SAFEGUARDING
The Balancing Act
There is a fine line between reducing risk to ensure safety and supporting people to take positive risks, suggests Hayley Dorrington, COO at Care4Quality.
Positive risk taking within our industry means creating the opportunity for beneficial opportunities, which could potentially still bring a harmful outcome. This approach considers the potential benefit for the individual, including the impact on their quality of life, the promotion of the individual’s independence
and taking the least restrictive approach in the actions taken, to reduce risk.
Risk management in care is important due to the positive benefits it can have for the person, the choice the individual has and overall, the positive outcomes that can occur. However, it is evident that not all care settings ensure this approach is embedded in practice and this can create significant risk for those receiving care. CQC explain that providers must assess the risks to people’s health and safety, whilst identifying that they understand there may be inherent risks, where the focus is on providers taking all reasonable steps to manage the risk.
INTERPRETATION CAN BE A BARRIER
A breach of this would mean a breach of Regulation 12: Safe Care and Treatment - Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014: Regulation 12) and potentially a risk of breach to Regulation 17: Good Governance too. The Health and Social Care Act, as well as other linked
- 14 -
legislation means that providers must interpret the legislation and put it into practice. This interpretation can of course become a barrier for care providers in ensuring a balanced approach to risk assessing.
There are also clear barriers to successfully embedding actions from risk assessments, these include a lack of training and competency assessment to ensure staff have the level of understanding they need to complete risk assessments, interpret care plans and deliver. Also, on the impact of staffing levels in care settings; CQC identified in their ‘Time to Listen’ report that there was a clear link between people’s nutritional needs not being met (inclusive of risk management) and not meeting the standard of staffing required. This in turn has a direct impact to the vulnerability of being malnourished in a care setting, with one third of the healthcare costs of malnourished in the UK being reported from care homes.
CQC’s approach to inspection means that the Key Lines of Enquiry look at aspects of risks in care settings, these include: management of challenging behaviour; moving and handling; nutrition and hydration, including choking risk; environmental; and skin integrity.
RISK AND CARE ARE INTRINSICALLY LINKED
All of these aspects if not managed effectively, can create a higher risk for the person and therefore it is essential to identify how to effectively and responsively support individuals in care settings to reduce risk.
To ensure compliance with risk assessing in care settings it is crucial to find a balanced approach where risk assessments can be completed with confidence and competence. It is clear when
www.tomorrowscare.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46
