5.2.1 Risk Assessment Prior to Placements

Drugs and Substance Misuse (Including Smoking) Procedure

AIM

The aims of the Risk Assessment procedure are to:

Ensure that a child or young person's safety, from self and others, can be more reliably guaranteed from the moment he/she becomes Looked After;
Ensure that possible conflicts of needs, and threats to the welfare of other young people and adults within the placement, can be properly anticipated and planned for;
Provide consistency in the assessment and management of risks, regardless of where a child is placed;
Prevent wherever possible the break down of placements;
Raise awareness amongst workers and carers about risks, and the need to manage them proactively;
From a Health and Safety point of view, ensure that Children's Services can demonstrably meet the statutory requirements, and the moral obligation, to safeguard staff's welfare.

SCOPE OF THIS CHAPTER

This procedure applies to all Looked After children and young people. It therefore covers all those who are:

Subject to Care Orders or Interim Care Orders;
Subject to Emergency Protection Orders, Police Protection powers or
Remands to care;
Accommodated under a voluntary agreement with parents; and/or
Awaiting an Adoption Order.

All Looked After children and young people, including those with a disability are covered by this procedure, whether they are placed with:

Foster carers;
Friends or extended family or other Connected Persons
Parents or someone else with Parental Responsibility;
Children's Residential homes;
Respite or shared care;
Residential schools; and/or
Out of authority placements.

All professionals and carers who have responsibility for some aspect of a Looked After child's care and welfare, will be expected to contribute to the identification and management of risk under this procedure. This will include:

Social workers;
Child and Family Support Workers;
Intensive Support Workers;
Placement and adoption workers;
Foster carers;
Residential Social Workers and Residential Assistant Managers;
Managers of these staff;
Parents and significant others from the family of origin;
Education and Health professionals;
The children or young people themselves.

Planned Placements
Emergency Placements
Risk Assessment Form
Review of Risk Assessment

1. Planned Placements

Where the Looked After placement is a planned rather than an emergency one, the Risk Assessment must be completed and recorded prior to the placement beginning. As much factual information as possible should be gathered from existing sources such as Care files, Core Assessments, reports and medical records. The social worker should take the lead in ensuring completion.

Sharing information is essential on potential serious risks in regards to group living for individual children, which may impact on the child, and should occur, maintaining confidentiality wherever possible.

There is a general principle that information will only be shared with the consent of the subject of the information and the issue of confidentiality should also be addressed. However in some circumstances it may not be appropriate to seek consent before sharing information with others or information can be shared where consent has been refused. The exceptions to the general principle are:

Places the child or others at increased risk of Significant Harm or
Places an adult at risk of Significant Harm, or
Undermines the prevention, detection or prosecution of a serious crime.

Information can be shared under these circumstances, within group living, where there is the potential for Significant Harm to occur in relation to the child to be placed or those already in placement.

Where the child is moving from a placement with a Connected Person, the social worker takes the lead in ensuring completion of the Risk Assessment, using information gathered from parents and/or carers and any other professionals who have been working with the family and the child.

Where the child is moving from a foster home, the social worker take the lead in (or amending) the Risk Assessment with the assistance of the Placement and Adoption Worker, the foster carer and any other professionals who have been working with the family and the young person.

Where the child is moving from a children's home or residential school, whether this is within or outside the authority, the key worker from the home or school takes the lead in doing (or amending) the Risk Assessment, with the assistance of colleagues from the home/school, the social worker and any other professionals who have been working with the young person.

Wherever appropriate and possible the involvement of the child (dependent on his / her age and understanding) should always be sought in doing the Risk Assessment, since this is an opportunity to engage him/her in making a contribution to the safety and welfare of him or herself and others.

Wherever appropriate and possible the involvement of the child's parent and carer should always be sought in doing the Risk Assessment, since this is an opportunity to engage them in making a contribution to the safety and welfare of the child or young person and others.

The completed Risk Assessment should be "signed off" by the social worker's line manager. This will embed it as part of the Care Plan, and act as authorisation for any additional resources that are required to ensure the identified risks are effectively managed.

The authorised Risk Assessment must be given and explained to the new carer before the child joins the placement. Transfer to the new placement will not take place until this has happened. A copy should also be given to any other professional who has a role to play in the management of identified risks. Where deemed appropriate, a copy should be given to parents who are not currently caring for their child.

Relevant West Yorkshire Consortium Interagency Safeguarding Procedures

Recognition of Significant Harm Procedure

2. Emergency Placements

In these circumstances the Risk Assessment must be completed and recorded within seven days of the new placement beginning. The aim of the deadline is to ensure safety and to avoid the placement being unnecessarily disrupted by unmanaged risks.

Those involved in doing the assessment will be the same as for a planned placement. The carers in the new placement will make an active contribution, based on their experience so far of looking after the child.

Wherever possible and appropriate the involvement of the child should always be sought in doing the Risk Assessment, since this is an opportunity to engage him/her in making a contribution to the safety and welfare of him or herself and others.

The completed Risk Assessment should be "signed off" by the social worker's line manager. This will embed it as part of the Care Plan, and act as a recommendation, which would need to be authorised by a Service Manager, for any additional resources that are required to ensure the identified risks are effectively managed.

A copy of the authorised Risk Assessment should be given to the new carers and to any other professional who has a role to play in the management of identified risks. Where deemed appropriate, a copy should be given to parents who are not currently caring for their child, again being mindful of issues of safeguarding and confidentiality.

3. Risk Assessment Form

The expected coverage and content of the Risk Assessment is set out in the Placement Risk Assessment Form. This form should be used to record the nature and evaluation of risks that have been identified; who may be at risk; and the proposed strategies and control measures to manage them.

The authorised Risk Assessment must be shared with the child, highlighting the risks, concerns and proposed safeguards. This allows the child who is the subject of the assessment to comment on its accuracy and fairness. It also allows a professional assessment to be made of whether the subject child acknowledges the problems and will assist with their management.

In sharing the Risk Assessment, care should be taken with confidential information relating to any other child who may be implicated. Care should also be taken with any information that may exacerbate the risk if known to the child.

A copy of the authorised Risk Assessment should be placed on the child's Electronic record (RAISE), and on any file relating to or kept in the placement itself (such as the Daily Living file in a children's home or a foster carer's file).

If any significant risk is identified that constitutes a serious threat to the life of a child, the Service Manager for the social worker and the placement resource will be notified. Changes may be introduced into the risk management plan in the light of their advice.

If any significant risk is identified that constitutes a serious threat to the health and safety of staff, this should be discussed with the Health and Safety Officer, who will advise on whether the risk management plan adequately meets the Local Authority's "duty of care" to its employees.

If for whatever reason an authorised Risk assessment is not provided for the new placement within seven days of the placement beginning, this should be discussed and resolved between the Team Manager and the manager with responsibility for the current placement resource.

If there are any disagreements about the quality, content or accuracy of the Risk Assessment, this should be explored and resolved between the Team Manager and the manager with responsibility for the current placement resource.

4. Review of Risk Assessment

The Risk Assessment should be regularly reviewed and updated as a continuous process. As a minimum this should be done in advance of a Looked After Review, and submitted as part of the information for that meeting.

Agreements on the future management of risk will be filed as part of the revised Care Plan

The Risk Assessment should also be reviewed and updated in the event of any incident or change where the child has placed self or others at significant risk. All those with a responsibility for the welfare of the child should be informed of the updated risk assessment and any changes to the risk management plan. Any amendment to a risk assessment document should be placed on the child's Electronic record (RAISE), with copies being sent to all necessary parties.

The Risk Assessment should also be reviewed and updated in the event of any incident or change where the child's change in health needs has increased existing risk. All those with a responsibility for the welfare of the child should be informed of the updated risk assessment and any changes to the risk management plan.

There may be occasions where a risk incident means that a criminal offence has been committed. Explicit decisions should be made about the need for and the purpose of contacting the Police with this information. If in doubt, the relevant manager should be consulted. Please also see Contacting the Police Procedure.

There may be occasions where a risk incident has occurred and there is reasonable cause to suspect that a child has suffered or is likely to suffer Significant Harm, and /or a criminal offence may have been committed. A Strategy Discussion/Meeting should take place to decide whether a Section 47 Enquiry is required and if so, to develop a plan of action for the Section 47 enquiry. The Strategy Discussion should involve Safeguarding and Family Support, the police and the referrer.

Where a serious risk incident is believed to have led to Significant Harm, then a Child Protection Conference should be convened for every child thought to be affected - see Child Protection Conference Procedure in the West Yorkshire Consortium Inter Agency Procedures.

Where the risk incident has led to a child experiencing Significant Harm, then consideration will be given to convening a Child Protection Conference.

Where a risk incidence involving a young person in a residential home meets the criteria for a Schedule 5 notification, OFSTED will be duly informed within the required timescales. See also Notification of Significant Events Procedure.

Where a risk incidence involving a young person in foster care meets the criteria for a Schedule 8 notification, (Regulation 43.1), OFSTED will be duly informed within the required timescales