Risk Assessment Quick Guide
Why Risk Assessment Matters
- Handcrafted is legally required to protect staff, residents, trainees, visitors, and others from harm.
- Risk assessment underpins all our work – from workshops and housing to support work, outreach, and admin.
- Risk can never be eliminated, but it must be identified, reduced, and managed.
- Good risk management keeps everyone safe, reduces stress, builds accountability, and demonstrates responsibility to funders, regulators, and trustees.
Principles
Every risk assessment follows the same framework:
- Hazard – What has the potential to cause harm?
(e.g. broken step, aggressive visitor, relapse triggers, data breach)
- Risk – What could happen? Consider:
* Likelihood (how probable) * Severity (how serious the consequences)
- Control / Mitigation – What steps are we taking?
* Reduce likelihood (make it less likely to occur) * Reduce severity (limit harm if it does occur)
Types of Risk Assessments
- Workshop & Activities – tools, machinery, COSHH, fire, first aid, environment checks.
- Individual Residents – personalised risk management plans (linked to safety plans).
- Home Environment – housing condition checks, visitor risks, fire safety, tenancy compliance.
- Support Work – risks of relapse, self-harm, exploitation, mental health deterioration.
- Organisational – data protection, lone working, safeguarding, infectious disease, environment.
- Dynamic / Informal – constant “on the fly” assessment: entering a home, meeting a new trainee, supervising an activity. Staff should notice hazards and act immediately.
Process
- Identify hazards (physical, emotional, environmental, organisational).
- Assess risks (likelihood + severity).
- Control using proportionate mitigation measures.
- Record when significant decisions are made. Documentation shows accountability.
- Review & Update regularly – especially after an incident, a change in activity, or at weekly support reviews.
Link with Safety Plans
- Every resident must have both a Safety Plan and a Risk Management Plan.
- Risks noted in referrals should be translated into the plan immediately.
- Plans should describe:
* Risk description (what can go wrong) * Exacerbating factors (what makes it more likely) * Management strategies (what staff and the resident are doing to reduce the risk)
- Update weekly at support reviews. State in the review notes if changes are made.
- Ensure a clear link between referral risks, the safety plan, and our actual practice.
Roles & Responsibilities
- All staff:
- Remain vigilant and raise concerns immediately.
- Carry out informal dynamic assessments daily.
- Follow safety, safeguarding, and lone working policies.
- Support Workers:
- Complete environment checks and record hazards.
- Ensure residents’ risk plans are live, updated, and practical.
- Workshop Leaders:
- Keep risk assessments for tools, machines, and activities up to date.
- Ensure PPE, signage, and safe systems are followed.
- Managers:
- Ensure risk assessments are documented, reviewed, and accessible.
- Provide training and supervision so staff feel competent.
- Escalate significant risks to senior leadership or external services.
Key Reminders
- Balance is essential: too much control can block activity; too little can cause harm.
- Always act immediately on obvious hazards, then follow with longer-term planning.
- Risks cover both physical (fire, trips, machinery) and non-physical (self-harm, relapse, exploitation, stress).
- Documenting decisions protects both staff and residents.
- Include residents in risk planning – what they are doing to keep themselves safe matters as much as what staff do.
- Review risk assessments after incidents, near misses, or changes in circumstance.