Risk, Outcomes and Safeguarding
Risk is a part of everyone's life and everyone's job, and it is never possible to entirely eliminate risk. Some adults, including many who use health and social care services, have been discouraged from taking risks, either because of their perceived limitations or because of fears of harm which might result in claims against services.
A tendency towards risk aversion is at odds with the current policy emphasis on more enabling relationships between people and services, and the drive towards encouraging increased independence. As identified in Changing Lives, the C21st Review of Social Work report, staff are working in a culture where there is an increased focus on more personalised services and individual choice, which may require more positive risk taking. Staff therefore need to manage risk whilst considering the outcomes that matter to the individuals they work with.
There is however, still a requirement to balance positive risk taking with legal requirements regarding both Adult Support and Protection, and Child Protection, responsibilities to implement Multi-agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA), care standards and health and safety legislation.
Outcomes focused assessment and support planning should involve consideration of strengths, aspirations and risks. The following resources highlight some developments in thinking around risk and outcomes including a report from East and Midlothian of an outcomes based evaluation in adult protection.
Risk Enablement
Alzheimers Scotland produced a powerpoint presentation ‘Risk enablement: Thinking Outside the Box’ which considers the requirement to balance risk and outcomes for individuals, in the context of risk management and risk enablement.
Alzhm Scotland - Risk Enablement Report [233Kb]
Effective Approaches to Risk Assessment in Social Work: An International Literature Review
This international literature review was commissioned by the Scottish Executive following the 21st Century Review of Social Work (Changing Lives 2005). That work identified the need to develop new organisational approaches to risk management and risk assessment which promoted excellence in social work and a renewed culture of learning from mistakes. This subsequent literature review identifies the key differences in risk assessment and management in criminal justice, community care and child protection and assesses different organisational cultures, how risk is defined by key agencies and the implications for a common understanding and language of risk.
Signs of Safety Comprehensive Briefing Paper
This report is based on the Signs of Safety approach to child protection casework. Although originating from work with children, there are useful learning points from the approach which is based on constructive relationships between professionals and family members which avoid paternalism. There is also a link to a video of a social worker in Edinburgh talking about her use of the Signs of Safety with a family.
'Signs of Safety' Briefing Paper [7Mb]
The video is available to view here.
The comprehensive report can be downloaded here.
Adult Support and Protection and Outcomes
The new Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act came into force in October 2008. In July 2010 the East and Midlothian Adult Protection Committee decided to commission a limited evaluation exercise to report on how effective the supportive and safeguarding services had been for those service users who had been subject to Adult Protection procedures during a one year period (January to December 2009). Talking Points: Personal Outcomes Approach was used to gather service user perspectives on their outcomes.
East and Midlothian Adult Protection Summ Report [24Kb]
East and Midlothian Adult Protection Evaluation [442Kb]
