Risk Assessments & Care/Support Plans in Children’s Social Care

Overview

Effective risk assessment and care/support planning are central to safe, purposeful, and child-centred practice. They should not be static documents completed simply to satisfy organisational or regulatory requirements. When used effectively, they help professionals understand a child or young person’s needs, identify risks and protective factors, plan meaningful support, and demonstrate how interventions contribute to progress and positive outcomes.

📅 Date & Time: 1st September, 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
📍 Live Online via Teams
📢 Early Bird Price: £54 (VAT included) – Register 2+ weeks before
🎟️ Standard Price: £74 (VAT included) – Group Discount available for groups of 5+

This practical course explores how professionals can develop risk assessments and care/support plans that are clear, proportionate, evidence-informed, and genuinely useful in day-to-day practice. Participants will consider how assessment and planning should work together, how children and young people can be meaningfully involved, and how plans should evolve as circumstances, risks, strengths, and needs change.

The course is relevant across Children’s Homes, Supported Accommodation and Fostering, while recognising the different regulatory requirements, terminology, responsibilities, and planning arrangements within each setting.

Course Content

The course examines the relationship between assessment, risk management, planning, intervention, review, and outcomes.

Participants will explore how to identify and analyse risk rather than simply list potential hazards or concerns. This includes considering the nature and likelihood of harm, vulnerabilities, protective factors, patterns and triggers, contextual factors, previous incidents, professional information, and the views of the child or young person.

The session will consider how risk assessments should inform care and support planning, ensuring that identified needs and risks lead to clear actions, strategies, responsibilities, and intended outcomes. Participants will explore the importance of creating plans that are specific and individualised rather than relying on generic statements or standardised responses.

The course will also consider positive risk-taking and the need to balance safeguarding with children and young people’s rights, development, relationships, independence, and opportunities.

Attention will be given to reviewing and updating assessments and plans following significant events, changes in circumstances, new information, progress, or emerging concerns.

Practice Application

Throughout the course, participants will apply learning to realistic children’s social care scenarios and examples of recording and planning. Practical activities will explore how to:

• distinguish between identifying a risk and analysing it;
• develop proportionate and meaningful control measures;
• connect assessed risks and needs with care/support planning;
• write clear actions and measurable intended outcomes;
• incorporate strengths and protective factors alongside concerns;
• evidence the child’s or young person’s views and participation;
• avoid generic, repetitive, or overly restrictive plans;
• use incidents and new information to review assessments;
• demonstrate progress and changes in risk over time; and
• ensure plans are understood and consistently implemented by the staff or carers supporting the child.

The emphasis throughout is on producing documents that practitioners actually use to guide practice rather than paperwork that exists primarily for compliance purposes.

Regulatory and Professional Context

Risk assessment and care/support planning sit within a wider framework of safeguarding, statutory planning, regulatory requirements, and professional accountability.

The course considers relevant expectations across the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and associated Quality Standards, the Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations 2023, and the regulatory framework applying to Fostering Services.

It will also consider relevant principles within the Children’s Social Care National Framework, statutory safeguarding guidance, information-sharing responsibilities, and Ofsted expectations around children’s experiences, safeguarding, progress, and the quality and impact of care and support.

The course distinguishes between the responsibilities of the placing authority and those of providers and carers, helping participants understand how their own assessments and plans should complement, not replace, statutory plans and professional decision-making.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Understand the purpose of effective risk assessment and care/support planning in children’s social care.
• Identify and analyse risks, vulnerabilities, strengths, and protective factors.
• Develop proportionate strategies that manage risk without unnecessarily restricting children and young people.
• Connect assessment findings with clear and purposeful care/support planning.
• Develop individualised plans with meaningful actions and intended outcomes.
• Strengthen the participation of children and young people in assessment and planning.
• Recognise when risk assessments and plans should be reviewed or updated.
• Use recording to demonstrate changes in needs, risk, progress, and outcomes.
• Understand relevant regulatory and professional expectations across different children’s social care settings.
• Evaluate and improve the quality of risk assessments and care/support plans within their own practice or service.

Intended Audience

This course is suitable for professionals involved in assessing risk, planning care or support, reviewing progress, or overseeing practice across children’s social care. It is particularly relevant for Registered Managers, Responsible Individuals, Deputy Managers, Team Leaders, Residential Childcare Practitioners, Supported Accommodation staff, Social Workers, Supervising Social Workers, Foster Carers, Quality Assurance professionals, and other practitioners or managers involved in care and support planning.

Course Facilitator

Miguel Valerio is a Social Worker, trainer, consultant, and regulatory specialist with more than 20 years of professional experience across children’s social care, education, leadership, and service development.

His career has included research and university lecturing alongside extensive operational leadership within Children’s Homes and Supported Accommodation. Miguel has worked as a Responsible Individual for Children’s Homes and Registered Service Manager for Supported Accommodation, with responsibility for safeguarding, risk management, care and support planning, quality assurance, regulatory compliance, workforce development, and service improvement.

Throughout his operational career, Miguel has developed, reviewed, and overseen risk assessment and planning systems for children and young people with a wide range of needs and vulnerabilities. Through Social Care Skills, he now supports providers and professionals through training, consultancy, audits, regulatory support, and service development.

His training is practical and reflective, focusing on helping professionals translate regulatory and professional expectations into approaches that make a meaningful difference to everyday practice and outcomes for children and young people.

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