Learning to live with risk

Supporting people who use care services to take informed risks is an essential element of personalisation and encouraging 'choice and control'. Providing real choice and control for people who use social care means enabling them to take the risks they choose, particularly in the use of self-directed support and personal budgets.

The Coalition Government has given renewed emphasis to personalisation and the management of risk, saying in the 'Liberating the NHS white paper' (2010):

"With effective personalisation comes the need to manage risk for people to make decisions as safely as possible" and "As we pick up the pace on personalisation, we need to ensure that this includes the most vulnerable members of our society, including those who may lack capacity. With effective personalisation comes the need to manage risk for people to make decisions as safely as possible."

Making risks clear and understood is crucial to empowering people who use services, and carers, recognising people as 'experts in their own lives'.

To help workforces with this, Skills for Care have published the following 'Learning to live with risk' materials:

- Learning to live with risk: an introduction for service providers, (pdf, 32 pages, 695kb), including key references and further reading, and which incorporates the following two items

- Learning to live with risk: short guide (pdf, 16 pages, 304kb)

Learning to live with risk presentations: (PowerPoint slides)

- slides that support the Learning to live with risk guide for service providers (ppt, 600kb)

- Good practice scenario slides for use in learning (ppt, 415kb)

- a Living with risk leaflet (pdf, 4 pages, 238kb)

Keeping risk person-centred

Skills for Care's Keeping risk person-centred support products emphasise a person-centred approach to risk. A person-centred approach seeks to focus on people's rights to have the lifestyle that they choose, including the right to make 'bad' decisions. Our person-centred thinking tools help people and those who care about them most think in positive and productive ways about how to ensure that they can achieve the changes they want to see while keeping the issue of risk in its place.

This in essence is a process to gather, in partnership with the person, the fullest information and evidence to demonstrate that all those providing care and support have thought deeply about all the issues involved. Decisions are then guided by what is important to the person, what is needed to keep them healthy and safe and on what the law says.

Skills for Care has developed a range of Keeping risk person-centred resources, comprising

Handouts to support the presentation