Walsall Council staff subjected to workplace attacks

A worrying report will go before Walsall Council’s scrutiny overview committee on Thursday which sets out the number of incidents reported by employees.

In 2018/19, 123 council workers across all departments suffered incidents including 27 physical assaults, 45 episodes of threatening behaviour and 37 incidents of verbal abuse.

Of these, 69 were suffered by women and 45 by men. The statistics did not specify the sex of the victim in the remaining nine cases.

The figures are an increase on the previous year’s total of 112 but less than in 2016/17 where there were 156 reported incidents.

Schools staff reported a total of 273 aggressive incidents in 2018/19 – less than the 294 recorded the year before.

Of these, 201 took place in special or short stay schools while 250 incidents took place against female members of staff.

The report to committee said: “We collect data on physical assaults, threatening behaviour and verbal abuse aimed at our staff.

“Physical assault tends to be reported more than the other categories; but

‘physical assault’ encompasses a wide range of incidents from simple scratches through to more serious issues; however, the vast majority are minor incidents, many with no intent behind them.

“We do not collect data on ‘harassment’; however, our ‘other’ category is

accompanied by a free text description field – ‘harassment’ does not appear to be prevalent.

“No employees have died because of accidents/aggressive incidents.”

The report adds that the authority has policies and procedures in place to tackle such incidents that take place.

It said: “All accidents and aggressive incidents to staff should be reported to the health and safety team.

“This message is reinforced in guidance documents, on our intranet sites, and at appropriate training opportunities and meetings.

“The HR Operations Team can be made aware of such issues through the

submission of a complaint from a colleague, a trade union member, a line manager and/or another colleague who may have witnessed an incident.

“We have safety management standards on aggression and violence, and accident and incident reporting. Both are mirrored, in simplified form, in the school centric ‘School Safety Guides’.

“Employees have the grievance and dignity at work procedure and the

whistle-blowing procedure in the event that employees wish to raise matters formally.

“In terms of support mechanisms available managers, are encouraged to undertake one to one sessions with colleagues, the annual performance conversation has been revised to encourage managers to ask the question ‘How are you?’

“In addition to this, support can be sought from occupational health and/or the employee assistance programme.”