There has been a “stark difference” in the number of safeguarding concerns between Bracknell and Windsor, the body which oversees adult safeguarding complaints has found.

Windsor and Maidenhead’s population is 25 per cent bigger than Bracknell’s population yet the former received nearly 150 per cent more safeguarding concerns than the latter from July 2017 to March 2018.

Terry Rich, the former chair of Bracknell Forest and Windsor and Maidenhead Safeguarding Adults Board (BFWMSAB), wrote in the organisation’s annual report: “One of the early findings of the Board has been a stark difference in the numbers of safeguarding concerns and enquiries received and managed within the two local authority areas of RBWM and Bracknell Forest.

“Later in this report there is some detail of some of the work undertaken to uncover the reasons behind the variation – differences to how initial referrals are categorised for example and the far larger number of care homes within Windsor and Maidenhead compared to Bracknell Forest.

“However, there is still more to be done to get to the bottom of the issue. Whilst to date there is no indication that people are any more safeguarded in either authority – the very substantial difference in recorded activity could have implications for how effectively resources are being used, for example”.

There was an increase in the number of safeguarding concerns raised to the body in Bracknell from last year, rising from 239 to 369.

However only 21 per cent of these concerns resulted in an enquiry.

More than 900 concerns came from the Windsor and Maidenhead area last year, with two in every five moving towards an enquiry.

The report explained the differences, as it read: “An investigation into the difference in numbers recorded is on-going, although the fact that in Bracknell Forest concerns are analysed before passing to the enquiry stage, and therefore dealt with via another route, is believed to contribute to the difference.

“The initial findings do in fact indicate that it is the difference in the process employed that has led to the variation in numbers of enquiries taking place, and the processes employed in each area are keeping people safe in both Bracknell Forest and Windsor and Maidenhead.”

Despite the difference in these findings, the two regions shared similarities in the proportion of safeguarding concerns recorded by age and gender.

For both Bracknell and Windsor and Maidenhead, more than half of the concerns recorded regarded care fears for women.

Elderly people ranging in age from 75-94 were most commonly reported for concerns regarding their safety.

The report also noted that the organisation was forced to undertake three safeguarding adult reviews (SAR) in the past year, which are reviews the body must legally undertake when “someone with care and support needs dies as a result of neglect or abuse and there is a concern that the local authority or its partners could have worked more effectively to protect them.”

One SAR told of the death of a 71-year-old autistic man whose worsening condition was not identified before he died, while another documented the poor mental health of an isolated woman whose regular smoking led to her death in a house fire despite the local authorities being aware of her frailty.

Another SAR, which was published in September, told of the death of an elderly Windsor woman who received insufficient care at the care home she was residing at shortly before she passed away.

The report noted that conducting SARs leads to “unpredictable financial pressures”, and the BFWMSAB does not have a “contingency to cover these unplanned eventualities”.

The SAB came into being in July 2017 after Bracknell Forest SAB and the Windsor and Maidenhead SAB merged.

The body is funded by authorities Bracknell Forest Council and Royal Borough for Windsor and Maidenhead, who contribute more than £22,000 each, as well as Thames Valley Police and East Berkshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

Bracknell Forest councillors are set to hear the report at a meeting of the executive on Tuesday, November 13.