TCR Training

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Course Overview:
This course has been designed to support social and health professionals who have a remit for assessing risk of vulnerable adults and adults with illness or disabilities. It takes into account all current legislation and issues of prioritising, choice and independence.

Aims:
The course aims to explore the comprehensive risk management and risk assessment framework and help support staff in their decision making around risk reduction, monitoring of continuing risk and multi-agency communication to maintain appropriate levels of risk or management of monitoring systems and services.

The fundamental principles that underpin the new framework (2005) are to determine the extent of risk relating to service users choice with regard to staff/carers duty of care to protect/safeguard. Key to the risk assessment are those decisions made by service users around informed or calculated choice/risk as opposed to those that are not and how a compromise may be attained to minimising risks to health and safety whilst still managing risk with the service users having an autonomous role within the framework.

Objectives:
By the end of the course delegates should:

• Have a better understanding of the assessment framework and how other key legislation may effect the initial assessment and outcome. This to include a very brief overview of FACS, The Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults framework (2005) and the Single Assessment process (SAP). Also need to consider Human Rights, Guardianship, National Assistance Act and common law of 'duty of care' and acts of necessity
• Had the opportunity to consider the main areas of risk with regard to Health and Safety issues, Fire safety, Challenging Behaviour, Abuse, Refusal of care or treatment, and Falls. Delegates will also have the opportunity to examine some risk reduction models which will assist in this evaluation
• Have an understanding around issues of multiple minimal risks having a collective critical or substantial impact
• Had the opportunity to consider the relationship between empowering service users and cooperative working and the needs for a more coercive approach to empowering people who are unable to make informed choices due to a lack of ability or capacity
• Had the opportunity to consider their own legal powers and duties around assessing risk especially with service users who are unable or unwilling to cooperate and how decision making around risk may have to follow Mental Capacity procedures which will afford individual workers more protection if 'best interests' decisions around risk are made within the boundaries of the Act
• There will also be an opportunity to explore the process of the Risk Reduction Plan covering the principal areas of risk using the FACS assessment framework of Critical, Substantial, Moderate, Low and No risk. These include:
  • Physical/Health function
  • Mental health
  • Behaviour/concordance
  • Medication
  • Social or Care Support
  • Abuse
  • Home environment

There will also be the opportunity to explore good practice in multi-disciplinary communication and information sharing around risk. This will include discussion around best practice in which agency should take the lead in managing and monitoring risk reduction. E.g., key-worker responsibility
There will also be the opportunity to consider the use of the IMCA in cases of capacity decisions or referrals to the Court of Protection in contested cases in particular around issues of finance and property and personal health and care risks.

Independence, Choice and Risk: A guide to best practice in supported decision making: May 2007. Interpretation and implementation of the Government's document of the same title. Links into the assessment framework and FACs and helps to aid confidence building when offering Direct Payments as an option.

Contact TCR for further information and quote price code: F