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More needs to be done to strike the balance between protecting individuals and allowing them to manage their own risk, according to new research, writes Amy Taylor.

A Social Care Institute for Excellence paper on the future of adult care questions whether people using services currently have enough information to make informed decisions about the level of risk they are prepared to assume.

The document, which contains the views of almost 1,000 service users, practitioners and others, says society has increasingly expected professionals to manage risk for people using services.

However, it adds, the adult green paper’s ambition of personalised services would involve some of this being transferred to users and their carers.

Head of knowledge services at SCIE Amanda Edwards said that the extension of risk would require a different type of relationship between practitioners and people that use services.

“That needs to be done in a different working environment for the practitioners than currently exists,” she said.

Developing social care: the past, the present and the future from: www.scie.org.uk/publications/adults