Assaults survey: full findings reveal rising abuse of frontline housing staff

“He came right up to me and had his finger within inches of my face – it was awful.”

Alison* is describing an experience she had while working as a frontline housing officer in the North East of England. She was leading a public meeting for her local authority when one resident began complaining that he was having difficulty contacting the council. The incident quickly escalated and the resident became threatening.

“I started to have a panic attack,” she recalls. “It is not something I’ve ever experienced before – I had to leave the room.” Hat tip reporter Jack Simpson

The trade magazine for Council and Housing Associations "Inside Housing" has carried out an annual confidential survey of workers and freedom of information requests on "violence at work".

They found (pay wall) :-

"Our 2019 assaults survey shows violence against #ukhousing frontline staff on the increase

Welfare reform agenda, social media and mental health concerns blamed for rise in assaults on #ukhousing workers
There are nearly eight assaults for every 100 frontline #ukhousing workers – read the shocking results of our exclusive survey

I was interviewed as a branch officer of UNISON London Housing Associations. When I was a front line housing officer in East London for 25 years,  I had been punched, spat at, abused and even threatened with an axe attack. While physical attacks and threats were thankfully rare, verbal abuse was sometimes commonplace.

My response to the rise was “We are pretty sure that the problem is far, far worse than even these shocking statistics lay out...The sector is plagued by under-reporting".

With regard to modern day social media abuse I said “There used to be the occasional instance where tenants would follow workers home to sort of say ‘we know where you live’,” he says. “The social media stuff is a different form of that.”

"there is a problem with training throughout the sector and that associations need to work harder to ensure workers are prepared for situations where they are at risk.

But most of all employers need to act. “This is really, really crucial. If an employer doesn’t act, staff are brutalised and this will ultimately affect the service it provides to tenants.”

I also recommended to the reporter that a possible solution is employers signing up to the simple but effective UNISON "End Violence at Work" charter. 

"What it's like to be on the receiving end of a violent attack..." Lynn's Story and UNISON Charter on Violence at Work

Yesterday there was a Parliamentary launch of the UNISON Violence at Work Charter for the 3rd Sector (Housing Associations & Charities). There was a number of MPs and employers who turned up to support the launch. The contribution by UNISON Member, Lynn Gillespie, at this event about her violent assault at work will be unforgettable to anyone who heard it. 

"Hi. My name is Lynn Gillespie. I work for WM Housing and I’m a proud UNISON member and workplace rep. I’m here today to tell you what it’s like to be on the receiving end of a violent attack as a result of my work.

It is an accepted fact that those of us in public service have to, on occasion, deliver bad news or do something that may not be liked by our clients or customers . Sadly, this means there are occasions when people react in a violent or aggressive manner.

When I was a homeless officer I had a telephone, a chair and other miscellaneous objects thrown at me. I’ve also had a punch thrown at my face.

Thankfully, my husband was nearby and was able to protect me. As a result he received severe bruising to his back. I dread to think what might have happened had we not been rescued by two off duty firemen who saw the attack and shouted and as a result the assailants ran off.

That was in 1999, I was a tenancy enforcement officer by that time taking action against perpetrators of serious anti social behaviour. The impact on my family was more hurtful that my injuries as I could not see my daughters aged 5 and 7 for nearly a week as my face was so horribly bruised with a broken nose and cheekbone. They were spun a tale of mummy having ate something that did not agree with her that had given her an allergic reaction. They cried when they eventually saw me and that hurt even more.

What did help, was that I was totally supported at work by my manager who came to see me at home on the Monday as I had been due in Court and he took my court case from me and went to court himself. He was also armed with the largest bunch of flowers I had ever seen which as he pointed out would not take away the horror of the attack but hopefully would cheer me up.

My employers have always taken assaults on staff very seriously and we have an excellent internal reporting system in place for all assaults be they near misses, verbal abuse or threats or actual physical harm which thankfully does not happen too often. We do not hesitate to take action against the perpetrators and if they are our tenants we take action against their tenancy.

I am also proud to say that my employer, WM Housing, was the first organisation to sign up to the Violence at Work Charter having already put in place everything on the list.

Sadly, the stories from UNISON members in the Third Sector is that nowhere near enough employers take this responsible approach. Too many workers in the sector are being expected to put up with violent and aggressive behaviour, being told that it is part of the job. The Violence at work charter is my union’s attempt to draw a line in the sand. We say enough is enough. Committed charity and housing association workers, in fact, no workers, should be assaulted as a result of their public service.

Please go back to your employers and encourage them to sign if they have not already as we have to take a stand against this unfortunate fact of working life that affects far too many of us working in our sector.

Thank you for listening".

Assaults against housing staff survey 2017

If you work in social housing please spend 10 minutes filling out this important Inside Housing annual survey here. Violence at work is a key issue. A member of my branch executive has only recently returned to work after several weeks off following an attack.

Constant low level abuse and threats can also result in real health problems for staff.

In order to do something about this you firstly you need to know what is the range and scale of the problem.

Violence at work: When someone with a grudge against a Housing worker takes a can of petrol...

Last week was European Health and Safety week. This is a time to think about work related safety matters.

Early this month I was rang by the radio programme "BBC 5 Live investigates". They asked if I was available to be interviewed by the programme about housing officers facing violence at work.

My name and contact details had been given out by UNISON. They were not sure if I would be needed but wanted me as a reserve. Which is fair enough and the way media works.

The programme went out live on Sunday 2 October and I had to wait to see if I was called. As it happened they did not ring me about my experiences of violence at work as a housing officer. I have no complaints about that since they did interview Joanne, a housing worker in the South East of England and her story was simply shocking.

She described how a resident had thrown a chair at her in a meeting and had waited outside her office for her with knives. The police had also contacted her to warn that this person had been caught with a canister of petrol and admitted that they had intended to attack her, pour petrol over her and set her alight.

This is obviously an extreme event and thankfully very rare. However, the programme also referred to a recent Inside Housing survey where 7/10 Housing officers said that they had been punched, attacked with a weapon or held hostage. Violence at work is completely unacceptable and while some housing organisations work well with staff and unions to make safety a top issue, some don't.

I was quoted in the article about the survey:

"John Gray, housing association branch secretary at Unison, fears that as staff cutbacks continue, staff safety could end up getting overlooked.

“Organisations are cutting jobs, they’re merging, they’re reducing the number of employees,” he says.

“A housing manager has a huge amount of work to do. Will they be updating the risk assessment every year? Will they be encouraging staff to report properly on assaults or near misses, after which they would have to generate a report? Will they be going to health and safety committees or will they be going to the void panels? Generally there is less infantry to deal with the problem.”

According to the TUC in a unionised workplace you are twice as safe as in one where unions are not recognised.

Blame the victims

"Too many housing associations do not support the victims of workplace violence, says John Gray"

 

Below is an opinion piece I wrote for Inside Housing last week (it is behind a paywall). I think you will find the same thing in many other sectors.

"Blame the victims 

As the secretary of a large Unison housing branch which represents members in over 140 different employers, why is it that some organisations report relatively high assaults and other incidents of violence at work, while similar ones report little or none?

"With the tragic murder of Jo Cox MP there can be no one who is not aware of the consequences of violence at work."

Is it really because the employers who don't report assaults are so well run that their staff are never threatened or attacked? Or perhaps the truth is that too many employers don't support staff that are assaulted, discourage reporting and don't bother investigating attacks and near-misses.

To be clear, only a tiny minority of our residents are in any way a threat to staff, but we do have to deal with drug and alcohol problems, anti-social behaviour, evictions, gangs, domestic violence and other potential hazards.

Some managers will even blame staff who report assaults for "lack of professionalism" and in some way "allowing" themselves to be hurt. Sometimes staff have so little confidence in management to actually do anything about assaults that they say "why bother?".  The demonisation by the media of "elf 'n safety" as being in some way unnecessary and bureaucratic.

Since it is clear that there is, at best, massive under-reporting of assaults, what can be done about it? Here are five key points for a start:

1. Chief executives and senior management teams ought to realise that they have a clear duty to make sure that they have an effective health and safety system in place, and that if they don't have a real reporting, monitoring and investigating process in place then they are clearly failing in that duty.

2. If something does "go wrong" then they may face imprisonment and unlimited personal fines for breaching health and safety regulations.

3. They should make sure that they employ sufficient safety advisers and make sure that joint union and management safety committees happen, and encourage union safety reps to check risk assessments and investigate incidents. 

4. The regulator should be stepping in. If an organisation is not reporting assaults and complying with the law, then what other things are they not reporting or not complying with?

5. The Chartered Institute of Housing, the National Housing Federation, the Local Government Association and the unions should be working together in partnership to educate, train, monitor and encourage compliance by all employers, managers and staff.

None of the above is rocket science. None of the above is impossible to achieve. This is just having sensible policies and making sure they are actually working and in place. Last week with the tragic murder of Jo Cox MP there can be no one who is now not aware of the potential risks and consequences of violence at work.

John Gray, housing association branch secretary, Unison

Violence at Work: Unison Community Conference 2016

The UNISON community conference started on Saturday afternoon after the close of the seminar. I spoke in favour of this motion below.

"Conference, President, John Gray, one of your elected Community ＮＥＣ members and proud to be a health and safety rep. Moving motion 2 "Violence at Work" on behalf of the SGE.

Conference, the general public is beginning to understanding how vulnerable social care users are to potential abuse. However, what the public doesn't understand, is how due to the lack of investment in training, support and staffing, we now routinely have staff at risk too.

This too is a national scandal. While the HSE, which relies on employers reporting incidents, claim that only 1.3% of workers in caring professions suffer violence at work in one year. Unison’s own research of community members found that nearly half of our members, suffered an incident of violence or aggression over the last 2 years.

Conference, why is this? Why such massive under reporting by employers? Why such under reporting by staff as well? Equally, Why to be honest, did I as a young housing officer, in East London, shrug off the threat by a gang member to put an axe in my head during a messy eviction and not report it? The truth of the matter is that in too many workplaces, and not just social care, there is a problem that violence and aggression, is seen as just being "Part of the job". or“it goes with the territory”. How many times will we hear this?

Even worse than this. Members often mention that the reason why they do not report violence at work, is that they fear being blamed for "allowing" the incident to happen and being told by managers, that if in some way, they were more professional, it wouldn't have happened in the first place.

To top even this, many staff also say that the reason, why they don't report incidents is that they have little or no confidence whatsoever that the employer will do anything about it. So it is a waste of time to report anything.

Conference, while it is a fact that we will face violence and aggression in our work, it is also a fact that something can be done to tackle this and prevent many incidents happening again. If employers (and trade union safety reps) Investigate every incidents and learn what went wrong and what went right. We can learn and do things differently and stop many assualts happening again and again.

Your employer as a legal duty to protect you at work. To protect you at work they need to provide a safe system of work. That safe system of work must be based on them providing proper support and resources to workers to do their job - safely

 Conference we must do 3 things Firstly, make the public aware of what is going on.

 Secondly, we must campaign for zero tolerance of violence at work and make it clear that safety is a collective issue and raise expectations of our members that they feel empowered to report every single incident.

Thirdly, We must try to work with our employers but after a point, as a union, we must name and shame employers who don't provide such support, allow under reporting, don't investigate, don't take action to protect their staff and then also demand that the HSE and Local authorities prosecute the senior managers, executives and board members, who put members health, safety and even lives at risk.

 Conference, I move

UNISON Housing Association Branch Secretary Report 2014 "A tale of two Cities"

This is a tale of two Cities. On the right there is a picture of London investment bankers jeering and taunting "Save our NHS" protesters with bank notes who were in the street below. 

While left is a picture from the crime scene in Lambeth last year when 3 Housing Association workers and a Court official were shot at and 2 seriously wounded while carrying out their duties. 

This was my contribution to our branch annual report as Branch Secretary. 

"UNISON branch Housing management and Social Care members live and work in one city called London. 

Their London is now feeling the full blast of austerity.  They have to deal with the real life consequences of the bedroom tax, benefit caps, massive rents increases and coalition cuts.  At the same time suffering yet another year of either pay reductions or below average pay awards (or in some cases – both).

In their London overcrowding and homelessness grows. We see more and more dependent on food banks for basic survival.

Our London Housing workers have seen attacks on their employment conditions and safety. They  have to pay huge tribunal fees if they are bullied or treated unfairly at work.  TUPE protection is under further attack. 

Yet there is another City also called London. This is a London of the rich and the powerful. Of millionaires who now pay less tax than those who clean their offices. Of financiers who by their recklessness and fraud brought about this recession.   We have executives in our own sector whose mates decide how much they earn and who can earn more in a year than our London low paid members earn in a life time. Who have lucrative bonuses, 12 month severance packages and luxury status cars.

The first step to challenge this tale of two cities is via your union. UNISON is already by far the largest union in our sectors but we must grow. We must organise new stewards and recruit more members. We must get more recognition agreements and facility time. We must train stewards and activists, hold regular shop meetings, communicate and listen to our members and work with residents. We need to re-balance power in the workplace in order to get a better deal.

The next step is political. There will be elections in London and Europe next year. The year after that there will be a General election. For the first time in a generation housing, in nearly all its forms seems to be near the top of the political agenda. People are worried about the cost of living but also  what will happen to their elderly relatives as well as their sons and daughters who cannot afford to leave home. While scandals in schemes run by poorly paid and trained staff such as Winterbourne are I think also beginning to change attitudes.

2014 will see more yet misery for our residents, clients and our members but it can also be the beginning of the end of Two Cities called London".

Community Health & Safety Report and Violence at Work Seminar

Picture of UNISON National officer for Health and Safety, Robert Baughan addressing a seminar last week organised by London Housing Association Branch on "Violence at Work" last week.

This week I made my report (below) as the UNISON Community rep on the National Health and Safety Committee. 

"The UNISON Community Service Group represents 60,000 members who work for Housing Associations and in the Voluntary sector.

London Shooting

The sector was shocked by the shooting in July in London of a Housing Association worker and a Court bailiff who were attempting to evict a tenant. The injuries were thankfully not life threatening but according to Inside Housing magazine a man has been charged with 3 counts of attempted murder (including an income officer who was also present at the shooting).

The details of this incident are unclear pending a future court hearing but many Housing workers are concerned about a rise in violence at work due to welfare reform. In particular due to the bedroom tax, the total benefit cap and the proposed direct payment of housing benefit to tenants.

One major Housing Association has recently reported that 25% of tenants subject to the bedroom tax since April 2013 have not paid anything towards their new arrears and 24% have only paid part.

This will lead to an increase in rent arrears and evictions. While all Housing organisations should be encouraged to look at recovering debt by other means than evictions, it is likely that some Associations and Charities will feel forced to evict or face financial collapse.

This will also mean that staff will come into conflict with residents and family members who have never been in arrears before and may pose an unknown risk.

While cuts by the Government to Local Authority grants and Supporting Peoples funding has meant that staffing levels at many residential projects and floating support for vulnerable clients have been cut. Experienced staff have also been made redundant or left due to wage cuts. This can increase the risk to new staff and those remaining.

Organisations are also increasingly being forced to take on higher risk clients with more demanding needs in order to attract funding. At the same time training budgets are being cut.

Activist training

London Housing Association branch held a well attended health and safety training day last week for activists on “Violence at Work”. Robert Baughan from UNISON’s Health and Safety spoke about UNISON guidance policies and the recent national questionnaire on violence. Then there was a “violence at work” workshop looking at two recent actual cases dealt with by the branch:

· A member who was threatened by a service user with a history of violence.

· A member working in a facility for vulnerable young people who was concerned about the safety of herself and her colleagues.

Followed by a talk on “Organising around health and safety/doing a workplace inspection during National Inspection day” (23rd October) and a presentation on “Assault claims and personal injury claims” by Andrew Wales from Thompsons Solicitors. He spoke about assault claims, health and safety regulations and general personal injury claims, followed by a question and answer session.

There has been a national survey by Unison on "Violence at Work" of Community staff which will be publically launched next month.

To counter these risks the organising challenge for health and safety in our sector is the same as for the wider union. The message must be the higher the UNISON density in the workplace and the greater the number of safety reps - the greater the power and influence of the union to make sure you are safe at work.

Housing workers face more violence due to welfare cuts

Well done to Inside Housing magazine (again) for their recent survey of housing workers. 83% believe that they face more risk of violence at work due to welfare cuts and 41% feel less safe than they did 12 Months ago.

I had been interviewed by their reporter and was quoted "Housing officers are going to be expected to evict model tenants who have never caused any problems, who due to austerity and welfare reforms [are unable to pay their rent]. It is expected that tenants and their relatives are going to get angry.’

In a second article looking at a rise in verbal and physical assaults during the past 12 months there was a number of horrendous quotes from different housing staff who are shouted and sworn at on a weekly basis; kicked; punched; shot at with a air rifle; had a bowling ball thrown at them from a high rise; threats to kill; threats to burn down their homes and kidnap their children.

What is also worrying is that 75% of staff believe that their employer is not doing enough to protect them and 25% think it is pointless reporting such incidents to their boss since it would be a "waste of time". They also believe cuts in staffing levels have made the risk worse.

Until we can get rid of this Tory led coalition government unions and employers must work together to try and keep housing staff safe. We need more union safety reps who must be given sufficient time off to be trained, attend joint safety committees, properly inspect workplaces and constantly review updated risk assessments.

Employers need to put their hands in their pockets and fully resource their health and safety advisers, buy decent and up to date protective equipment for staff and most importantly - stop threatening to evict those tenants who cannot pay bedroom tax. There are other ways to collect debt and in many places there is no suitable smaller alternative accommodation to offer them.

“Work related injuries double in 6 Years”

Well done to “Inside Housing” for exposing this huge rise in work related injuries amongst housing officers. I was interviewed for this piece as the UNISON Housing Association Branch Health & Safety officer. They reported my view that the figures were “shocking” but due to under reporting such statistics actually underplayed the true extent of the problem and that common occupational health illnesses such as work related stress are not reportable in any case.

I also pointed out that in some organisations Housing staff are “encouraged” not to report attacks by residents since they will be blamed for not being “professional enough to avoid being attacked in the first place”. Pretty sick (pardon the pun and thankfully this attitude is not found in all Housing organisations) but true.

Funny enough during last week’s protests by Notting Hill Housing staff I was told by UNISON members that they had been told by a certain, let us say, “very senior manager” (mention no names) something very similar to above.

Regional Health & Safety – “Violence at Work” compensation

Last week I went to the UNISON London regional health & safety committee meeting. First, we have a normal “business” meeting regarding safety issues in London. Then we usually have a guest speaker. This month we were pleased to see again Henrietta Phillips from the trade union solicitors Thompsons. Henrietta in fact spoke at the last meeting on “work related stress, bullying and harassment”. This time she talked about legal remedies following “Violence at Work” (see new UNISON safety guide here).

During the committee meeting we discussed planning for this year’s European Health & Safety week (20-24 October) and National Inspection Day. It’s too late for this year, but to encourage inspections we talked about buying clip boards and reflective safety bibs with UNISON logos for London safety reps. Maybe all new safety reps should get these things included in the “Welcome Pack” they automatically receive when they become reps?

My favourite agenda item is when each committee member gives a local report on issues in their workplace. For some reason one committee member recalled the issue he came across in his housing department where they had to deal with a tenant who kept his horse in his home. Now, this is not a particularly sensible thing for anyone to do, especially since he lived on the 9th floor of a tower block and he used to take the horse up and down in the lift.

On a far more serious issue it was reported that 104 housing officers in one employer were tested for exposure to TB and 4 (all British born) were found to be in danger of developing the disease and had to be given 6 month courses of treatment. I think we should all review risk assessments for visiting officers to take account of such biological hazards.

Another committee member reported that in their workplace they were getting rid of unnecessary safety signage. These just cause clutter and confuse people. For example, in their main office staircase there was a sign saying “Hold the rail on your Left”. Which is just plain silly - such things give health & safety a bad image.

One organisation had not only introduced home working and hot-desking but had got rid of all desk telephones and issued staff with mobile phones (with email etc). There was an issue regarding the risk to pregnant women from using such phones. Any risk is hotly denied by the mobile companies themselves, but there have been a number of reports about theoretical dangers. It would therefore appear to make sense that such staff should be issued with a normal desk phone for purely precautionary measures.

There is one issue that UNISON needs to get sorted ASAP. Many UNISON branch offices are not accessible to disabled members. This should not happen in this day and age.

Next item was report backs from conferences attended by committee members. Two had gone to this year’s Hazard Conference in the University of Keele. This is probably the most important conference for safety reps. Both committee members found the conference very useful and would encourage people to attend the conference in the future. One mentioned being shocked at a presentation made by the widower of a teacher who had died of an asbestos related disease despite the fact that she had been a teacher all her life and had no other known risk factors. Many, many schools are riddled with asbestos containing materials. Between 2001-2005 nationally 62 teachers were reported to have died of such diseases. A sobering thought.

The meeting agreed that I could attend a conference on 24 November run by the CCA on the “Future of Safety Enforcement”.

I gave a report as the London representative on the UNISON national health & safety committee. I had already been asked to bring up safety concerns over “hot-desking” and to ask UNISON if there are any plans for up-to-date guidance on this topic.

After the close of the committee meeting Henrietta gave her presentation on “Violence at Work” to the Health & Safety network, to which all UNISON branch safety officers are invited.

All UNISON members injured in an accident or assault at work are entitled to free legal advice and assistance form Thompsons. Members can contact UNISON direct on 0845 355 0845 to be referred.

There are 3 possible routes to compensation – claim against the employer, the assailant (not normally any use) or via the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA).

The key issue with regard to any possible legal case against an employer is to establish “failings”. An employer has a duty of care to provide a safe place of work and a safe system of work. To win a claim you have to prove that the employer was in breach of that duty, either by breaching safety law or by being negligent and that breach or negligence caused injury.

Usually it is difficult to win since you have to persuade a court that the employer is responsible for a third party assailant. However, if you can establish a pattern of “failings” and negligence you can be successful. Henrietta suggested a checklist of things that should be done after an assault.

Such as report attacks to the Police and record details of crime numbers etc, write you account about what happened as soon as is possible, take copies of all reports you make, ask for copy of employer investigation and RIDDOR reports (if applicable) get full contact details of any witnesses, have photographs taken of injuries, record details of any visits to doctors or hospital, keep any receipts for any expense you incur.

She encouraged all “near misses” or incidents of aggressive behaviour to be recorded. This may help prove that the employers should have been aware of the risk.

At the beginning Henrietta had pointed out that personal injury cases are for workers who have already been hurt, while the whole point of safety reps is to try and prevent injuries occurring in the first place. While I am in favour personally of a “no fault” compensatory payments scheme rather than resorting to legal claims for compensation. If a claim is strong and compensation is paid then this would have the welcome effect of encouraging the employer to change and improve its working practices. As usual - Money talks.

“Tackling Violence & Aggression at Work”

During conference lunch break on the Thursday, there was the official health & safety fringe. The extremely well attended meeting was chaired by Nick Green, who is the chair of UNISON lay health & safety committee. There were two speakers, Robert Baughan (left), national UNISON officer and David Tucker QC (right), a criminal barrister with the Crown Prosecution Service.

Robert used the occasion to launch the new UNISON guide on tackling work related violence called “Its Not Part of the Job”. This booklet is a step by step guide for safety reps on how to deal with this major occupational hazard. The emphasis is on getting the issue recognised, developing a policy and PREVENTION. There are some pretty useful case studies across the public sector to refer to. One thing that set me thinking is that Robert made a convincing case for any sick leave resulting from violence should be treated different under the company sickness absence policy? I have never argued this before.

David Tucker is not what you imagine a typical senior government barrister to be. He started off with a joke about a suspect who was being interviewed by Police and asked “had you stolen these pigs?” “No, they are Kosher” he replied (allegedly). The jokes didn’t get that better, but I did enjoy his introduction to the audience of the CPS complaints procedure booklet, which he dramatically threw over his shoulder to the back of the hall saying “you don’t need that do you”.

More seriously he explained in detail the “points to prove” if the CPS are to successfully prosecute someone for assaulting a hospital worker or other anyone else at work. There is a new offence of “causing a nuisance or disturbance on NHS premises” (section 119-121) which frankly had so many separate points to prove that he thought it unlikely that it would be used that often. But is does include a power to remove someone who is causing a nuisance or disturbance by approved and trained staff.

Often assailants who have mental health problems are not prosecuted because Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights states that everyone must “understand” what is happening to them if they are to be charged. There is no general immunity for those with mental health issues. David did think that some sort of action is necessary in these circumstances, not least to set “boundaries” for patients or clients.

The CPS does not operate a “zero tolerance” policy; rather they “evaluate the need to prosecute”. Which is actually at odds with the new UNISON guide which states that our members expect a “zero tolerance” approach (page 5)?

At the rather rushed Q&A at the end, David had a very hard time from a Police civilian station officer (UNISON organises amongst Police civilian staff outside London) who was desperately upset and angry with the whole criminal justice system, which she believes does not protect workers or properly punishes violent criminals. I did manage to ask him a question about whether organisations which obstruct or even prevents staff that has been assaulted from reporting these crimes to the Police, should be prosecuted themselves? But I don’t think he had time to answer it.

It was really nice to see UNSION National Health & Safety officer, Hope Daily at the fringe. Quite a few years ago now, both of us completed the year long TUC Certificate in Occupational Health & Safety with the WEA. On the course was also a fellow “Buckley mug” and mustard keen GMB safety rep, Idwal, who was an ex-RSM with the Welsh Guards, a Falklands veteran and a serving Beefeater at the Tower of London! Not your average trade union safety rep!

Safety of Front Line Housing Officers

Excellent article and survey in yesterday’s “Inside Housing” by Simon Brandon on the risks from violence at work and occupational stress for front line housing staff.

Working in “social housing” (ugly word, wish they could think of something else) has changed dramatically in recent years. The article has housing officers pointing out that they are now expected to be “social workers.....environmental health officers, plain clothes police officer and agony aunts”. None of which is in any job description. 73% have feared for their safety while at work.

I remember another inside housing survey in 2005 where 11% of staff reported that they had been held against their will in resident's homes.

I think that one of the biggest challenges is that most housing organisations are now really trying to tackle anti-social behaviour (ASB). For years “neighbour nuisance “was sweep under the carpet as the sector complained about either the lack of effective legal powers or not having any co-operation with the Police.

However, “More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones.” St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582). The government have now responded with an avalanche of ASB legislation and reorganised local policing. If you tackle this behaviour then the risk to housing staff has to be reassessed. Not only is the threat of being thumped (or worse) increased but often staff are expected to carry out this time intensive role without adequate extra resources.

Specific problems were identified such as inadequate sharing of information about known violent residents. Staff report that they are often alone in a room with someone whose background they know nothing about. They later find out that this person has a history of violent conduct. Also the massive increase in the size of many housing associations is also blamed for “driving a wedge between bosses and their housing officers”.

I think (surprise, surprise) that the role of the union safety representatives is central to addressing these problems. We need to make sure that suitable and sufficient safety risk assessments (including the risk of occupational stress) are carried out and regularly reviewed. Regular safety inspections of workplaces are undertaken, particularly of receptions and interview rooms. Accidents and incidents must be reported and properly investigated. There should be formal joint safety committee meetings with union reps and management. Problems and issues should be sorted out locally whenever possible.

The safety management system of an organisation must be constantly reviewed and audited. An organisation may have the best policies and procedures, however if they are not actually being implmented in practice and are just gathering dust on a shelf (or nowadays a computer hard disk) then they are just a waste of time.

The unions also have a responsibility to make sure that we recruit enough, train and properly support our safety reps.

One positive outcome of the survey was that a majority of staff (70%) reported that they enjoyed their work (despite low pay). I think we all recognise that the overwhelming majority of residents are not a threat, it is only a small minority of “vulnerable, desperate, manipulate or unwell people and they can often be very unpredictable”.

Ban Bullying at Work Day - Nov 7

Wednesday 7 November is "Ban Bullying at Work" day.

So a suitable time to review your organisation's grievance procedure (or "harassment/discrimination" if you have one) and the health & safety policy regarding violence at work or occupational stress.

Let's have "zero tolerance" of bullying at work in all its forms. Use my stress questionnaire to assess problems in your workpace?