Q: I and my colleagues are anxious about how senior managers would react if something went wrong. As practitioners, we make decisions every day that involve risks. How should we expect managers to behave if, for example, a child or disabled adult is injured. We know how the tabloids will react, but what about managers?

We will answer this question in the 10 April issue of Community Care. We want to publish readers’ advice too – please send it to natalie.valios@rbi.co.uk by Monday 31 March or leave your comments on here.

In my experience most managers take a supportive role when something like this happens .  Investigations need to be carried out but blame should not be aportioned until after the investigation is complete. Counselling is crucial as is debriefing where all staff can contribute to the process. This can be a worrying time for staff who feel, rightly or wrongly, they could have prevented it. Other managers however take a different approach and I know of cases where the managers immediately went on the defensive and started disciplinary proceedings. In hindsight (wonderful thing) this was done in an attempt to cover their own incompetencies and is a very undesirable way to manage people.