Archived decisions

Contact: David Vallender, Head of Health and Safety (Adult Services) Tel: 01962 833019 [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 This report summarises:

· progress made on implementing the National Task Force on Violence against Social Care Staff

· progress made on implementing a revised departmental policy to address violence and aggression to staff having regard for the National Task Force recommendations

· the training programme introduced as a result of the National Task Force recommendations

1.2 The outcomes will impact on the delivery of the following Corporate Priorities:

· Hampshire safer and more secure for all - through combating the threat of violence and aggression to staff in Adult Services

· Maximising wellbeing - through initiatives to reassure staff over safety concerns and provide support when incidents occur

2. Recommendations

a) The Safe and Healthy People Select Committee are asked to note and comment on the contents of this report

3. Background

3.1 The potential for violence and aggression towards Adult Services staff is one of the main health and safety risks facing the department. Being subjected to violence and aggression, whether verbal or physical, may not only be demoralising and stressful for an individual but can also affect their performance at work as well as their life and relationships outside work.

3.2 Although staff are sometimes confronted with situations which are threatening and frightening, and occasionally they do take the form of physical aggression, often it is verbal abuse or threats that they face. All of these events are distressing, quite apart from any personal injury that may occur.

3.3 Another aspect of the threat of violence to staff is that of lone working whereby a number of Adult Services employees have by necessity to work on their own, unsupervised or accompanied by a colleague. That can be a significant factor when dealing with members of the public who may be unknown to the department previously or whose behaviour changes suddenly due to the affect of drugs or sudden changes in their life.

4. National Task Force on Violence

4.1 In 2001 the department signed up to the National Task Force on Violence, an initiative that emanated from the Department of Health. The departmental lead was Irene Unwin and ultimately a further person was employed on a short term contract to provide additional support.

4.2 Unfortunately Irene Unwin has since died and her work was not continued but the results were used by the health and safety team who picked up the National Task Force recommendations and other contemporary information. That learning was incorporated into their thinking and planning when devising policies and procedures for combating the threat of violence to staff.

4.3 It should be noted that the main thrust of the National Task Force was very NHS centric and included many aspirations, like zero tolerance, that were never fully implemented for reasons of conflicting interests.

5. Lone Working

5.1 The main recommendations of the National Task Force on Violence were adopted by the department when the Lone Working policy was reviewed and re-issued in November 2006 and many of the principles established at that time were utilised.

5.2 A computerised monitoring system was introduced alongside the policy launch and that allows staff to log their visits onto the system and clear them when they have finished safely or an alarm is raised. That system is predominantly used for out of hours monitoring.

5.3 The department is currently in discussions with a major UK company who specialise in a range of lone working solutions that cover all risks from low level monitoring of staff through to the control of higher levels of risk where tracking and tracing can be achieved by utilising new technology such as global positioning systems.

6 Violence and Aggression

6.1 Following the departmental reorganisation into Adult Services, the new health and safety team published a fresh procedure covering violence and aggression in January 2008. This replaced the former policy first issued in 1997.

6.2 The policy says that the Adult Services department deplores any acts or threats of violence or aggression towards its staff but it recognises that violent acts can be perpetrated by anyone and could emanate from a service user who may be in a confused or disturbed state of mind when violent or aggressive acts occur. In those circumstances, those facts have to be taken into account when considering the outcome of an event and the remedial action necessary to prevent a reoccurrence.

6.3 Importantly the procedure has defined acts of violence as follows:

(i) Aggressive physical contact which may or may not result in pain and/or injury.

(ii) Other aggressive behaviour including threatening physical violence, verbal or written abuse, intimidating behaviour causing fear or concern and sexual, racial or other harassment.

(iii) Aggression to property which may encompass a range of behaviour from throwing a cup to ransacking a building.

(iv) Behaviour which is involuntary but which results in aggressive physical contact or abuse - "Challenging Behaviour".

6.4 Data collected over the past couple of years has shown that challenging behaviour from adults

in our care and suffering from dementia has caused most concern amongst staff and we have

responded by introducing fresh training to address those concerns.

7. Training

7.1 The new Violence & Aggression procedure was designed in conjunction with our new training provider, Maybo, so that we could offer courses that answered potential risk assessment outcomes. We already had the evidence gathered by our incident reporting data as well as past experience to call upon.

7.2 Our new training regime takes account of the particularly complex variety of threats facing the department and we have worked very much in partnership with Maybo in seeking solutions using their considerable experience in other Local Authorities and in the wider private arena.

7.3 We currently have a range of courses that cover conflict management and disengagement for a range of staff including care managers and office based staff, challenging behaviour for older persons staff as well as some specific training for staff in the learning disabilities sector.

7.4 Training is constantly under review for suitability by the health and safety team, the training commissioning team and our current providers. The intention is to widen the scope to include all major risks as they are identified through our incident reporting or other indicators such as our health and safety auditing process.

8. Impact and Implications

8.1 Legal

8.1.1 There are no legal implications attached to the National Task Force implementation.

8.2 Financial

8.2.1 At this stage work to address areas requiring further implementation can be contained within existing budgets for Adult Services.

8.3 Personnel

8.3.1 No additional staffing requirements have been identified within Adult Services to undertake the National Task Force work programme

8.4 Impact Assessment

8.4.1 In compiling this report and the departmental policies referred to, account has been taken of the requirements of the Corporate Equalities Plan and Race Scheme.

9. Conclusion and next steps

8.1 Progress has been made by the health and safety team in the implementation of the National Task Force on Violence recommendations as they have been identified to date.

8.2 Progress has also been achieved in auditing the quality of implementation by the appointment of a Health and Safety Auditor in Adult Services.

8.3 Constant monitoring and review is required to ensure that any new initiatives from the National Task Force on Violence are adopted where appropriate.