Why quality matters: the development of assurance processes to support risk assessment and rehabilitation with people convicted of terrorism

Purpose The risk assessment and rehabilitation of individuals convicted of terrorist offences remains a nascent field, with quality assurance increasingly recognised as a valuable tool for establishing standards. Historically focused on interventions, this paper aims to propose that quality assurance is key at the assessment stage to support the wider management and rehabilitation of this cohort. Design/methodology/approach An innovatory approach was taken to design and develop a robust quality assurance framework and supporting processes for the Extremism Risk Guidance, an assessment used to help inform decisions about risk and need for individuals convicted of terrorist offending. This paper describes the process followed to introduce the framework, details challenges encountered, strategies used, reviews outcomes observed and explores the future potential of quality assurance within this field. Findings Quality assurance is a valuable tool to strengthen risk assessments in this space. Implementation of the framework positively impacted the quality of assessments and provided additional benefits, including support to authors and a continuous improvement approach to this area of work. Research limitations/implications Research is advocated to further establish the utility of the framework. Practical implications Broader consideration of quality assurance across the complex field of counter terrorism is proposed. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is a unique approach to quality assurance of assessment in the counter terrorism space and is the first published paper describing the process followed.