This section aims to outline the importance of an effective risk management strategy and how a service might go about planning and implementing one.
The Journey includes a section on risk assessment of individuals.
This section is in two parts:
This section does not address general health and safety risks but is concerned with good practice in management of risk relating to residents.
Hostels have a duty to make their projects as safe as possible within the scope of their mission and values. Projects can only offer a quality service if they take steps to create a safe place to live and work. Therefore, risk management should be high on the agenda. The aims of risk management are to protect residents, staff and the wider community from physical or mental harm, exploitation, or other dangers by identifying, as accurately as possible:
By developing policy and procedures, organisations attempt to minimise the likelihood of making wrong decisions, while accepting that error is always a possibility.
Emergency accommodation for homeless people is, by its very nature, a risky environment to live and work in. Alongside the normal workplace risks (food preparation, fire, etc.) some residents pose a potential threat to their own safety or to the safety of staff or other residents. They may have a history of violence or self-neglect or may be at risk through problems of mental illness or substance misuse.
While homelessness itself is not statistically a predictor of violence, among the homeless population are some people who have a history of aggressive or violent behaviour. Often they end up in homelessness projects as their previous dangerous behaviour has led to their exclusion from other housing.
Importantly, in emergency accommodation, staff often have very little knowledge of new residents, which means that the risks are unknown. Gathering information to assess risk can also be difficult due to the transient lifestyles of some homeless people.
Risk assessment and management is not about eliminating risk altogether, but about acknowledging the dangers and taking action to minimise them. The approach should seek to put residents, their rights and their safety at the heart of the risk management process.
Currently, among emergency accommodation providers across Britain, there is a wide range of practice in relation to risk assessment. Some providers have very formalised policies and procedures that have been in operation for some time. Others have no written policy or procedure and do risk assessment “in our heads” or “as a matter of course in our day to day work”.
Reasons cited for not having a policy include:
The serious nature of the dangers has been tragically underlined by incidents such as the killing of Jonathan Newby, a volunteer working in a hostel in Oxford in 1993 (Davies, Lingham, Prior and Sims, 1995).
Therefore, all emergency accommodation providers should develop a risk management policy and adequate risk assessment procedures. The imperative for developing a risk assessment and management policy comes from:
Most importantly, risk assessment makes a project safer for residents and staff, a critical element in building a quality service and protecting residents’ rights.
All employers have a statutory duty to assess risk in the workplace The main duties are contained in:
The policy should be developed through a consultative process and should be reviewed, evaluated and updated on a regular basis. Once adopted it will need to be clearly and consistently communicated throughout the organisation. Once in place all staff and managers will need training in order to implement it.
Risk assessment will have to consider all the potential hazards in the project and one member of staff should be a trained health and safety representative.
“Under the Health and Safety at Work Act employers have a duty to provide for the health and safety of their employees and this covers those employees who face a predictable risk of violence.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations require employers to carry out an assessment of all significant risks and identify preventative or protective measures designed to control the risk. The employer must also provide training to employees on health and safety: the risks involved and the preventative/protective measures.
Employers have a legal duty to officially report violent incidents leading to physical injury under the Reporting of injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences (RIDDOR) Regulations (1995)” Office Health & Safety – a guide to risk prevention, published by Unison (1997)
Principles
In drawing up their policy and procedures, providers should consider the following principles:
Developing and implementing a risk management policy will require, at least in the short run, the reallocation of staff resources. Managers will be required to manage a change of culture and entrenched working practices throughout the organisation. Therefore, the starting point for developing a risk management policy has to be a strong commitment from senior managers and the management committee. This commitment will have to be communicated throughout the organisation.
Managers will have to think through how they can involve staff and residents in creating and implementing the risk management policy.
The policy should include:
Providers will want to consider most of the following within their policies:
The policy should link with the organisation’s policies on health and safety, resident care and procedural guidelines on referrals, admissions, confidentiality, etc.
Since the policy will have important implications for those legally responsible for the organisation the policy should be agreed at the highest level of governance.
Staff will be more willing to participate in the development and implementation of the risk management policy if they can see that it will reduce the likelihood of harm to themselves, their colleagues and residents.
The policy and procedures should be based as much on the experience of staff and residents as the organisation’s legal obligations and current good practice. Where an organisation has health and safety representatives, they should be closely involved in developing the policy.
“Good practice in risk management allows staff to explore professionally what they had previously trusted to ‘gut feeling’” Rogers (1998)
Implementing a risk management policy will involve bringing in new language, which can feel alien to the culture in emergency accommodation for homeless people. However, through training and discussion, staff will become familiar with the new terms and comfortable with the procedures.
Training should be provided to all staff and managers around risk management. Training should take place on two levels:
The advantages of training in this area are highlighted in the Unison guide quoted above:
“Training can bring about:
Staff should be encouraged to regard risk management as an area for their own continual professional development, and should be supported through supervision and training.
See also the good practice model of risk assessment procedure.