10.11 Staff safety and well-being

• Key steps
  • 1. Implement strategies to promote staff safety and well-being
  • 2. Implement strategies to avoid client aggression
  • 3. Manage aggressive behaviour by clients
  • 4. Respond to an incident of aggressive behaviour
  • 5. Implement strategies to manage stress, vicarious trauma and critical incident stress
• Resources

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1. Home
2. Chapters
   • Framework for practice and maps
   • Introduction
   • Practice papers
   • Quicklinks
   • Resources
   • Structured Decision Making
3. 10. General
   • 1. Intake
   • 2. Investigation and assessment
   • 3. Ongoing intervention
   • 4. Case planning
   • 5. Children in care
   • 6. Intervention with parental agreement
   • 7. Support service cases
   • 8. Regulation of care
   • 9. Standards of care
4. 10.11 Staff safety and well-being
   • 10.10 Warrant for the apprehension of a child
   • 10.12 Professional supervision
   • 10.13 The video taping or recording of departmental staff
   • 10.14 Referring to Family and Child Connect or intensive family support services for early intervention
   • 10.15 The role of the Child Safety After Hours Service Centre
   • 10.16 Referral to an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family support service
   • 10.17 Complaints management
   • 10.18 Interstate and New Zealand matters
   • 10.19 Systems and Practice Reviews following the serious physical injury or death of a child
   • 10.1 Decision-making about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
   • 10.20 Victims of crime and the role of Victim Assist Queensland
   • 10.21 Family courts
   • 10.22 International child protection matters and the Hague Child Abduction Convention
   • 10.2 Statutory obligation to notify the Queensland Police Service of possible criminal offences
   • 10.3 Information sharing for service delivery coordination
   • 10.4 Providing adoption services
   • 10.5 Recording sensitivity
   • 10.6 Downgrading or deleting an approved notification
   • 10.7 Undertake the substance testing of parents
   • 10.8 Responding to self-harming behaviour
   • 10.9 Responding to suicide risk behaviour
   • Resources
   • What ifs
5. Key steps
   • Resources
6. 1. Implement strategies to promote staff safety and well-being

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. 

Personal risk assessment and safety planning for 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:

• make personal safety risk assessment and personal safety planning an integral part of their child protection practice
• continually assess safety risk and plans at each stage of client contact.

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.

Zero tolerance of aggression

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:

• inappropriate behaviour towards staff and clients in the workplace will not be tolerated and the department will make every reasonable effort to prevent it occurring
• inappropriate behaviour must not be accepted, excused or tolerated - all inappropriate behaviour must be addressed
• information (via pamphlets or posters) should be available to clients advising that inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated, and that action will be taken against such behaviour
• staff will be supported by the department in ensuring their own personal safety as first priority over the needs of organisational demands.

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.

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.