Acknowledging is you saying you have read the assessment and know how the team is managing that risk. It is the one part of the process that is yours.

Clear the ones waiting for you

On your dashboard, the Needs attention tab lists what is waiting for you. Risk assessments sit under Read and confirm, marked Risk assessment, with the young person and the version. A row reads "updated, version 2" if it has a new version since you last read it. Selecting the row shows a preview that says "Not acknowledged yet.", or "Changed since you acknowledged it."

Open the assessment from its row (Open to read), or from the preview's Open the assessment to read.
Read it: the Decision, then Key risks and Control measures. The Risk rating panel shows how likely and serious the risk was rated.
Select Acknowledge version 1 in the Read and acknowledge panel. The number is the version in front of you.

The panel is replaced by "You have acknowledged version 1" and the date and time. The row clears from your dashboard.

You can only acknowledge a version you have opened. If ARC has no record of you opening it, acknowledging is refused with "Please read the risk assessment, then confirm again." The page reloads, which records the opening, and you can acknowledge.

You can also reach an assessment from the young person's profile: Risks and agreed approach on the Overview tags anything you have not read Not read, and the Risk assessments panel under Care, health & education shows Acknowledged or Not acknowledged.

When an assessment changes

Anyone in the home can update a risk assessment. Each real change is a new version, and everyone else is asked to read it again. The panel then reads Read the changes and acknowledge: "This assessment has changed since you acknowledged version 1. Read it again, then acknowledge version 2." The person who made the change is recorded as having acknowledged it themselves.

So an assessment you cleared last week can come back. The Version history panel on the assessment shows what changed.

If nobody is being asked

Only active assessments are put in front of people. A new assessment sits as pending review until a manager approves it, and while it is pending nobody, including you, is asked to acknowledge it. See Nobody is being asked to acknowledge the risk assessment.

What it does and does not do

Your acknowledgement is recorded against you, that assessment and the version, with a timestamp.

Acknowledging is not agreeing, and it is not a review. If the assessment looks wrong or out of date, you can edit it yourself with Edit, or raise it with your manager. See Risk assessments.