Risk Management and 4 Pillars

The Four Pillars of Risk Management now underpin the Risk Management Plans that we use to manage the risks identified in the risk assessment process. The 4 Pillars of risk Management is an approach to the planning and delivery of risk management developed by Professor Hazel Kemshall at De Montfort University. The model is based on the four pillars of Supervision, Monitoring & Control, Interventions and Treatment and Victim Safety Planning. In order to develop effective risk management plans, staff need to have a good understanding of the offence, the circ*mstances leading up to the offence, the victim group and how these factors interlink to enable an offence to be committed.

Offender + Victim + Context/Circ*mstances = Offence (Scott 1977)

The Four Pillars

The Four Pillars of Risk Management work on the basis of the following 4 key elements:

Supervision: This is not solely about contact with CRC staff but also what contact is required with other agencies. Therefore, if your risk assessment has identified drug use as a risk factor then use this section to consider how often and when the service user is required to attend the local drug agency.

Monitoring/Control: Through your risk assessment you will have considered the circ*mstances surrounding the offence and therefore this element of risk management is about what steps can be taken by agencies to restrict future offending and how acute risk factors can be monitored to identify an increase in concerning behaviour.

Interventions and Treatment: This section is about what work will be completed to develop internal controls. Thinking about moving external control to internal control through interventions such as accredited programmes. Remember ‘one size does not fit all’ and therefore this aspect really requires you to have a good understanding of the criminogenic factors linked to the individual’s offending behaviour and taking a collaborative approach to identify these.

Victim Safety Planning: You will have identified who is at risk so this section is requiring you to think about what plans can be put in place to keep current and/or potential future victims safe. Where Victim Liaison Officers are involved, make sure that you are having discussions with regards to any additional licence conditions that mat be required prior to release. Where there are breach of Restraining Orders, what can you take from Victim Statements that might help you consider Victim Safety Planning?

Contingency Planning (on the next page): This aspect is about being able to identify risk factors emerging and thinking about what actions you can take to manage and control the risk. Recall/Enforcement are obviously options in this section but think about the reality of someone being in a supervision session with you and stating that they had started using drugs again – what actions would you take? Would you recall or would you think about making a referral to the drugs agency, increase reporting, drug testing? What has helped previously to stop drug use? Assess where they are in the cycle of change – is this a lapse or full relapse? What has triggered this and what actions can you take to manage it?

Lets Look at more detail about what should be included in each section of the Risk Management Plan to ensure a comprehensive assessment based on the Four Pillars model:

Supervision:

Frequency of Contact: It is important that you identify who the Service User is required to have contact with (include name and contact details unless for the purpose of risk this can not be disclosed), how often and why.
Please remember to identify all agencies that the Service User will be having contact with – if you are not sure of the frequency at the time of completing the RMP then give a timescale for when this will be known and then remember to ensure you update accordingly (it may be that you are in the process of making a referral and awaiting confirmation of another agency assessment or that you are awaiting a date for the programme to start – make this clear).
Home Visits – How often will these be completed and why?
Record your professional judgement for the frequency of contact and identify when this will decrease/increase and why (for example, currently monthly reporting as drug tests are returning negative and liaison with other agencies evidence continued compliance and motivation to address drug use. If drug tests came back positive, then reporting will increase).

Monitoring and Control:

Ensure that All Activities to address risk factors (think about R10.4 here) are included in this section.
Identify any additional Licence Conditions and Controls put in place/any additional Post-Sentence Supervision Requirements added/Restraining Orders.
When and how will these controls be monitored and reviewed? What is the Licence Expiry Date and will there be a period of PSS and if so, will there be any significant changes to RMP through loss of additional licence conditions?
Adult/Child Safeguarding – what controls/conditions are in place such as supervised contact etc.

Interventions and Treatment:

All activities to manage assessed risk factors are included here – this is about interventions and treatment so what are the specific licence conditions you have added? (requirement to address drug and alcohol use, attend programmes etc), have you added any additional requirements for PSS? If on a Community Order what are RAR days aimed at including? Is there a Programme Requirement? Link these to developing strengths and protective factors.
Ensure that you outline what interventions or treatment requirements are aimed at the risk factors you have identified – remember, if there are any safeguarding issues then ensure that interventions are in place to address these. Be clear to sequence these according to risk (this will also help you identify what interventions to address in your supervision sessions).

Victim Safety Planning:

All activities addressed and protecting current and future victims should be included here. If you have added any additional licence conditions then these should be outlined here. Restraining Orders should also be included and it is important to identify the dates that these will expire and how you intend on monitoring compliance with these (i.e. contact with the Victim Liaison Officer, contact with the police, IOM Officers, home visits etc.)
Where there are safeguarding issues be clear about what agencies are involved and the level of contact you will be having with these (where disclosable, think about frequency of core group meetings, child protection conferences, arranged supervised contact – if your service user will be attending parenting classes then you might want to identify this here). Identify when you will review the restrictions and be clear about how these restrictions aim to manage the risk to current and potential victims.