Social Workers Abused and Attacked

September 16, 2014 permalink

In Great Britain social workers were subject to abuse or violence 20,254 times in one year, 55 times per day. A good measure of the amount of mayhem they cause.

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British social workers faced an estimated 20,500 incidents of abuse and violence in 2013/14

Figures gathered by Community Care show that the average council recorded 98 incidents of violence and abuse towards social workers and social care staff in 2013/14

By Tristan Donovan on September 16, 2014 in Violence against social work staff

Photo: Vesa Moilanen/REX

Social workers and social care staff in British local authorities faced an estimated 20,000-plus incidents of violence and abuse in the line of work, figures gathered by Community Care reveal.

A Freedom of Information request answered by 131 councils in England, Scotland and Wales reveals that there were 12,880 recorded incidents of abuse and violence towards social services staff during 2013/14.

This equates to an average of 98 incidents per council, suggesting that there were 20,254 incidents recorded by all 206 English, Scottish and Welsh councils in 2013/14.

However, in line with Community Care’s requests for this data in previous years, the number of recorded incidents varies wildly between local authorities.

Some councils, including Wokingham and St Helens, recorded fewer than 10 incidents while others, including Leeds and Dorset, reported more than 300 cases of abuse and violence against their staff.

This is despite 85% of the 446 social work and social care staff surveyed earlier this year by Community Care said they had experienced violence or verbal abuse in their work during the past year, suggesting that the quality of monitoring of such events remains inconsistent across the country.

Despite this the findings suggest that the number of incidents being recorded by councils is declining.

In 2010/11 the figures collected by Community Care suggested that the average council recorded 148 incidents of violence or abuse towards social services staff but this fell to 135 in 2011/12 and 119 in 2012/13 and has now dipped to 98 in 2013/14.

Source: Community Care