Editorial

Happy New Year and welcome to the first issue of 2026. Many thanks to the contributors, reviewers and production staff who worked to produce such an interesting combination of papers. I was delighted to be asked to take on the role of journal editor. I have been a contributor and associate editor so recognise the amazing job that Bridget Penhale has done. Along with my colleagues on the editorial board, reviewers, contributors and production staff, I will seek to build on this work to ensure that the journal continues to report important research findings, discusses important ethical and policy issues and provides a forum for policy debates across adult services. The journal will continue to champion core practice values that champion autonomy, human dignity, equality, diversity and inclusion.The current issue includes four papers.There is a fascinating interview with Tim Spencer-Lance who discusses his role in the Law Commission. He played a significant role in the development of safeguarding policies and legislation, including the Care Act 2014. The interview shows the way that the Commission faced the challenges of balancing competing service and stakeholder agendas. One of the great challenges of the next decade will be the increased use of digital technology in adult social care. Markoc’s paper explores these issues in the context of the development of care for older adults in Turkey. Family care remains the cultural norm, but a transition to more institutional forms is being to take place. The paper demonstrates that the extent of digital literacy and infrastructure combine to shape the use of technology in these settings. A recurring theme across the journal is the impact of abuse in all forms on the daily lives of vulnerable people. The two final papers included here discuss these. Garcia’s paper reports the findings of research undertaken with older adults in Spain. The findings are based on the analysis of semi-structured interviews and administering the EASI questionnaire. Spain is a generally very safe country, but the interviews revealed an underlying fear of crime. There were also concerns amongst the interviewees that they would be more vulnerable as they got older. Behan’s paper examines resident-to-resident aggression (RRA) in residential services for people with disabilities in Ireland. The study is based on analysis of a sample of incidents reported to the regulator as required under the Irish Health Act 2007. RRA includes a wide range of behaviours but the most reported were incidents of physical aggression or verbal abuse. The study found that most incidents did not match any of the categories used in a framework for reporting from nursing homes.