How social workers engage with carers during adult safeguarding work: The use of formal and informal risk management strategies

Risk has been viewed as a key organising principle within social work practice,
which may be used to ration resources, prioritise service provision or prevent harm. These principles operate within legal and policy boundaries but rely on
interpretation by workers, who must decide how to apply them. This paper draws
on interviews with 31 social workers in England to consider how they assessed
and managed risk to adults. The paper identifies how social workers engaged with family carers and paid carers during adult safeguarding work, where concern had been expressed that an adult was at risk of harm. Drawing on work by Horlick-Jones, I identify forms of ‘practical reasoning’ employed by social workers when conducting risk work; specifically ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ methods of risk management. Several strategies were used when engaging with carers, often simultaneously. Workers highlighted their formal powers to safeguard adults to encourage carers to engage with the safeguarding process. In addition, workers informed carers of law and policy in order to persuade them to become compliant with these. Several informal strategies were also used. Workers provided emotional support to carers in order to prevent risk. They also sought to build shared understanding of carers’ moral duties through individual or group interactions. Social workers’ use of these strategies was influenced by their view of the adequacy of welfare policies within a climate of austerity. The study identifies the need to examine how workers’ perspectives on social justice affects risk-work.