In line with our duty of care, we must identify and assess any risks which the people we support may encounter. We must also seek to minimise these risks by putting controls in place which will reduce the impact. This will involve considering the individual themselves, the activities they undertake and the environment they are in; all of which can change fairly quickly.

In social care settings, there are many hazards which we need to be aware of. Some of them will exist in all care settings, whereas others may relate only to certain environments. For example, we could be talking about…

This is what we do in our everyday lives; decisions taken ‘on the spot’ when our current environment changes or when we are introduced to a new environment.

For example, if a client takes a bath, we might use a non-slip mat to prevent them from slipping when they get in and out. We would support them to avoid filling up the bath with scalding hot water and getting straight in it because we know the water would burn their skin. We would not put too much water in the bath so that when they get in it overspills onto the floor. We might even have a bath mat on the floor to stop them from slipping.

There are lots of resources available to support us to carry out good, robust risk assessments.

Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (MHSWR), the minimum we must do is:
Identify what could cause injury or illness in your workplace (hazards)
Decide how likely it is that someone could be harmed and how seriously (the risk)
Take action to eliminate the hazard, or if this is not possible, to control the risk.

The regulator for care in England is the Care Quality Commission (known as CQC). Part of their role is to inspect against the 13 Fundamental Standards, 2 of which are Safety and Premises and Equipment.

Different factors will inform the review period. An example of this might be that an individual you are providing support to has been prescribed a particular medication for a set period of time. During this period of time whilst taking the medication, the individual may be advised not to go out walking alone due to the potential risks from the medication’s side effects.

We are all responsible for the health, safety and wellbeing of ourselves and other people, therefore, we need to remain vigilant and proactive in our approach. Involving other agencies in our risk assessments ensures that the different specialisms and knowledge inform our practice.

This ensures we do not discriminate and that we use the least restrictive control measures when risks are identified.

We recommend that employers undertake the tasks set out by Skills for Care in their ‘Good and Outstanding Care Guide’ page 59 under the ‘Managing Risk’. Section.

We have set out the actions below:

Follow the timeline below…