Behavioural Risk Assessment: Managing Risk Before It Escalates

Risk assessment is at the heart of keeping people safe. Whether you work in healthcare, education, social care, housing, aviation or customer-facing environments, understanding and managing behavioural risks is essential for protecting staff, service users and the public.

The UK Health & Safety Executive (HSE) outlines six key steps to effective risk assessment:

1. What are the hazards?

2. Who might be harmed and how?

3. What are you already doing to control the risks?

4. What further action do you need to take to control the risk?

5. Who needs to carry out the action?

6. When is the action needed by?

When the hazard involves human behaviour, risk assessment becomes much more dynamic. Let's explore the first four stages in the context of behavioural management.

1. What are the Hazards?

When working with people, the hazard is often not a physical object but a behaviour. Managing situations that involve another person's behaviour presents a wide range of risks, as behaviour is influenced by many factors, including an individual's environment, emotions, communication needs, past experiences and the situation they find themselves in. The cause or function of a behaviour can vary significantly and because behaviour is fluid, an interaction can change direction very quickly.

Some behaviours may present little or no risk, while others can be distressing, disruptive, challenging or pose a significant mental or physical risk to those involved. Recognising early signs of escalation, understanding potential triggers and appreciating that risk levels can change throughout an interaction are essential for preventing situations from developing into crises.

2. Who Might Be Harmed and How?

Identifying who may be affected is an important part of any risk assessment. Previous incidents, historical records, organisational experience and incident reports can all help identify the risks associated with carrying out a particular role or providing a service and therefore who may be at risk. This may include staff members, service users or patients, students, customers, members of the public and the individual displaying the behaviour.

When responding to behaviours of concern, staff must continually assess the situation and the changing level of risk to themselves, the individual involved and anyone else who may be affected. This ongoing process is known as a dynamic risk assessment.

Successfully managing these situations requires staff to remain calm, communicate effectively and maintain control of their own actions, attitude and behaviour. Avoiding responses that could unintentionally escalate the situation is essential, although this can be particularly challenging in high-pressure and high-risk environments. This is why practical training, regular practice and confidence in applying behavioural management techniques are so important.

3. What Are You Already Doing to Control the Risks?

Effective behavioural risk management relies on having appropriate control measures in place before an incident occurs.

These might include:

• Safe working practices

• Training and guidance

• Environmental changes

• Equipment or clothing

• Withdrawal or removal of the support, service or interaction

• Planned responses or further action needed (see point 4)

Reviewing incidents is equally important in reducing future risk. Reflecting on what happened, identifying behavioural triggers and other contributing factors and evaluating the outcome all help organisations learn from experience and plan more effective responses. Where individuals have known behavioural patterns, person-centred planning can help eliminate or reduce potential triggers before an incident develops.

In environments where staff regularly support the same individuals, these planned approaches become particularly valuable, enabling teams to respond consistently and proactively. Sometimes, relatively small changes to communication, working practices, the environment or the way a task is carried out can significantly reduce the likelihood of behavioural incidents and improve safety for everyone involved.

Personal Safety and Physical Interventions

Some roles involve a greater risk of aggression or physically challenging behaviours. In these settings, this could mean the potential assault of staff, other service users or customers and organisations have a responsibility to ensure staff have the knowledge, skills and confidence to respond safely.

Personal safety techniques and physical interventions, including physical or mechanical restraint where legally and ethically justified, require specialist training and regular refresher practice.

Any physical intervention should always be:

• Proportionate to the level of risk

• Necessary and in the best interests of everyone involved

• Reasonable in the circumstances

• Used only after less restrictive options have been exhausted or deemed inadequate

• Applied for the minimum time necessary

The focus should always remain on preventing harm while preserving the dignity, rights and wellbeing of the individual.

4. What Further Action do you Need to Take to Control the Risk?

Risk assessment is an ongoing process rather than a one-off exercise.

Further actions may include improving access to personal protective equipment (PPE), ensuring staff have mobile phones or lone worker devices, introducing additional environmental controls or reviewing staffing levels.

Being able to quickly summon assistance can provide reassurance and improve outcomes during volatile situations.

Above all, effective training remains one of the most valuable control measures. Staff who understand behavioural risk, can carry out dynamic risk assessments and know how to respond appropriately are better equipped to prevent incidents from escalating and to keep everyone safe. Training is essential to maintain effective risk management.

Supporting Safer Workplaces

At SecuriCare, we help organisations build confidence in behavioural risk management through practical, evidence-based training tailored to the environments in which people work.

From preventing and managing challenging behaviour to lone working, personal safety and specialist physical intervention programmes, our training equips staff with the skills to assess risk, make informed decisions and respond safely when it matters most.

If you're reviewing your organisation's risk assessments or looking to strengthen your approach to behavioural safety, our experienced team is here to help. Get in touch today.