Corporate Health and Safety Policy

Section 3: Arrangements

Managing Violence and Aggression in the Workplace

Appendix 1A: violence at work risk assessment form

June 2013

This is a Brent Council Corporate Health and Safety document and the guidance within it is the minimum standard that must be followed.

Stage 1: Finding out if there is a problem (identifying the hazard)

a.

List here sources of information or evidence used:

b.

List here the staff affected by violence and/or aggression at work:
Department: Service: Team:
Job titles and roles:
Work locations:

c.

Using the scale provided, please enter the frequency of occurrence for each type of violent-aggressive behaviour
Never Daily
0 / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6
Aggressive/violent behaviour / Frequency score
1.0 Verbal abuse
1.1 Swearing/bad language
2.0 Sexual harassment/advances/innuendo
3.0 Racial harassment/abuse/innuendo
4.0 Substance abuse
4.1 Alcohol
4.2 Other drug
5.0 Antisocial behaviour
5.1 Spitting
5.2 Body exposure
5.3 Urinating
6.0 Threats of self harm from aggressor if you do not comply with what they want
7.0 Offensive weapon/threat
8.0 Physical violence
8.1 Slap/hit/punched
8.2 Shoved
8.3 Grabbed
8.4 Kicked
8.5 Hair pulled
8.6 Physically taken hold of
8.7 Bitten
8.8 Held hostage
8.9 Threatened
9.0 Other (please state)

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Managing Violence & Aggression Issued: June 2013; Version: 1

Author: Sandra D. Joyce

d.

Now please answer the following questions for each type of aggressive/violent behaviour that had a frequency score between 3 and 6. If there are no common factors, you can leave this blank.
i.  Are there any factors or issues associated with the assailant that need to be considered to help ensure a safe outcome?
ii.  Are there any factors or issues that can be attributed to the employee involved which perhaps contributed to the situations?
iii.  Is there anything about the nature of the interactions which may have contributed to the incidents?
iv.  Are there any factors or issues associated with the location/workplace which contributed to the incidents?

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Managing Violence & Aggression Issued: June 2013; Version: 1

Author: Sandra D. Joyce

Now, taking the above information into consideration, write down the good practices you already have in place to mitigate the risks (remember to take into account staff views on whether these measures are actually implemented). Practices should consider individual, team and organisation level measures, as well as actions before an incident, during and incident and after an incident of violence or aggression occurs.

e. / Prevention (before) / Timely reaction (during) / Rehabilitation (after)
Organisational good practices
Team good practices
Individual good practices

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Managing Violence & Aggression Issued: June 2013; Version: 1

Author: Sandra D. Joyce

f. Summary of key risks. Now taking into account information in box d. and existing good practices box e,. write down the key risks here.

Assailant:

Employee:

Interaction:

Location/workplace:

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Managing Violence & Aggression Issued: June 2013; Version: 1

Author: Sandra D. Joyce

Stage 2: Deciding what action to take if there is a problem

g.

Use the information from the summary of key risks f. above to complete the table of preventative measures below. You can duplicate and expand this table as necessary
Level / Prevention (before) / Timely reaction (during) / Rehabilitation (after)
Organisation
Team
Individual

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Managing Violence & Aggression Issued: June 2013; Version: 1

Author: Sandra D. Joyce

Stage 3: Take Action and implement the good practices/workplace precautions identified

Draft an action plan similar to the one shown below:

Action point / Person responsible / Target date for completion / Status (complete/incomplete)

Actions identified as being beyond the line manager’s sphere of control or influence are likely to require ‘sign off’ by the Head of Service or higher level manager for approval.

Stage 4: Check that the action taken is effective

Review the risk assessment with your staff every two years (or more frequently in the light of changes to work practices or incidents) in order to check that the measures implemented are indeed working to eliminate or reduce the risk of violent or aggressive acts at work. Violent-aggressive incident statistics, questionnaires, team meetings and focus groups are examples of means to check the effectiveness of actions taken.

Assessments should be reviewed regularly in case things have changed e.g. violent incident reports, changes in work procedures, new work practices. A minimum time period for review is every two years.

Date of assessment
Date for review
Name and job title of assessor
Team/service assessed

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Managing Violence & Aggression Issued: June 2013; Version: 1

Author: Sandra D. Joyce