6.7 Violence and aggression risk assessment

Guidance on completing the form

What is violence?

Violence and aggression at work is defined by the Health and Safety Executive as any incident in which an employee is abused, threatened or assaulted by a member of the public, pupil, service user or their family in circumstances arising out of the course of their employment. This may include; verbal abuse, threatening behaviour, serious or persistent harassment and physical assault.

HAZARD = source of potential harm or damage or a situation with potential for harm or damage;

RISK = is a combination of the likelihood and severity of a specified event (accident or incident).

Under Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 there is a statutory requirement to assess work related risk to staff. This includes violence and/or aggression.

• Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 [98 KB]

This form is used to determine the likelihood of violence occurring. It takes the assessor and/or manager through a structured process using checklists and a risk assessment..

The completed form must be kept in the Departmental Health and Safety file and a copy at the location/base where the work activity is carried out. A copy of the assessment must be available at all times.

Description of the activity where violence, etc. could occur

Write down a description of the activity, for which the assessment applies, written protocol or safe system of work may support this. The tables below with the Yes/No tick box are aimed at obtaining an overview for the potential or not of violence and/or aggression. In the box for the number of people exposed list names where appropriate or job titles. Consider what staff and the number likely to be involved in the work activity, remember to consider other staff involved e.g. Reception, Security, Hall managers and Wardens, Library staff, etc. Consider the frequency of exposure and tick the most appropriate box. The frequency of an activity might identify the need for additional control measures.

Control measures already taken to reduce risk

List the controls already in use e.g. safe system of work, provision of mobile phones, pagers, staff training, staff/student information packs, ‘buddy system, etc.

Additional control measures required

This part of the form is used to determine and justify the need for additional controls; there will be occasions when the ‘Additional Control Measures required’ may take some time to implement. The request for these controls should form part of the Department Health and Safety Plan.

Assessors

The risk assessor should be a ‘senior member’ of staff who is competent in the management of conflict and related incidents. The activity should be reviewed whenever there is a change in the process, equipment etc, or following an incident.

Contingency plan following an assault

It is important to ensure that following incidents of violence to staff, treatment and post incident support are in place, the University Incident/Accident form must be completed. Procedure for dealing with incidents is detailed in the University Personal Safety Policy.

Initial risk assessment checklist

Tables 1 and 2 in the checklist form part of the initial risk assessment process for identifying potential of violence and aggression for staff. Before the ‘Risk Assessor’ completes the Form they should satisfy themselves that they are able to answer the questions raised in Table 1 and should check with staff that they are able to answer the questions in Table 2.

The checklist is available as an Adobe PDF file:

• Initial risk assessment checklist [18 KB]

Off site activities checklist

These Tables form part of the initial risk assessment process for staff working in the community. Before the ‘Risk Assessor’ completes the Form the Line Manager should satisfy themselves that they are able to answer the questions raised in Table 3 and should check with staff that they are able to answer the questions in Table 4.

The checklist is available as an Adobe PDF file:

• Off-site activities checklist [20 KB]

Violence and aggression risk assessment form

The violence and aggression risk assessment form is available as an Adobe PDF file:

• Violence and aggression risk assessment form [17 KB]