Report outlines accidents and attacks on council staff

SHOCKING incidents including a social worker being blocked from leaving a property by a raging occupant and school pupils attacking their headteachers have been revealed in a Halton Borough Council accidents and injuries report.

According to document data, there were three attacks by pupils on headteachers during 2017, and that overall staff who worked with children were most likely to be assaulted.

In total, there were eight ‘physical incidents’ in schools plus two instances of verbal abuse.

Halton Council reported that its staff were more likely to be attacked in 2017 than the previous year.

It said workers in 2017 were attacked seven times, up from once in the whole of 2016 but still down from 10 assaults in 2015.

Tony Dean, the council’s principal health and safety advisor, reported that three of the incidents in 2017 involved behaviour and learning staff, two for open spaces team members and others for those employed in children’s social care.

There were two verbal assaults at One Stop Shop offices, but the number of verbal assaults had fallen overall, decreasing to eight in 2017, down from 11 in 2016 and 14 in 2015.

The report revealed that more council staff are now registered with its lone working monitoring system, rising to 400 in late 2017 from 340 in the first half of the year.

Mr Dean said two incidents showed the benefits of the scheme – including a social worker who was blocked from leaving a property and from using her mobile phone to raise the alarm by the occupant, who was making ‘serious physical threats’.

Mean while in the other incident a social worker stopped a male from entering a property after he threatened her and his mother, but this time the staff member had a lone working phone and could call for help.

Mr Dean said the number of days lost due to staff accidents and incidents has plunged in the last two years, with 55 days lost in 2017, compared to 70 last year and 166 in 2015 – three times the 2017 rate.

There were four events classed as ‘near misses’ in 2017, down from 10 in 2016 and similar to 2015 when three took place.

The details were published for Halton Borough Council’s corporate policy and performance board.