New relationship needed between practitioners and service users

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