Positive Risk Taking in the Care Sector
Positive risk taking training delivered at your workplace or remotely. Half a day, or a full day for teams supporting complex needs. A practical framework for supporting people to live independently and make real decisions about their own lives, while managing risk responsibly and within the law.
Course Overview
Think about what it means to remove every risk from someone’s life. No cooking. No walking to the corner shop. No choosing what to eat, where to go, or how to spend their day. That’s not safety. That’s a different kind of harm.
Positive risk taking is one of the most misunderstood areas in care. Faced with pressure from families, management and the fear of making a mistake, staff often default to restriction. It feels responsible. But when “keeping people safe” becomes “removing their choices”, care stops being person-centred and starts being something else entirely.
This course cuts through that. It gives care staff a clear, practical framework for supporting individuals to live as independently as possible, making real decisions about their own lives, while managing risk responsibly and within the law. It draws on the Mental Capacity Act 2005, the Care Act 2014, and the expectations of CQC Regulation 9: Person-Centred Care, and it’s built around the kinds of decisions your team actually faces day to day.
Course Details
- Duration: Half day (introductory) or full day (in-depth, recommended for teams supporting complex needs)
- Delivery: Face-to-face, in-house or remote via Zoom or Microsoft Teams
- Certificate: CPD-Accredited Certificate of Achievement in Positive Risk Taking in the Care Sector
- Awarding organisations: CPD-Accredited
- Validity: No fixed renewal period. Refresher recommended in line with organisational policy.
- Group size: Maximum 15 learners per trainer
Who This Course Is For
This course is right for care and support staff across any setting who support people to live independently and make their own decisions.
- Care assistants and support workers
- Senior carers and team leaders
- Domiciliary care staff
- Residential and nursing home staff
- Supported living staff
- Personal Assistants
It’s particularly relevant for teams who support individuals to maintain independence, are unsure how to balance safety with choice, are risk-averse out of fear of getting things wrong, or are preparing for a CQC inspection or internal audit. This course assumes staff already have a grounding in person-centred principles. If your team needs that foundation first, our Person-Centred Care and Planning course is the natural starting point.
Why This Training Matters
Risk is part of life. It’s part of everyone’s life, including the people your team supports. Walking to the shops, making a cup of tea, going out with friends, choosing what to eat: these activities carry risk. So does staying in bed all day, never leaving the house, and having every decision made for you. The difference is that we don’t always recognise the second kind as harm.
CQC Regulation 9: Person-Centred Care expects providers to support people to take appropriate risks as part of delivering person-centred care. Services that are overly restrictive will be seen as just that: restrictive. Not safe. Not good. Restrictive.
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 is clear that individuals have the right to make decisions others may consider unwise, as long as they have the capacity to make them. The Care Act 2014 goes further, placing wellbeing at the heart of everything: physical, mental, emotional and social. Removing someone’s ability to take risks doesn’t protect their well-being. Often, it damages it.
And under Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998, people have the right to respect for their private and family life. That includes the right to make choices about how they live. When staff don’t understand how to apply these frameworks in practice, risk avoidance fills the gap. This course changes that.
What the Day Covers
All content reflects the Mental Capacity Act 2005, the Care Act 2014, and current CQC guidance throughout. Topics covered include:
- Understanding risk in health and social care
- Positive risk taking explained
- Risk assessment principles
- Balancing safety, choice and independence
- Mental Capacity Act 2005 and decision-making
- Care Act 2014 and the Wellbeing Principle
- Human rights and the right to make choices
- Duty of care and accountability
- Involving individuals in decisions
- Documentation and recording
- Working within policies and procedures
- Learning from incidents and near misses
- Reflective practice
Every course is also built around the specific decisions your team faces, using your risk assessment documentation and policies as standard.
How the Course Is Delivered
This course is delivered face-to-face at your workplace or chosen venue, or remotely via Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Sessions include real-life scenarios from care settings, group discussion and problem-solving, practical examples linked to your environment, and space for staff to reflect on their own approach to risk.
Groups are capped at 15. Where it’s useful, we work directly with your risk assessment documentation, your policies and procedures, your incident reporting processes, and the specific challenges within your service. This isn’t off-the-shelf content delivered by rote. It’s training that reflects where your team actually is and what they’re actually dealing with.
Certification and Validity
On completion, learners receive a CPD-Accredited Certificate of Achievement in Positive Risk Taking in the Care Sector.
There’s no fixed renewal period, but refresher training is recommended to support consistency in decision-making, keep staff aligned with updated guidance, and maintain confidence over time. Many organisations build this into their annual or biennial training cycle. For teams supporting people who may lack the capacity to make certain decisions, our Mental Capacity Act and DoLS course is essential alongside this one.
Why Organisations Book With Prima Cura
Most training providers arrive with a course. We arrive with yours.
Before the day, we gather information about your workplace: your incident reporting forms, your internal procedures, and the specific hazards your team actually faces. On the day, your trainer works that into every scenario, every discussion, every practical exercise. If your staff work in a care home, they’re not practising on hypothetical office workers. If your team are lone workers, that context shapes how the session runs.
It means the training lands. Not because it was well-delivered in a generic sense, but because it was relevant to the people in the room and the situations they’ll actually encounter.
A few other things that matter to the organisations that book with us:
- 98.9% learner satisfaction across all Prima Cura courses
- All trainers hold Enhanced DBS certificates and maintain ongoing CPD
- We advise honestly on the qualification level at the enquiry stage. If a different course is a better fit for your workforce, we’ll say so before you book, not after
We respond to all enquiries within one working day.
Where We Deliver
We deliver in-house training at your workplace or chosen venue across Manchester, Greater Manchester, and the wider North West. We also deliver nationally across England, including North England, South England, London, and Surrey.
All sessions are led by experienced Prima Cura Training instructors. Groups are capped at 15 per trainer to protect the quality of hands-on learning.
Our associate network means we can deliver across England. You can meet the team on our Associates page.
FAQs
What is positive risk-taking in care?
It means supporting people to make real choices and live as independently as possible, while managing risk responsibly. The goal is not to eliminate risk but to understand it, assess it, and make sure the person at the centre of care is part of the conversation. Removing all risk from someone’s life isn’t the safe option it sounds like. It’s a different kind of harm.
How does this relate to the Mental Capacity Act?
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 gives people the right to make decisions others may consider unwise, as long as they have the capacity to make them. This course helps staff understand how to apply that in practice: when capacity needs to be assessed, what best interests decision-making looks like when someone doesn’t have capacity, and how to document it properly.
Why is this important for CQC inspections?
Under CQC Regulation 9: Person-Centred Care, services are expected to support independence and choice. If a team is routinely making restrictive decisions out of habit or fear rather than evidence-based assessment, that will show up during inspection, often in care plans that read as risk-averse rather than person-centred. This course gives staff the knowledge and confidence to demonstrate good practice, and the documentation to back it up.
How does this training help reduce incidents?
Staff who understand how to assess risk properly are better placed to make good decisions, spot warning signs, and escalate early when something doesn’t feel right. It’s not about taking risks carelessly. It’s about taking them thoughtfully, with the individual involved, and with proper documentation behind every decision. That documentation also matters when something does go wrong: it shows a considered decision was made, not that a risk was simply ignored.
Further Reading
- The Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Care: How the Mental Capacity Act applies to everyday decisions in care
- Care Certificate Standard 3: Duty of Care Explained: Balancing duty of care with an individual’s right to choose
- Person-Centred Care: Common Myths: Why “safety” and “restriction” aren’t the same thing
- What Person-Centred Care Really Means: The principles that positive risk-taking puts into practice
Related Courses
- Person-Centred Care and Planning
- Mental Capacity Act and DoLS
- Adult Safeguarding Level 1 and 2
- Duty of Care
- Communication in Care
Book or Enquire
Book your training or request a quote
Tell us your team size and your sector. We’ll come back with a quote, the right advice on qualification level, and a straight answer on whether this is the best course for your team.
We respond to all enquiries within one working day.
Our Commitment to Quality and Compliance
At Prima Cura Training, all courses reflect current UK guidance and best practice. All trainers are experienced professionals with relevant qualifications and ongoing CPD. Because many of the organisations we support work with vulnerable individuals, all trainers hold Enhanced DBS checks.
This course is reviewed against updates from the Care Quality Commission and current UK legislation, including the Mental Capacity Act 2005, the Care Act 2014, the Human Rights Act 1998, and the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
You can read more on our Quality Assurance and Compliance page.
Reviewed by Stephanie Austin, Owner and Lead Trainer, Prima Cura Training | 25+ years in health and social care | 15+ years as a trainer | Last reviewed: June 2026 | Next review: June 2027
This page provides general guidance on positive risk-taking principles and practice and reflects current CQC guidance and UK legislation at the date of review. It does not replace organisational policies, supervision, or legal responsibilities. Providers remain responsible for ensuring care delivery meets current UK legislation and CQC expectations, including Regulation 9 (Person-Centred Care), the Mental Capacity Act 2005, and the Care Act 2014.
