Good Practice in Assessing Risk: Current Knowledge, Issues and Approaches

Maintaining a balance between managing and assessing risk and upholding the required high standards of practice in health and social care can be demanding, particularly in the current climate of increased preoccupation with the difficult tensions between rights, protection and risk-taking. "Good Practice in Risk Assessment and Risk Management 3" is a comprehensive guide to good practice for those working with risk, covering a wide variety of health, social care and criminal justice settings including child protection, mental health, work with sex offenders and work with victims of domestic violence. The contributors discuss a range of key issues relating to risk including positive risk-taking, collaborating with victims and practitioners in the design of assessment tools, resilience to risk, and defensibility. The book also explores the role of bureaucracy in hindering high quality professional practice, complex decision-making in situations of stress or potential blame, and involving service users in assessment. This third volume of "Good Practice in Risk Assessment and Risk Management" reflects the latest policy and practice within health, social care and criminal justice and will be an invaluable volume to all professionals working in these fields. This series explores key practice areas for professionals working in social care, health care and the probation service. Contributors are drawn from a wide variety of settings, both in the voluntary and statutory sectors.

Martin C. Calder is Director of Calder Training and Consultancy Limited, which he established in 2005, having managed the child protection and domestic violence services for Salford. Martin trains extensively on frontline assessment issues and also where the practical becomes political. He continues to be driven to develop and deliver a range of evidence-based assessment tools for frontline staff. He is now involved in addressing issues facing frontline managers dealing with ever increasingly complex cases. Further details on his work and remit are available at www.caldertrainingandconsultancy.co.uk.

Mike Titterton is a social work trainer and consultant based in Edinburgh, and has worked with the topic of risk as a developmental consultant in health promotion in the UK and internationally. Formerly a lecturer in social work at the University of Glasgow, he has published widely on health and social care.