The right to take risks
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14668201211286066 |
| Date | 30 November 2012 |
| Pages | 287-296 |
| Published date | 30 November 2012 |
| Author | Alison Faulkner |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Sociology |
The right to take risks
Alison Faulkner
Abstract
Purpose – Commissioned as part of a Joseph Rowntree Foundation scoping programme, this
consultation aims to explore the views of disabled people and service users about risk.
Design/methodology/approach – The consultation reached nine individuals and one focus group,
reaching a total of 17 disabled people and service users. Their views were supplemented by the
literature.
Findings – The landscape of risk and rights is highly complex. Disabled people and service users have
quite different concerns about risk to those of the professionals and the regulatory bodiesacting on their
behalf. Many people talked of the fear of losing their independence, of asserting their rights and the fear
of powerlessness in the face of bureaucracy and (sometimes) uncaring staff.
Research limitations/implications – The profile of rights needs to be raised in an accessible and
acceptable way: it is necessary to make the language of rights more commonplace. There is a particular
need to reach into mental health and residential care services to find ways of enabling people to have
their rights realised. The report has implications for risk assessment and risk management as well as for
the regulatory bodies responsible in adult social care. Raising awareness among professionals and
policy makers about the risks that service users themselves fear and experience should demonstrate
just how important it is that the people whose risk is under consideration are involved in the process.
Originality/value – This paper highlights the views of users of adult social care about risk; their views
have rarely been documented.
Keywords Risk, Service users, Disabled people, Rights, Independence, Adult social care, Disabilities,
United Kingdom, Risk analysis, Social care, Mental health services
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
In 2011 the Joseph Rowntree Foundation commissioned the author to undertake a small
scoping exercise: ‘‘to look across the landscape of adult (social) care and discuss service
users’’ perspectives on salient issues associated with their right to decide about the risks
they wish take in their lives, but also on their right to be protected from risks’. The full report of
the consultation is published on the JRF web site (Faulkner, 2012). This paper outlines some
of the issues in relation to risk, rights and responsibility.
In the field of adult social care, there are many people,issues, organisations and regulatory
bodies involved in discussionsabout risk and safety. Questions of responsibility, duty of care,
adult safeguardingand capacity come into play. There is the concern about protecting people
society has come to perceive as ‘‘vulnerable’’ and yet these same people we want to be able
to live full and independentlives and to take the risks that any one might take in an average day.
Practitioners’views of risk often differ fromthe views of people using services and the language
used to express risk also differs(Carr, 2010). These perceived riskshave implications for the
safety and the independence of the individual, but they also have implications for the
DOI 10.1108/14668201211286066 VOL. 14 NO. 6 2012, pp. 287-296, QEmerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1466-8203
j
THE JOURNAL OF ADULT PROTECTION
j
PAGE 287
Alison Faulkner is an
Independent Service User
Consultant based in
London, UK.
The full report from which this
paper is adapted is published
on the JRF website. Particular
thanks are due to those people
who generously gave of their
time and their views in forming
the basis for this project. Also to
Ilona Haslewood and the
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
for initiating the project, and to
those who commented on
earlier drafts and helped to
improve this report, particularly:
Sarah Carr, Tina Coldham,
Suzanne Collins, Dorothy
Gould, Melanie Henwood, Ann
Macfarlane and Kay Sheldon.
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