Records & plans
What is an impact risk assessment?
An impact risk assessment considers how a new placement would affect the children already living in a home, and how the existing group would affect the new child.
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<img src="https://careoptix.co.uk/glossary/impact-risk-assessment/diagram.svg" alt="impact risk assessment — diagram from CareOptix" width="880" height="620" loading="lazy">
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<a href="https://careoptix.co.uk/glossary/impact-risk-assessment">What is an impact risk assessment?</a> — diagram by
<a href="https://careoptix.co.uk">CareOptix</a>
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</figure>It is a two-directional question and it is usually answered in one direction only. Whether the home can meet the new child's needs is asked; whether the new placement is safe for the children already there is asked less often.
It has to be revisited as the group changes. An assessment made when a child arrived describes a group that no longer exists a few placements later.
It is also the document that supports saying no, which is its most valuable function and the reason it needs to exist before the pressure arrives rather than during it.
What goes wrong in practice
- Assessed only for the incoming child.
- Not revisited as the composition of the group changed.
- Completed after the placement started, which makes it a record rather than a decision.