Assessing and Managing Risk

The assessment and management of risk has become a legislated core social work activity through, for example, the Care Act 2014 and the Children and Social Work Act 2017.
However, risk and risk assessment are diverse and complex subjects which have been conceptualised and analysed from multiple disciplinary perspectives. In the social work literature alone, there are different views about what constitutes risk, whether risk is considered as negative or positive, the importance of context, and what can and should be done about any identified risk.
The various contexts in which risk assessments take place are all important - people (including social workers) can either be ‘at risk’, present a risk, or even be both at the same time. Whilst historically, the emphasis has been on professional assessment of risk, more recently, increasing prominence has been towards understanding how risk is perceived, assessed and intervened, for example risk is often talked about differently, depending on which service user group is being discussed.
This module is suitable for continuing professional development across the spectrum of newly-qualified and experienced social workers and in the context of meeting professional, ethical standards.

Outline content

In short, what constitutes risk is open to a variety of interpretations in a variety of contexts and, consequently, the assessment and management of risk is complex, multi-dimensional and contestable in terms of both process and outcome. Our course explores the contested nature of risk, enabling you to align your own personal and professional attitudes towards risk and to critically discuss and apply, models of and approaches to, risk assessment in a real world context.

Assessment

You'll submit a patchwork text, which provides you with an opportunity to synthesise key points of your learning and relate them to your personal practice situation.