Risk Assessment and Secure Accommodation Decision‐Making in Scotland: Taking Account of Gender?

Abstract

Risk assessment has become a key area of focus for child protection practice in recent years. Recent research has begun to identify how risk assessment practices and discourses in social work are gendered, particularly in relation to parenting and offending. There has been less attention paid to how gender impacts upon risk assessment practice with young people who present risks to themselves and/or others. This article begins to address this gap by exploring some of the findings from a recent study of secure accommodation decision‐making in Scotland. The article examines how risk assessment practices on the part of social workers and senior decision makers were influenced by gender discourses. The findings highlight the complexities of taking account of gender within the risk assessment process and the article concludes by making some suggestions for practice. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.‘How risk assessment practices on the part of social workers and senior decision makers were influenced by gender discourses’Key Practitioner MessagesWhen considering a young person for possible placement in secure accommodation, practitioners should ensure that: They undertake a collaborative, holistic, person‐centred risk assessment. This risk assessment must consider how the risks that the young person faces are gendered, without stereotyping. This risk assessment should consider the social and structural factors that have created these risks for young men and women and interventions should also target these wider issues.