Maintaining a balance between managing and assessing risk and upholding the required high standards of practice in health and social care can be demanding, particularly in the current climate of increased preoccupation with the difficult tensions between rights, protection and risk-taking. Good Practice in Assessing Risk is a comprehensive guide to good practice for those working with risk, covering a wide variety of health, social care and criminal justice settings including child protection, mental health, work with sex offenders and work with victims of domestic violence. The contributors discuss a range of key issues relating to risk including positive risk-taking, collaborating with victims and practitioners in the design of assessment tools, resilience to risk, and defensibility. The book also explores the role of bureaucracy in hindering high quality professional practice, complex decision-making in situations of stress or potential blame, and involving service users in assessment. This book reflects the latest policy and practice within health, social care and criminal justice and will be an invaluable volume to all professionals working in these fields.

Highlighting and examining the vital role of nurses in protecting children from maltreatment, this book explores the input of nurses from different disciplines to the work of protecting children and young people. It draws on relevant theoretical, research and policy literature but focuses in particular on the evidence base for the value of their work.While orientated towards UK practice, the book includes some comparative material to add a wider European perspective. The text includes discussion of specialist public health nursing roles such as health visiting and school nursing, as well as the contribution of those who have more general nursing roles but whose work brings them into contact with children, young people and their families.This volume will inform all qualified nurses working in acute care and primary care settings who have contact with children, young people and their families. It will also be of use to those undertaking post-qualifying and post-graduate courses and is particularly relevant for Specialist Community Public Health Nurses (SCPHNs) many of whom, once qualified, have significant child protection roles in practice.

Good Practice in Safeguarding Children considers how front-line professionals can keep the best interests of the child at the heart of their work when statutory guidance, the way agencies are integrated and the delivery of services are changing. Liz Hughes and Hilary Owen have drawn together contributors' experiences of working with safeguarding children on a broad range of issues, including neglect, trafficked children, parents with learning difficulties and child protection supervision. The contributors discuss current dilemmas in safeguarding children work and provide models of good practice, including case scenarios and exercises. This book explores how changes in the system offer an opportunity to enhance the quality of service provision, to achieve better outcomes for children and their families. This book is a must-read book for all front-line practitioners involved in safeguarding children, including social workers, child and adolescent mental health practitioners, police officers, healthcare professionals, probation workers and teachers. It is also suitable for undergraduate, post-graduate and post-qualifying students.