Violence in the workplace

TEACHERS, LIBRARIANS AND CARERS ARE BEING PUNCHED, KICKED, SHOVED AND SHOUTED AT ON A REGULAR BASIS

WHEN you sign up to work for a local authority, you don’t usually expect to be paid danger money. But perhaps you should. It seems that working for councils can be a dangerous business. We all know that teachers employed by local authorities can sometimes face violence and appalling behaviour, but an investigation by MyLondon reveals that carers, parking attendants, children’s support workers and even librarians all face the prospect of being kicked, punched, pushed and shouted at in their roles.

In fact there were an astonishing 330 recorded assaults on Hillingdon council staff in the space of three years, and – even more incredibly – 94 of them happened at a single children’s home.

The home, which Hillingdon Council has asked the Local Democracy Service not to name in order to protect its charges, was described by the Care Quality Commission as a health and outreach service for Children with Disabilities.

Additionally 75 verbal or physical assaults in the same period occurred at schools, and 55 happened in the council’s libraries.

In response to the figures, Hillingdon Council said: “The safety of our employees is our top priority and we have a number of measures in place to protect them, whatever their role.

“This includes CCTV at council sites, a clear reporting process, regular training, support from professional health and safety advisors, and routine monitoring of incidents by senior management.

“Our libraries have a system for banning abusive customers, and social care policies are in place [to] ensure that members of staff who work with adults and children in care have the appropriate support to deal with challenging behaviour.”

Health and safety management policies and practice are implemented by schools themselves.

Over the same three-year period, 71 incidents also happened off-site and 13 happened in housing offices.

The council said there was additional support for employees in frontline roles, such as contracted traffic management officers, who are all equipped with body-worn cameras and tracking devices.

“We also have an extensive employee assistance programme that provides a range of support and advice on physical and mental health and wellbeing.

“We take a zero tolerance approach to abuse of our employees, and in the unfortunate event of an assault, we work closely with the Metropolitan Police to ensure it is investigated thoroughly.”

There was a marked drop in verbal and physical assaults between the two periods, the first of which ran from April 2016 to December 2017, and the second of which ran from January 2018 to March 2019.

In the first year and eight month period there were 286 assaults, and in the second year and two month period there were only 44.

This may be due to the introduction of a new incident reporting system in January 2018, which provides clearer classification for work and non-work related incidents.

The council however could not verify if this was the cause of the drop without opening each file individually.