Modern cities depend on individualism and the process of contracting. Contracts between individuals contribute to stability and order in cities. However, this is challenged by risks and uncertainties especially those relating to vulnerable individuals who are unable or unwilling to enter into contractual relations. This paper focuses on the role of caring professions and the impact of new strategies for managing risks related to vulnerable adults and children, especially the shift from managing risk in institutions to managing risk in the community. This paper is based on research funded through the ESRC Risk and Human Behaviour Programme.

ABSTRACT This article focuses on risk management in services for people with learning disabilities. It identifies the issue of risk as central to many historical and current care practices. It illustrates this through three examples that raise questions of risk in relationship to people with learning disabilities: on community care, alcohol and sexuality. It concludes that risk has often been negatively associated with danger, but that sensitive risk management has the potential to improve or maintain the quality of care services.

Two recommendations recur, almost with monotonous regularity, in virtually every report on the prevention of alcohol and tobacco-related problems produced over the past 25 years. These are the need to spend more on health education and the need for greater controls over advertising. Both of these measures involve intervention in the market for information. Together, the measures adopted in these two areas constitute the government's information policy; that is, how government attempts to communicate health information to the public and how it responds to activities that could prejudice or undermine that communication. Of course, health education involves far more than the communication of information, but providing information is a basic and an integral part of the educational process. The dissemination of health information is not all there is to health education, but it is an essential component. Indeed, it is an essential component of all prevention policy options. As Christine Godfrey notes in Chapter 7, controls over the price of alcohol or tobacco are unlikely to be introduced, or to survive for long, without the support of a well-informed public. The provision of information is not an alternative to the use of other policy instruments like legislation or fiscal controls, but an indispensible accompaniment.

The Data Note series is edited by David Robinson, ESRC Addiction Research Centre, University of Hull, Hull HU6, 7RX, to whom all comments and suggestions for future notes should be sent.

While there have been frequent demands for the UK government to improve policy co-ordination in relation to tobacco- and alcohol-induced harm, critics have rarely spelled out how they expect this to be achieved. This paper identifies three models of co-ordination which have appeared in the literature on organisations — the rational-corporate, partisan mutual adjustment and organisational networks — and examines whether any model offers an adequate description of the existing means of co-ordination in this field, or a prescription for its enhancement. It is concluded that government could achieve significant improvements in this area through modifications to the organisational networks involved in different sectors of prevention policy.

British Journal of AddictionVolume 81, Issue 3 p. 425-431 Data Note—3. Alcohol-related Fires and Drownings PHILIP TETHER, PHILIP TETHER ESRC Addiction Research Centre, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, U.K.Search for more papers by this authorLARRY HARRISON, LARRY HARRISON ESRC Addiction Research Centre, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, U.K.Search for more papers by this author PHILIP TETHER, PHILIP TETHER ESRC Addiction Research Centre, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, U.K.Search for more papers by this authorLARRY HARRISON, LARRY HARRISON ESRC Addiction Research Centre, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, U.K.Search for more papers by this author First published: March 1986 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.1986.tb00349.xCitations: 6 The Data Note series is edited by David Robinson, ESRC Addiction Research Centre, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX to whom all comments and suggestions for future notes should be sent. Reprint requests to Geoffrey Hardman, ESRC Addiction Research Centre, University of York, York YO1 5DD, U.K. AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat References Anderson, R., Willetts, P., Cheng, K. & Harland, W. (1983) Fire Deaths in the United Kingdom 1976–82, Fire and Materials 2, (7), pp. 67–72. Harland, W. & Woodley, W. (1979) Fire Fatality Study, Department of the Environment, Building Research Establishment Information Paper 18/79 ( Borehamwood , BRE). Holt, S., Stewart, I. C., Dixon, J. M., Elton, R. A., Taylor, T. V. & Little, K., (1980) Alcohol and the emergency service patient, British Medical Journal, Vol. 281, September. Poyner, B (1980) Personal Factors in Domestic Accidents ( London , Consumer Safety Unit, Department of Trade). RoSPA (1981) Care in the Home, October. Citing Literature Volume81, Issue3March 1986Pages 425-431 ReferencesRelatedInformation