Introduction to keeping other people safe through effective case management
Evidence summary
What inspections tell us about practice to keep other people safe in case management
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Evidence summary
The evidence on keeping other people safe overlaps with the findings relating to desistance and keeping the child safe. For those children who pose significant risks to others, the following have been found to be particularly important:
- Effective communication and timely and comprehensive information-sharing between statutory and non-statutory agencies helps to reduce the risk of harm a child poses to other people. There is evidence that, through sharing information and resources and managing cases holistically, partnership work and inter-agency collaboration can contribute to better risk management and reduced reoffending. Risks are most effectively managed when agencies use their skills and knowledge in a complementary way. This includes providing better access to services when required and enabling practitioners to respond quickly to escalating risk or deteriorating behaviour. Interventions may be required at the individual, family and community level.
- Defensible decision-making at every level, from practitioner to senior leadership, is crucial to public protection. Defensibility is only possible where evidence-based practice and effective supervision skills have been deployed. Agencies working with children who pose a high risk of harm to others must also ensure that their staff have access to validated assessment tools.
- A positive and trusting relationship between the individual practitioner and child can be very motivating for the child and influence them to change. The relationship should be supportive but challenging when necessary, with appropriate disclosure.
An integrated approach that balances control with rehabilitation is called ‘blended public protection’. A protection strategy that aims to protect through control of risks and a rehabilitative strategy that aims to reduce risk and protect through rehabilitation should not be seen as conflicting and can be combined.
What inspections tell us about practice to keep other people safe in case management
When we inspect a case, we assess the quality of work delivered in relation to desistance, keeping children safe and keeping other people safe. In doing this, we do not focus on the quality of specific documents, work products or tools. Instead, we look at practice holistically. We have found:
- Most YOT areas have a risk management panel in place. These are effective when there is multi-agency representation.
- In the main, YOT staff know of the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) in the local area
- Assessments of a child’s risk of harm to others do not always address past behaviour and include information from other agencies.
- Greater account needs to be taken of the needs, wishes and safety of victims.
- Work with other agencies to manage a child’s risk of harm to others in some areas is not well coordinated.
- Contingency planning does not consistently address the needs of individual cases.
