What is the impact of the increased importance of risk management on people and agencies working in the community services sector? A group of researchers at La Trobe, led by David Green and Judith Brett, have undertaken an extensive study of the way in which risk management policies have been interpreted and translated into practice by Victorian community-based services in Victoria. How do service providers and professionals adopt and adapt risk management in the context of their service goals and ideals, and what impact does this have on clients, patients and carers?

Twenty-four Victorian community-based services and 6 carer advocacy/support organisations from the disability, mental health and aged care sectors participated in the project, with interviews conducted with CEOs and senior executives, program managers and team leaders, frontline workers, clients and family carers.

The study found that although everybody interviewed reported the increasing significance of risk management and risk awareness for their organisations and their day to day working lives, there was no shared approach to managing risk across the sector. Most significantly for the wellbeing of clients across the sector, most agencies used risk management systems based on corporate models with little attention to systemic or whole of industry risks. Risks were shifted to weaker parties, a practice particularly noticeable in relation to very difficult and ‘risky’ clients, and there were few incentives for the provision of collaborative and integrated services.

Interviews revealed that program managers and frontline workers had different ways of negotiating risk and risk management policies in their day to day working lives. Professional workers in particular were concerned to align their organisations’ policies and procedures with their own views about effective and ethical practice. Many saw risk management as a set of quasi-legal and administrative requirements which had adverse effects on their professional practice and the wellbeing of clients.

The study was undertaken in collaboration with the then Victorian Department of Human Services and the Victorian Office of the Public Advocate and supported by an ARC Linkage grant.