It all started with a question.
A Team Manager needed to present a Risk Assessment for Court. At the time, practice was founded on the Assessment Framework. The Framework did not include the term risk or risk assessment.
When the Team Manager presented a Core Assessment to Court he was informed it did not reflect their expectations of a risk assessment. Yet, Courts and Solicitors couldn’t determine what they actually expected from such an assessment.
So the all-important question was asked – ‘how do you undertake a risk assessment for Court?’
After years of working together and combining their wealth of skills and knowledge, the framework was developed by Dafydd Paul of Gwynedd Council’s Children’s Services and Bruce Thornton of JBT Training and Development.
Dafydd is a Registered Social Worker with over 30 years of experience in social care. He works as a Senior Manager for Safeguarding and Quality in Gwynedd Council. Bruce Thornton is a Registered Social Worker with over 40 years of experience in social care. For several years, Bruce has worked as an independent trainer and consultant. Between them, they defined the meaning of risk in the context of Children Services and how risk assessments could be developed. This focus related to the legal threshold of the likelihood of significant harm.
The framework is used across several Authorities in both Wales and England. In addition to assessing risk of significant harm the framework includes a range of specialist assessment tools and risk assessments that can be used in pre-birth situations. Over the years, the Risk Model has been developed for use in new sectors including family justice and early intervention services.
Today, the Risk Model is considered an important contribution to social work practice in child protection, supporting practitioners to make high quality and consistent decisions in their day to day work protecting children.
The Risk Model continues to be developed. As it is introduced in ever increasing numbers of Authorities, Bruce modifies and extends the tools and training products. Dafydd has incorporated the Risk Model into a new innovation developed by Children Services in Gwynedd called Effective Child Protection.
