Social work employer standard 4: Assessing and managing risk

The requirements for this standard are summarised below.

View the full details for this standard on the LGA website.

A social worker’s working environment, resources and access to practical tools and support should be designed to deliver safe and effective professional practice. Employers should meet the safety and welfare needs of social workers. All employers should:

• Make a quiet space available for formal supervision, informal confidential professional discussions between colleagues, and team meetings. There should also be a suitable space for confidential interviews with adequate safety measures to protect practitioners.
• Foster a culture of openness and equality in the organisation that empowers social workers to make appropriate professional judgements within a supportive environment.
• Enable social workers and managers to raise concerns about inadequate resources, operational difficulties, workload issues or their own skills and capacity for work without fear of recrimination.
• Have in place effective systems for reporting and responding to concerns raised by social workers and managers so that risks are assessed and preventative and protective measures are taken.
• Ensure that the risks of violence, harassment and bullying are assessed, minimised and prevented. Where such instances do occur, there should be clear procedures in place to address, monitor and review the situation.
• Make employee welfare services available for all social workers.
• Provide social workers with appropriate practical tools to do their job including effective case recording and other IT systems, access to the internet and mobile communications. They should have safe means of transport for visiting service users and for field work.
• Provide social workers with access to fellow professionals including legal advisors, translators, and interpreters.
• Provide skilled administrative staff to support social workers and help to maximise the time social workers are able to spend working directly with the children, adults and families who use services.