Duty of care and dignity of risk

Housing justice work involves care for others, but how do we balance this with a respect for personal choice?

People working in homelessness, social housing, and housing justice hold a sense of responsibility for the wellbeing of others. However, this can be challenged when obstructive systems and under-resourced services limit the help that is available. Beyond this, the people that you want to help might be making choices that you see as risky or harmful. Effective housing justice work needs to balance a pragmatic duty of care and a well-informed dignity of risk.

Duty of Care and Dignity of Risk supports learners to understand their duties in relation to the care and the dignity of others. This course emphasises self-awareness and strategies for building responsible, supportive, and agentic environments that allow for meaningful and collaborative working relationships.

This training session is suitable for frontline and leadership roles in homelessness and social housing, and for anyone who is involved in housing justice and lived/living experience collaboration work.

At the end of this session, learners will be able to:

• Understand the concepts of ‘duty of care’ and ‘dignity of risk’

• Recognise the legal, ethical, and practical responsibilities of service providers in the homelessness and social housing sectors

• Identify assumptions and personal biases that can impact interactions with people experiencing homelessness or housing precarity

• Develop strategies to promote responsible, supportive, and agentic environments

• Develop strategies to support meaningful lived/living experience collaborations

This training session is 4.5 hours.

Delivery consists of a facilitator led training package via an online platform or face-to-face delivery.

This training session is interactive with an emphasis on activities that promote reflective practice and proactive implementation.