About the training

Practitioners and clinicians are often required to assess risk and to formulate plans to reduce or manage the risk of intimate parttner violence that an individual may present. For example, violence risk assessment may be crucial to pre-sentence reports, parole assessments, community management plans such as MAPPA, or community mental health teams, in-patient services managing restricted patients, tribunal reports – the list is endless!

This two-day training event focuses on the Spousal Assault Risk Assessment Version 3 (SARAv3; Kropp et al., 2015) and the process of structured professional judgment risk assessment, as well as partner violence specifically.

The SARAv3 is an intimate partner violence risk assessment tool that follows the structured professional judgement approach to the assessment and management of intimate patrtner violence risk. The tool guides the assessor in considering information, identifying risk factors that are present and relevant, formulating risk, generating potential future risk scenarios, and creating appropriate risk management plans.

It is widely accepted in forensic risk assessment that structured professional judgement performs better than clinical judgement alone, and appropriate training is the key to thorough and defensible assessment.

We are the only company offering author-certified and approved SARAv3 training in England currently. This approved training is led by Dr Ruth Tully. Ruth was selected and had her knowledge of general principles of violence risk assessment and her familiarity with professional and scientific literature concerning the risk tools directly evaluated by the authors of the SARAv3. Ruth's skills in using risk assessment tools, report writing, skills in training other professionals, and accuracy of training materials were also assessed and approved. She engaged in the training curriculum, which in itself has been subject to peer review, and was passed as a trainer by the authors of the tool including Randy Kropp. Training content has been agreed and is based on the authors' development of training materials over decades.

As a guide, the training will cover the following:

• Version 3 of the SARAv3
• Formulation
• Administration of tool
• Practice case - unique case material
• Risk communication

The primary aim of the workshop is to ensure that delegates feel confident when assessing clients using the SARAv3 and to develop awareness of how risk management plans can be formulated. A certificate will be provided for evidence of attendance at this workshop, which may contribute to your continuing professional development (CPD).

Aside from the rigorous assessment and training  Ruth has engaged in to become an approved trainer, the benefits of attending official SARAv3 training include:

• Programme content designed, peer reviewed, and approved by the authors: specialist training in violence risk assessment.
• Training consistent with the tool's authors' aims and advice.
• Opportunity to have questions answered by approved trainer.
• Certificate provided.

Who should attend this workshop?

This workshop is designed for professionals (or in-training professionals) who may work with those at risk of violence, or who are likely to do so in the future.

This is likely to include psychologists, psychiatrists, Offender Managers/Probation Officers, nurses, social workers, forensic occupational therapists, forensic speech and language therapists, Police or Prison Officers, Panel members, other types of therapist, and those in professional training in these roles.

Legal professionals (e.g. solicitor, barrister, prison law consultant, Judge) are welcome to request to book onto the training for learning purposes (as opposed to become qualified to use the tool). This may enhance understanding and therefore examination of such assessments, which in turn may further increase the quality of work produced this field.

If you are unsure if this workshop is appropriate for your profession then please get in touch with us. This workshop is not usually appropriate for academic students only, as this group is not qualified/experienced to use the tool, but please enquire because we accept that circumstances can be unique.

About the trainer

The primary trainer for this event is Dr Ruth Tully. Ruth is a HCPC Registered and BPS Chartered Forensic Psychologist. Ruth is the Clinical Director at Tully Forensic Psychology Ltd and has worked with violent and sexual offenders for over 18 years. She has been assessing the risk of sexual and violent offenders for a number of years both as an individual professional and as part of multi-disciplinary teams. She has been selected, approved, assessed and and trained-to-train the HCR-20 and SARA by the authors. Ruth has published in peer-reviewed journals in the area of risk assessment, and she is an invited speaker at national and international conferences on this topic. Ruth is actively involved in the risk assessment, management and treatment of sexual and violent offenders both as a practitioner and consultant to services. Ruth has extensive experience working with those at risk violence in prisons, hospitals, and the community. She specialises in working in complex cases e.g. where a person may pose risk and also present with personality disorder, learning disability, multiple paraphilias, and/or mental illness. Ruth regularly provides expert witness evidence in prison, criminal, and family cases with a focus on forensic risk assessment. Ruth is an experienced trainer, also being an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK), and she has successfully delivered risk assessment training to hundreds of professionals over the last few years both in open and 'in house'/closed training formats.