Is the person we care for at risk of cuckooing?
Updated: 17 minutes ago
Caring for someone at home means we know their routines, their visitors and the small details that feel different when something shifts. That familiarity puts us in a good position to notice something called cuckooing, when criminals move in on a vulnerable person's home. By the end of this piece, we'll know what cuckooing looks like, the signs worth noticing, and how to protect both the person we care for and ourselves if we're ever worried.
What is cuckooing?
Cuckooing is when criminals take over someone's home, usually as a base for dealing drugs, though it can also involve storing weapons or other criminal activity. The name comes from cuckoo birds, who take over another bird's nest and use it as their own.
It usually starts small. Someone befriends the person we care for and offers them company, money, drugs or alcohol, then asks to use a room or the property in return. Over time the visits increase, the "friendship" changes shape and more people come and go from the address. If the person we care for tries to put a stop to it, they may face intimidation or threats, sometimes aimed at keeping us or other visitors away too.
Because cuckooing was only recently codified into law as a standalone criminal offense under the Crime and Policing Act 2026, precise historical data from official police tracking has been limited, so the number of cases is estimated using overlapping data pools which track county lines, criminal exploitation, and modern slavery.
Why the person we care for could be a target
The data that exists suggests that cuckooing affects an estimated 10,000+ vulnerable adults across the UK annually. This is because criminals choose people who are easier to isolate, and someone with care and support needs can unfortunately fit that description. Living alone for part of the day, having a learning disability or cognitive impairment, feeling lonely or relying on others for company can all raise the risk, whatever our caring relationship, whether we're a partner, parent, sibling or friend.
One of the tactics criminals rely on is putting people off from visiting, which means we, as the regular visitor, are often exactly who they want out of the picture. That's worth remembering when things feel harder than usual to arrange, because it also makes us one of the few people well placed to notice when something has changed.
Signs worth noticing
Some signs show up around the home. We might notice more visitors coming and going at unusual times, cars pulling up for just a few minutes, new people we don't recognise, or the property looking less cared for than usual.
Some signs show up in the person themselves. They might seem withdrawn, anxious or reluctant to talk about who's visited them, or we might spot unexplained bruises, or new belongings and cash with no clear explanation.
There's one sign that matters especially to us as carers, however.
If the person we usually visit starts finding reasons to put us off, seems nervous about letting us in, or the visit feels different in a way we can't quite place, that's worth paying attention to rather than putting down to a bad day.
Protecting the person we care for
If something feels off, we don't have to work it out alone or confront anyone ourselves, that can put both of us at risk. Instead, we can talk gently with the person we care for, without judgement, and let them know we're there whatever is going on. We can keep visiting as often as we're able, since regular contact makes it harder for a situation like this to take hold unnoticed. We can loop in anyone else already involved in their care, a support worker, GP or social worker, so more than one of us is keeping an eye on things. And where the person has care and support needs, we can raise a safeguarding concern with the local authority's adult social care team, alongside contacting the police.
Looking after ourselves too
Noticing something like this can be frightening, and it's normal to feel unsure what to do or worried about getting it wrong. We don't need to have all the answers before we ask for help, and we're not the ones responsible for solving it on our own.
Sharing what we've noticed with the right service means the weight doesn't sit with us alone. If it's affecting how we feel day to day, it's worth talking that through too, whether that's with a friend, our GP, or others in the Mobilise Hub who understand what caring can bring up.
If we're worried, what steps can we take?
We don't need to be certain before we say something. Most safeguarding guidance says it's always worth raising a concern, even if it turns out to be nothing. A few practical steps:
Note what we've noticed, timings, visitors, vehicles, without trying to investigate it ourselves.
Contact the local authority's adult social care team if the person we care for has care and support needs, to raise it as a safeguarding concern under the Care Act 2014.
Contact the police on 101 for a non-emergency report, or 999 if someone is in immediate danger, and mention adult social care too if the person has care and support needs.
If we'd rather not speak to the police directly, Crimestoppers takes anonymous reports online or on 0800 555 111.
Contact the Salvation Army's confidential referral helpline 0800 808 3733, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, if we suspect that we or someone we know is a potential victim of modern slavery and in need of help. You can also find more information here.
The charity Unseen also run a helpline to report if someone is at risk of modern slavery. Call 08000 121 700 for confidential support or make a report here.
