Social Work Staff ‘Need 999 Crew Protection’

Social work staff should get the same level of protection from assault as emergency workers, union leaders have insisted. The call comes as new figures show the number of violent incidents in the care sector have doubled in a year. In one month there were 24 incidents of physical abuse towards staff in South Lanarkshire, compared with 12 in the same period last year. And there were 17 complaints of verbal abuse in April-May this year, compared with 11 last year.

Seventeen employees were sent for counselling in May and absences among social work staff were higher than in other council departments.

The figures led Unison to call for the Scottish Executive to increase protection for public sector staff, especially in the care sector.

It wants to see the Emergency Workers Act exten-ded to cover all public sector staff. It is currently an offence to assault, obstruct or hinder emergency workers trying to do their jobs.

Unison spokesman Chris Bartter said: “We know that social work, not just the health service, is one of the areas where staff risk abuse. It could be that staff are more confident about coming forward with complaints of abuse. However, it’s unacceptable that workers are having to run these risks.”

The figures also show 15 incidents of grievances and dignity at work cases in South Lanarkshire, up seven from last year.

Average absence for social work staff was 10.2 days a year, compared to nine in other sectors.
Recent figures show the number of nurses being attacked in Scots hospitals has increased despite more safety moves.

More than 40% of nurses were harassed or attacked at work during 2005, and almost 17,500 attacks on Scots health workers were reported last year – more than half in Glasgow. Staff also blamed stress for the high levels of NHS absence.

“We urge workers to report physical or verbal abuse towards them to their employer. We are working with the STUC to devise a range of measures designed to promote best practice among employers in dealing with this type of thing,” said Mr Bartter.

He added the union would raise the increase in complaints with the council as part of regular monitoring of the agreed Violence at Work policy and demand changes to cut violence.