Publish date: 29 December 2025
In April 2025, NHS England published new guidelines titled "Staying safe from suicide." These guidelines introduce a significant shift in how the needs of service users and patients are assessed. The main change is moving away from traditional risk assessments (which rate risk as high, medium, or low) to a focus on safety assessments conversations to understand what makes them unsafe and what we can do to improve their safety.
Impact on our training
Mersey Care has delivered Risk Assessment training for the past four years through the ERISK training modules. With the new guidelines, the content and messaging of ERISK training needs to be updated. This includes renaming the training and revising its content to align with the new safety assessment approach.
Help shape the future
We are now advertising a follow-up session, for those who were unable to attend in November. The description of the session, and the intended audience, is unchanged.
Session link
- 14 January 2026, from 1pm to 2.30pm
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Teams link: Suicide Safety Assessment training review
Please contact the Safe from Suicide team via our email for more information Safefrom
Thank you very much to all of you who attended similar sessions on Tuesday, 25 November 2025. We collected some really useful suggestions about format and content of the current training package, including ideas to strengthen links with clinical practice via case studies, scenarios and team level training. This feedback is being incorporated into the ongoing update of ERISK training modules.
