A fundamental part of nursing practice is represented by the protection or safeguarding of vulnerable adults (Department of Health (DH) 2011; Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) 2013). Safeguarding defines the practice of protecting the patient from any source of damage or harm, with measures that must be appropriate. Although the definition itself may sound straightforward, the safeguarding matter can be a difficult and complex procedure, where the nurse has to play a very important role for the patient. Safeguarding adults is a relatively new concept, one of the first legalization regarding this was introduced in 2006 with the Safe-guarding Vulnerable Groups Act which was established after the Bichard Inquiry into the So-ham Murders. This act introduced the vetting and barring act, to ensure that unsuitable people were prevented from working with vulnerable groups and this has led to many updates over the years (Legislation.gov.uk) right up until today, where the Care Bill is going through the House of Commons to be assessed and become a law (Parliament UK, 2013). The practice of safeguarding involves various acts and guidance publications ranging from the Human Rights Act 1998; the Mental Capacity Act 2005; the NHS Act 2006; the Freedom Of Information Act 2000 to the ‘No Secrets’ guidance 2000 and is regulated by government bodies set up in conjunction with the previously mentioned acts, such as the Care Quality Commission, and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DOLS). The current ‘No Secrets’ paper states that local councils are responsible for providing and organising local multi-agency procedures for responding to allegations of abuse. The ‘No Secrets’ paper is a guidance, not a law. As a result of this, different councils currently apply different approaches in order to tackle the matter of safeguarding. Additionally, there is no legal duty to co-operate with different councils which results in the absence of a consistent national approach to safeguarding. In order to simplify the current controversy surrounding safeguarding legislation, the “Care and Support Bill” draft (2012) was published last year. This was achieved by combining the different acts into a single law, resulting in a clear, modern framework for care and support. Until this pa-per has passed as law the ‘No Secrets’ is the underpinning policy (Long and Powell, 2013, p.7). The nurse being aware of the key legislation and policies on this broad provision is the first step towards safeguarding. This topic has been chosen because of the integral role of the nurse in safeguarding and act-ing as an advocate of the people in their care (NMC: The Code, 2008). Furthermore, this top-ic is of extreme relevance due to the continuous development of the material surrounding safeguarding of vulnerable people, including the legislation aspects. Safeguarding is a difficult area in nursing due to the fear of what would happen if the nurse reporting the abuse is simply mistaken. This fear has lead the NMC to create an online safeguarding hub as a re-source to share and access examples of best practice for safeguarding, including polices, procedures and guidelines to encourage nurses to have confidence in their skills in order to recognise abuse. In the past decade, the National Health System (NHS) has faced a number of different trials based on poor care and neglect, the most well known being the Mid Stafford public inquiry: a systemic failure resulting in a large scale failure in patient care (Mandelstam, 2013). The repeating of such incidents raised concern on neglect of patients and the culture of fear and bullying within the NHS (Prime, 2013). The Francis report, which came about as a result of the Mid Stafford inquiry, raised significant changes to be made to the pol-icies and procedures, especially those relating to safeguarding and reporting within the NHS (Francis, 2013). This has also revealed that new laws need to be put into place so there are no loop holes in the system regarding wilful neglect (Merrick and Cooper, 2013). A deeper meaning of the safeguarding matter is intimately linked to the pivotal role of the nurse, who has to understand the issues and needs relating to vulnerable adults. The NHS defines a vul-nerable adult as a person aged 18 or above, who requires care services for health related is-sues (NHS choices, 2013). As everybody is at risk of becoming vulnerable at some stage during their lives, the work of a nurse is of extreme importance as they are working with people, the vast majority of which are categorized as vulnerable. The learning that has taken place regarding safeguarding has shown that the NHS Constitution and the NMC Code have made significant changes in the past decade to ensure that patients are safeguarded and have the appropriate measures so there is no excuse for abuse to take place. The NHS Constitution reports that improving lives as well as showing respect and dignity a