What is a well-reasoned judgement or decision?

This film is part of the Working with uncertainty and risk in children's social care: Video learning resources.

Professor Eileen Munro examines how a well-reasoned judgement or decision can be defined, and what is an achievable standard of practice. How might the risk principles developed for policing look in a social work context to avoid the distortions of hindsight?

Talking Points  

This video looks at:  

• The aims and the background of the risk principles.
• The child’s safety and wellbeing as being at the centre of our work.
• Making decisions in conditions of uncertainty.
• Balancing harms and benefits.
• Judging practice by the quality of decision making instead of the outcome, appreciating that the right decision at the time can have the wrong outcome.
• The importance of appreciative inquiry and looking at good practice to understand how it is done well.
• Taking account of the context in which decisions are made, including the influence of previous decisions and organisational procedures and pressures.
• Why an individual’s experience should be factored into the standard of decision making, acknowledging that there can be legitimate differences of opinion in assessing risk.
• The importance of learning from success as well as failure.
• Why good information sharing is key to good risk assessment.
• Supporting staff to facilitate a well-reasoned decision.
• The importance of being proud of what we can achieve, including improving the quality of life for most of the children and families we work with.

Reflective questions    

1. Think about some of the things you are proud of achieving in supporting the children and families you work with. What helped you to do this? What were the barriers and how did you overcome these?
2. How do you share examples of ‘success’ in your team/organisation?
3. How do you make sure that the information you share is understood by colleagues, internally and externally?
4. What steps have you taken to make sure you fully understand and follow up on information you are sent from others, and that it is included in your decision making?
5. How have you resolved differences of opinion in assessing risk? How were supported in this? Is there anything you would change in hindsight?

Resources that are mentioned in this video   

• College of Policing: ten principles related to taking and reviewing risk.

Related resources  

• Appreciative Inquiry in child protection - identifying and promoting good practice and creating a learning culture: Practice Tool (2014).
• Defensible decision-making in children’s social care: Learning Programme Resources (2022)