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1.6.8 Procedure on Use of 'Risk to Staff' Markers

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Procedure
  3. Actions to be taken on SWIFT / Frameworki
  4. Sharing with other Organisations
  5. Use of Risk to Staff Markers Flow Chart

Relevant Forms

  1. Risk to Staff Incident Reporting Form - Children's Social Care
  2. Risk to Staff Incident Reporting Form - Adult Social Care
  3. Advice letter - Application of 'Potential Risk to Staff' marker
  4. Advice letter - Application of 'Actual Risk to Staff' marker
  5. Advice letter - Removal of Hazard


1. Introduction

  1. This procedure should be used in order to record a case workers concerns about the risk to their safety involved in working with a particular service user.  The use of this procedure is addressed in the Policy for Use of Risk to Staff Markers


2. Procedure

2. When a member of the council's or a service provider's staff is subjected to unacceptable levels of physical or verbal abuse, or is presented with a situation that they believe may present a risk to their own safety, they should consider the need for application of a risk to staff marker to the service user's case record.  This risk can include not only the actions of the service user themselves, but also of those associated with the service user, the premises itself, or of pets or other hazards.
3. The full circumstances of the situation should be discussed by the worker involved in the incident with their line manager.  Considerations should include the member of staff's level of experience and tolerance levels, and details known of any previous experiences with the service user.
4. The appropriate incident form should be completed by the staff member who was directly involved in the alleged incident, in conjunction with their line manager.  If, for whatever reason, the staff member is unable to complete the form, it is the line manager's responsibility to complete the form on their behalf.
5. Details of any conversation that took place between the staff member and service user during the alleged incident should be included.
6. All information recorded must be factual.  Do not use emotive words/phrases such as "went insane", "hit the roof" or "obviously had one too many" when describing what happened.  Suitable words to use would include: irate, angry, threatening, violent, abusive, unwilling to listen, responded negatively to offers of help/advice.
7. Do not make guesses as to why you think the situation may have occurred, or make assumptions about a person's lifestyle.  Simply record what was said and done.  Include names of witnesses as they may be able to verify the report.
8. Any decision on whether or not to apply a marker should be based on facts alone, and purely on the basis of the incident itself and of any other relevant information held in the case record. 
9.

If, following an assessment of the circumstances, it is decided that a warning marker should be added to the service user's record, a decision should be made at this time as to the appropriate marker to use, i.e. 'Actual Risk to Staff Safety' or 'Potential Risk to Staff Safety'.

  • 'Actual Risk'.  Actual risk should be used when a member of staff has been assaulted or injured, their safety has actually been put at risk, or a threat of harm that needs to be taken seriously, and which has caused them concern, has been made.
  • 'Potential Risk'.  Potential risk should be used in all other circumstances.

At this time it should also be decided at what point in the future the use of the marker will be reviewed.  This review date should be decided on a case by case basis, and should reflect the severity of the incident and include an assessment of the likelihood of a repeat incident.  All violence related markers must be reviewed at each review of client needs, and in all cases within 6 months of being applied to the record.

The staff member involved should also ensure that they complete the Accident/Violence/Work Related Illness or Disease/Dangerous Occurrence Report Form where appropriate.
10. If the decision is made not to add a marker to the person's record, the line manager must record all relevant reasons for his/her decision and inform the member of staff making the request accordingly.  The Incident form and all other related documentation must then be added to the service user's case file. 
11. Following completion of the Incident Form, if a decision has been made that a marker is to be used, the line manager should decide whether or not to inform the service user of this.  Normal practice, based on best practice under the Data Protection Act 1998, should be to inform the service user.  However, if it is believed that this could make the situation worse, then the letter should not be sent and a note of the rationale behind the decision made on the case record.
12.

If it is decided that to advise the service user is unlikely to worsen the situation, an advice letter must be sent to the service user.  This letter should be sent by the line manager and must be sent by Recorded Delivery.  The following procedure should be followed if the subject is under 18 years of age.

  • Under 12 years old at time of incident - Letter to be sent to Parent/Guardian.
  • Between 12-16 years old at time of incident - case worker to assess if the letter is to be sent to Parent/Guardian, service user, or both.
  • Over 16 years old at time of incident - Letter to be sent to service user unless circumstances warrant other action.

At this time, the need to share details of the use of the marker with others should be considered.  See paragraph 21.
13.

It is important that individuals are only given a risk to staff hazard marker when they are thought to present a genuine risk to the safety of staff or others (i.e. other service users, partners, service providers) in the future.  In order to ensure this, certain things should always be taken into account such as:

  • The nature of the incident
  • The degree of violence or abuse used or threatened
  • Whether or not the incident indicates a credible threat of violence to staff
14.

Violence and abuse can take many forms other than actual physical force against an individual.  These include:

  • Verbal abuse
  • Threats
  • Rude gestures
  • Innuendoes
  • Sexual and racial harassment
  • Any other situation where an individual's personal safety feels threatened
15. If it is decided that advising the service user would worsen the situation and potentially increase the threat to staff safety, then an advice letter must not be sent, but all other actions should still be taken.
16. The completed incident report form must then be saved in an appropriate location where its content can be accessed by those who will need access to view it should they be involved in providing services.  A copy of the letter sent to the service user (if applicable) should also be saved to this location.


3. Actions to be taken on SWIFT/Frameworki

Review of use of the marker

18. The review of the need for continued use of the marker should be made by the manager - or their successor - who made the original decision to apply the marker.  Details of the decision should be communicated without delay to the service user, unless the service user was not advised of the application of the marker in the first place.   If the decision is to remove the marker this should be reflected in the database where the marker is held.
19. Where the service user does not live locally and the incident is deemed to be serious, and they have not been in contact with the council since application of the marker, consideration should be given to extending the review period until it is deemed unlikely that they will re-present.
20. Cases involving individuals who have been placed on a National Register, such as Vulnerable Adults or Sexual Offenders, are outside of the scope of this protocol and are exempt from regular review.  In these cases, this information will remain on the service user's record until they are removed from whichever Register they may have been placed on.


4. Sharing with Other Organisations:

21. In some cases, where colleagues from partner organisations may be put at risk, it will be important to make the other organisations aware if their safety is likely be at risk from contact with an known individual.  An example of this situation would be one where service users are provided with services jointly, such as between Social Care and the NHS or service providers.  If a policy of sharing information with other departments/organisations is already in place, this needs to be made clear to the data subject if/when they are notified of the marker being added to their records.
22.

Details of any violent warning marker disclosures to external organisations must be recorded on the individual's case record, and should include:

  • Date of disclosure
  • Organisation which information has been passed to, and reasons behind disclosure
  • Details of who made the disclosure


5. Use of Risk to Staff Markers Flow Chart

Click here to view flow chart

End