Good Practice in Assessing Risk

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.

• Introduction. Hazel Kemshall, De Montfort University, UK and Bernadette Wilkinson, KWP Training and Consultancy, UK. 1. Professional Risk Taking and Defensible Decisions. Kerry Baker, University of Oxford, UK and Bernadette Wilkinson. 2. Positive Risk Taking with People at Risk of Harm. Mike Titterton, Director, HALE (Health and Life for Everyone), UK. 3. The Role of Social Capital and Resources in Resilience to Risk. Thilo Boeck and Jennie Fleming, De Montfort University, UK. 4. Risk Assessment and Young People. Kerry Baker and Gill Kelly, KWP Training and Consultancy, UK. 5. The Fallacy of Formalisation: Practice Makes Process in the Assessment of Risks to Children. Sue Peckover, University of Huddersfield, UK, Karen Broadhurst, Lancaster University, UK, Sue White, Lancaster University, UK, David Wastell, University of Nottingham, UK, Chris Hall, University of Huddersfield, UK, and Andrew Pithouse, Cardiff University, UK. 6. Mental Health Risk. Tony Maden, Imperial College London, UK. 7. Risk and Intimate Partner Violence. Amanda Robinson, Cardiff University, UK. 8. Good Lives and Risk Assessment: Collaborative Approaches to Risk Assessment with Sexual Offenders. Georgia D. Barnett and Ruth E. Mann, Interventions and Substance Misuse Group, National Offender and Management Service, UK. 9. Risk and Personalisation. Rosemary Littlechild and John Glasby, University of Birmingham, UK with Louise Niblett and Tina Cooper. 10. Public Health Approaches to Risk Assessment and Risk Management. Jason Wood, De Montfort University, UK. 11. Organisationally Dangerous Practice: Political Drivers, Practice Implications and Pathways to Resolution. Martin C. Calder, Calder Training and Consultancy, UK. The Contributors. Index.

Despite my quibbles about the move to assessing risk rather than needed, this book is well worth reading and digesting.