act placing a duty on councils to involve other agencies.

Stephen McCarthy, AEA's Director for England, said: “If the 2,865 concerns (in Dorset) had occurred in another part of England they would have received a more positive response, and this cannot be right.

“What criteria are different local authorities applying when deciding whether to pursue an investigation? Why should they even be allowed to have their own criteria? This is about accountability."

“Those responsible for adult safeguarding need to address these inadequacies as a matter of urgency."

In response, a DCC spokesman said: “We are very disappointed this is not reflective of the good work and the principles which we have adopted in line with the Care Act.

“We have a dedicated adult safeguarding service, which responds to all concerns, but takes the approach which best suits the individual case. This does not always mean that individuals will opt for a full investigation, but rather an action which can turn a difficult or risky situation around.

“That said, we have commissioned an independent author to undertake a pan-Dorset audit of the number of cases that translate to full inquiry. Whilst the data presented from AEA is largely correct, the narrative is misleading. We take a range of approaches to risk and work alongside individuals, not independently of them. The feedback we receive evidences that this approach is the right one and is proportionate.

"It’s really important to remember that we all have a responsibility to ensure that safeguarding issues are reported on fairly, truthfully and in a factually correct way. We would not want a significant number of vulnerable people to be frightened by misleading quotes and figures, when a number of concerns are not necessarily related to safeguarding."