The Guide to Effective Risk Management is published by the Mentoring & Befriending Foundation and is available as a free download here.

This guide is the result of undertaking surveys, site visits, interviews and a review of existing literature & online materials. It covers best general practice in assessing and managing risk as it relates to mentoring and befriending activities which in itself covers a wide range of different circumstances & exposure to risk. As such it may not answer all your questions or provide an out-of-the-box solution for every scenario but it does provide a good grounding in understanding what it meant by risk and how to start building your own understanding of how to approach the issue with your project.

Those looking for something with a stronger volunteering flavour might want to acquaint themselves with The Risk Toolkit from Volunteering England which was informed by much of the research behind this guide.

Along with a brief discussion regarding the nature of volunteer status which seems to be largely drawn from VE’s Volunteers and the Law there are a few other areas where useful information can be easily extracted by those of us with little time on our hands. Here’s a few such topics that we plan to add to on this site over time.

Though implementing risk management is a serious matter it does not have to be an overly taxing process. The guide describes two practice models which should be of value here. The first is an outline of five easy steps towards implementation:

Health and Safety Executive – 5 step approach

1. Look for the hazards
2. Decide who might be harmed, and how
3. For each hazard, evaluate the chance, big or small, of harm actually being done and decide whether existing precautions are adequate or more should be done.
4. Record the significant findings of your risk assessment, .e.g. the main risks and the measures you have taken to deal with them.
5. Review your assessment from time to time and revise if necessary

The second model is taken from the VE toolkit mentioned above and breaks down host/volunteer engagement into six elements for consideration:

1. Screening
2. Induction and Training
3. Risk Assessment
4. Record Keeping
5. Review
6. Insurance

After a review of both these models the guide suggests four areas where organisations need to consider risk:

1. Areas of organisational risk
2. Involvement of volunteers
3. Client group
4. The mentoring/befriending relationship

Obviously the responsibility for each of these will vary according to the nature of an organisations work or if supported volunteering exists only within a project within an organisation or as stand alone affair but it is a reasonable framework from which to build.

Other useful information can also be found in the appendix where there are useful case studies concerning the Salvation Army and Framework Housing Association which are likely to be covered elsewhere on this site in more detail.