Effective Support Planning & Risk Assessment

Ad hoc services are no longer acceptable and in addition to being a requirement, care and support planning remains the major professional tool in the provision of quality support services.

This two day course designed for front line workers, focuses on the knowledge base and skills required to create a support plan, including the elements of assessment, goal setting, planning, implementation and evaluation.

The course also explores the Risk Assessment and Risk Management framework and introduces the document ‘Independence, Choice and Risk’, Dept. of Health, 2007.
The course combines the section of the Learning Disability Knowledge Set, Independence & Wellbeing including:

• Risk taking
• The wider context within which Person Centred support is planned

The course certificate will provide details of achieved learning as a reference for those who may wish to achieve accredited Awards.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this course learners should have understood

Part A:

• A formal definition of a Care/Support plan and the Care/Support planning
process
• The National Standards that require the usage of Care/Support Plans
• How Care/Support plans raise standards and improve the quality of life for the
service user and make work more interesting and rewarding for the support
worker
• How Care and Support plans relate to Person Centred Planning and what
is meant by ‘Person Centred’ support
• What is meant by the ‘process’ of planning-it is more than a document!
• The structure and components of a basic model of planning-the 5 stage model
• The different ways we make an Assessment:
• How to facilitate Goal Setting
• How to Plan to meet Goals
• How to Implement the Plan
• The need for ongoing Evaluation and to respond flexibly to changing need
• The different ways in which plans can be reviewed and how to ensure that
the service user is at the centre

Part B

• What is meant by:
        - ‘risk assessment’
        - ‘risk management’
• What is meant by:
        - ‘empowerment’
        - ‘protection’
• Why risk needs to be assessed
• What is meant by ‘reasonable risk’
• Why it is important for risk to be taken
• How staff have power and how it can be misused regarding risk taking
• Life is a ‘risky business’ and people have a right to take risk. Should it be any different for people with Learning Disabilities?
• When risk is unacceptable (including Health and Safety issues)
• What action is appropriate when risk is unacceptable
• Current attitudes towards risk-taking and people with Learning Disabilities.
• Risks and decision making processes
• Different and changing levels of ability and the relationship with risk taking
• What is meant by the ‘duty of care’
• The legal requirements regarding risk assessment
• The basic principles of the risk assessment process
• The five steps to risk assessment
• How to fill in a risk assessment form
• The necessity to develop risk management plans
• The necessity to maintain a professional, open and flexible approach
• The necessity for on-going risk assessment
• The necessity for regular review
• The communication and reporting systems
• Multi-disciplinary working

Training methods:

• Tutor presentations
• Chalk & talk
• OHP/PowerPoint
• Group work
• Individual and group exercises
• Case studies
• Word shower
• Handouts

CP00/0.0