Risk Assessment and Risk Management: Improving Quality and Integrity Professor Hazel Kemshall De Montfort University

Kemshall for RMA May 2006 The importance of quality and integrity ‘Risk management is an error prone system that just happens to be right most of the time’ (Kemshall 1998) Lets stop ‘gambling’ and lets get more reliable!

Kemshall for RMA May 2006 Consistency but… Be consistently right (it is often easier to be consistently wrong) Common language Standard setting and monitoring Working together Ensuring best practice

Kemshall for RMA May 2006 Promoting best practice Research and evidence Competence and building capacity Standards and regulation Guidance and a knowledge base

Kemshall for RMA May 2006 The ‘Virtuous Triangle’ Standards QualityBest Practice

Kemshall for RMA May 2006 The pitfalls of standards ‘Empty’ standards rather than impact ones Need to cover processes, systems and impacts

Kemshall for RMA May 2006 Quality- what do we mean? ‘Doing the job well’ (HMIP 2006) Defensible decisions (Kemshall 1998) Striving for excellence ‘Well enough’ versus ‘state of the art’

Kemshall for RMA May 2006 The problem with quality is… It is prone to atrophy Hard to drive up- easy to let down

Kemshall for RMA May 2006 The trouble with best practice is… It justifies what we want to do and not to change We are ‘mean’ with it- ‘critical few’ Built in flaws and wider organisational failures

Kemshall for RMA May 2006 Developing minimum standards for risk management See PC 10/05 and required actions/headings Other agencies involved Existing support/controls Added measures for specific risks Who will do what by when Conditions to manage risk Level of contact

Kemshall for RMA May 2006 Role of managers in risk management Set standards and hold to account Provide appropriate, inquisitive and challenging supervision Review cases, processes and systems and expect people to do things! Have a clear view of best practice and model it.

Kemshall for RMA May 2006 Encourage through supervision Ownership of policy, procedures and practice Build decision making capacity and skill Reinforce professional responsibility Give staff a sense of control/non-fatalistic Reduce anxiety and enhance competence