Assessing risk is fundamental to the delivery of safe and quality social care. With that in mind, it’s worth returning to basics every so often to remind ourselves what constitutes good risk assessment practice. For most of us, this will simply be a refresher of things already known and in place. But given its importance, asking whether and where there might be room for improvement will never be wasted time.
When should risk assessments be undertaken?
Risk assessments should take place as part of the initial care assessment, and then reviewed every time the care plan is reviewed, or if there is a change in circumstance for the person using a service.
What constitutes a good risk assessment?
Every risk assessment should include the following:
- A clear description of the hazard and where/when it might occur.
- Details of who is at risk (is it just the service user or are others are risk, e.g., staff, family, public, or pets).
- The risk score, which is determined by the likelihood of the risk occurring and the significance of its impact.
- A clear description of the risk mitigation/control measures put in place (e.g., removing trip hazards).
- The date of the next review. Risks with a higher score should be reviewed more regularly.
Pitfalls of risk assessment
There are numerous reasons why risk assessments might be inadequate – including a failure to complete one! Other pitfalls include not defining the purpose or scope of the assessment, and not using the best assessment framework, to list just a couple. But although the reasons are numerous, the causes most frequently fall into two categories: poor/lack of staff training and poor assessment templates.
It’s unfortunate many people working in social care don’t actually receive any formal practical training in risk assessment. Even senior care staff with responsibility for reviewing both care plans and risk assessments will often say that they have learned on the job or completed an online training course. Of course, this doesn’t automatically mean that the risk assessments produced will be inadequate. However, a lack of formal training increases the risk of inadequate risk assessment.
Time to risk assess your risk assessment processes?
This could be an opportunity to review staff training provision and introduce practical risk assessment training. As well as improving the quality of risk assessment across the organization, it may also have a positive impact on safeguarding referrals, as well as accident and incident prevalence.
Call W&P on 01305 767104
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