Rise In Violence And Abuse Against Voluntary Workers

Violence and verbal abuse against voluntary workers is on the rise as they take on dangerous work previously handled by local authorities, leading Scottish charities have warned. Charity workers in the most difficult areas, such as housing and mental health, have told the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations’ Third Force News they face aggressive behaviour on a “daily basis” as local authorities “transfer the risk” of violence to voluntary organisations.

They deal with a range of abuse from being spat on to full blown physical assault requiring hospital treatment. And they claim to face even greater challenges than their colleagues in the public sector because of inadequate support and lack of resources.

The warning comes after it emerged that in the public sector the problem of abusive behaviour is so acute that local authorities have drawn up blacklists of people who are refused access to services.

But problematic work is being transferred to independent voluntary organisations, which often lack the information sharing and backup support of the state.

Philip Robinson, chief executive of social care charity Quarriers, said: “Many of the people we now support are those who have already passed through the doors of NHS trusts and local authorities, and as more council operated services such as homeless hostels close – and transfer over to the voluntary sector – the risks to staff in the future may increase.”

He added: “It is essential that adequate resources are put in place during the ‘contracting’ phase in order to identify and manage the risks adequately.”

David Bookbinder, policy co-ordinator of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, said that in the housing sector, police now routinely accompany voluntary sector officers to protect them against violence.

Mr Bookbinder said that they face the ongoing threat of aggressive behaviour because of the nature of their work.

“Violence can never be justified but often what a housing officer will be doing is imparting bad news – perhaps to someone who has applied for a house but hasn’t been successful, or to a tenant that owes money, or against whom there has been a complaint.”

He added that the risks are so great that some housing associations insist on a minimum of two housing officers in certain areas.

Hugh Tannock, health and safety manager at Turning Point, said: “The main problem for the voluntary sector is in facilities that were previously run by the council. There is a higher level of risk because firstly you don’t have the immediate access to all the paperwork for a case, but also because when the people who deal with a service user change, there can be an aggregating factor in the risk to workers.”

However, voluntary sector organisations say it is neither feasible nor desirable for them to draw up blacklists to deny individuals access to services. But they have called for improved information handling because data protection laws can prevent them knowing whether or not a client could be a danger.

Mr Tannock added: “It’s not a case of just refusing to deal with people – you can’t do that. I can’t think of anyone being blocked by the voluntary sector – to just go up and say we can’t deal with an individual anymore. We wouldn’t do that under any circumstances, mainly because we wouldn’t let it get to that stage.”

Bookbinder also added: “Sharing information on violent people and sex offenders is getting better but it’s not automatic – you can’t assume it will be shared.”

A Scottish Executive spokesperson said: “Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005 deals specifically with people in emergency situations but we have launched a campaign to highlight that physical and verbal assault of all public-facing staff is bang out of order. Anyone assaulting any member of staff – including voluntary sector – can be prosecuted using existing laws.”