The delivery of child protection services presents a range of challenges to the safety and well-being of staff. On one hand the community has an expectation that timely intervention will occur. On the other hand, the degree of risk associated with cases varies greatly according to individual circumstances. Children, young people and families subject to intervention by the department, may view the intervention as intrusive whether they had experienced, or had been responsible for harm or abuse. A first response may be to direct aggression towards staff.
The department is committed to upholding the safety and well-being of staff through the provision of high quality training programs and safety practices that aim to increase the skill of staff to make informed decisions in relation to undertaking work activities that involve risk.
It is critical that staff are mindful of their own personal safety at all times. An important factor in increasing personal safety is the continual use of risk assessment and planning practices and processes, particularly when staff interact directly with clients.
This requires staff and their supervisors to:
Completion of the Personal safety risk assessment tool and the Personal safety planning tool will assist staff to identify possible issues when undertaking safety planning.
This in turn will increase the personal safety of the children, young people and families who are subject to departmental intervention.
Workplace aggression, particularly client-initiated aggression, is not limited to the physical workplace or to working hours. A multi-dimensional approach, which takes into account individual, organisational and situational variables is required in managing the risk of client-initiated aggression towards staff.
In managing aggression towards staff, it is important that both proactive pre-incident management and responsive post-incident strategies are implemented.
The key principles for the management and control of workplace aggression are:
While it is acknowledged duties performed by staff may bring about adverse responses from clients, it is not acceptable to tolerate any level of aggression by clients.
The level of aggressive behaviour demonstrated by a client provides an indication of the level of action required, in response to the aggression. In some cases, however, it may be necessary to respond to 'Level 2' behaviour, with 'Level 3' actions (see below tables). In all cases, assess the individual circumstances and decide the most appropriate actions for addressing aggression by a client.
Levels of aggression table | |
---|---|
Level | Behaviours (examples) |
1 |
|
2 |
|
3 |
|
Levels of action table | |
---|---|
Level | Action |
1 |
Ensure personal safety immediately by taking appropriate actions. For example:
*Important* - Document the incident in an electronic case note. Where appropriate, advise a senior workgroup staff member of the incident and the action taken. |
2 |
Take action as above and:
In consultation with a team leader and legal services (if required), provide the aggressor with a Letter to aggressive client outlining the inappropriate behaviour/s, expected behaviour and the commitment of the department to take action against continued inappropriate behaviour. |
3 |
Take action as per response levels 1 and 2 and:
|
Note: The above actions are suggestions only - workgroups may develop local arrangements for responding to incidents of aggression, and situations may require more than one action to be taken. Where unsure about actions required to diffuse aggression in the workplace, consult with a line manager or a Senior Workplace Health and Safety Advisor.
For information about when to complete a 'Critical incident report form', refer to the policy on Critical incident reporting.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence