Respond

Under Health and Safety at Work legislation and the Council’s Health and Safety Policy, as a manager and employee, you have a duty to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of yourself and other employees at work. You are also required to assess the risk of violence to employees and make arrangements for their health and safety.

Once you are made aware of domestic abuse, domestic or sexual violence you should encourage the employee to contact a specialist agency who will be able to carry out a specific domestic abuse risk assessment as well as providing practical and emotional support.

You must also discuss with the employee their safety at work and ensure that the potential risk to the employee and work colleagues is minimised.  If there is a potential risk to other employees’ you should seek advice in carrying out a risk assessment and taking action to minimise the risks in the workplace.  (See suggested measures below).

If an incident occurs at work, make sure it is recorded and follow it up under the Council’s Personal Safety Register and Toolkit.

Although this guidance will apply to most situations of violence in the workplace, managers may have to consider additional factors if these incidents involve domestic abuse, domestic or sexual violence. These incidents may involve violent partners, ex-partners or relatives visiting the workplace, abusive phone calls, intimidation or harassment of staff by the alleged perpetrator.

These issues can be addressed utilising the following measures as appropriate:

• improving security measures such as changing keypad numbers or ensuring that access to buildings is open to authorised staff only;
• reminding reception/switchboard staff not to divulge information about staff, especially personal details such as addresses, telephone numbers or shift patterns;
• changing the employee’s work telephone number and removing their name and number from the telephone directory so employees cannot inadvertently give out the employee’s phone number;
• establish an emergency contact person with the employee in case you cannot contact them;
• review the employee’s next of kin information with the employee to ensure they have an opportunity to nominate an alternative next of kin if the perpetrator is listed;
• setting up a firewall to block or divert emails from the perpetrator to a separate folder. Ensure emails are retained, to be used as evidence if needed;
• offering temporary or permanent changes in the workplace, work times and patterns in line with the Council’s Flexible Working Policy, helping to make the employee less at risk at work, and on their journeys to and from work. This could include changes to the office layout, to ensure that the employee is not visible from reception point or, from ground floor windows;
• offering changes in specific duties, such as answering phones or working in reception or in exceptional circumstances, temporary or permanent redeployment to another post in line with the Council’s Redeployment Policy;
• agreeing with the individual what to tell staff, and how they should respond if the abuser rings or calls at the workplace. Providing colleagues with a photograph of the abuser, and other relevant details such as car registration numbers, which may help to maintain security in the workplace;
• making sure that the systems for recording staff whereabouts during the day are adequate. If the work requires visits outside the office, considering how risks can be minimised, e.g., changing duties or allowing another colleague to accompany them on certain journeys;
• recording any incidents of violence in the workplace by the perpetrator, including persistent phone calls, emails or visits to a member of staff by their partner/ex-partner or relative. Details of any witnesses should also be recorded. These records could be used if staff wish to press charges or apply for an injunction against the alleged perpetrator. The Council could also apply for an injunction if the actions of the alleged perpetrator impinges on the health and safety of other members of staff;
• managers may have to take account of whether the measures detailed above are operationally feasible, bearing in mind that ensuring staff are safe should be of primary consideration throughout the process.

Importantly, stay in regular contact with the employee.

Staff experiencing domestic abuse, domestic or sexual violence may be more vulnerable to stress at work and reference should be made to the Council’s Stress Management Policy and toolkit.

Once a member of staff has confided in you as their manager, they are experiencing domestic abuse, domestic or sexual violence, you should reassure them that this information will remain confidential unless they give specific consent for you to discuss this with another person. The consequences of breaching confidentiality could have serious effects for the person experiencing domestic abuse, domestic or sexual violence. Statistics show the risk of more serious assault, permanent injury, and even murder, take place when a victim decides to leave home, or immediately after. It is vitally important not to underestimate the danger or assume that the fear of violence is exaggerated.

With the express consent of the individual concerned, i.e., agreement on what information you can share with colleagues, you must ensure these other employees are fully aware of any risks. Employees who are privy to such information should be reminded that the information is confidential, any unauthorised breaches by them could lead to the Council’s Disciplinary Procedures being invoked.

Information about domestic abuse, domestic or sexual violence should only be shared with other practitioners where this is necessary and where the employee has given permission. The only exceptions to this are:

• where child or vulnerable adult protection issues are raised, for instance, if an employee gives information that suggests that their child or another child or vulnerable adult is at risk from ‘significant harm’ (whether physical, emotional, sexual or neglect). In these circumstances, you should inform the employee you need to seek further advice from the appropriate agency, e.g., Social Services Child Protection and/or Safeguarding Adults teams, and may have to pass on relevant information.
• where others, such as service users, customers or colleagues could be put at risk, the employee needs to be informed that information could be shared with others.

Appropriate steps should be taken to ensure files containing information about those experiencing domestic abuse, domestic or sexual violence do not contain details of current addresses. Addresses may need to be held separately to ensure the abuser has no way of accessing them.

You should be aware that there may be employees who are perpetrators of domestic abuse, domestic or sexual violence, and that confidentiality is of paramount importance as both victim and perpetrator may be employees of the Council.

Advise colleagues on a ‘need to know’ basis and with the employee’s consent and agree a response if the perpetrator contacts the workplace.

With the employee’s consent share the perpetrator’s photo and details of the perpetrator’s car with colleagues and reception staff so that they can recognise the perpetrator.

Remind all staff never to divulge personal information about employees to callers (e.g., shift patterns, addresses, telephone numbers etc). Never tell the caller where the employee is and what time they will be back or tell the caller that the employee is on leave.

The Council provides for up to 10 days paid ‘Safe Leave’ to staff who have disclosed they are experiencing domestic abuse, domestic or sexual violence to allow them to attend to their needs.  Managers should explore this and other time off options, such as dependent’s leave, with the employee and view sympathetically all requests for paid or unpaid time off work in line with the Council’s Time Off Policy.  Unpaid leave should be considered after paid leave options have been exhausted.

Requests for safe leave or time off could include:

• appointments with support services/agencies, social workers or counsellors
• arranging re-housing
• meetings with Solicitors or the police
• making alternative childcare arrangements, including meetings with schools
• court proceedings involving incidents of domestic or sexual violence.

You should advise the employee to apply for safe leave related to domestic abuse, domestic or sexual violence as ‘special leave’ with pay, using the self-service facility on Resource Link.  This can be authorised by you on-line confidentially.

If an employee is being denied access to their finances by a perpetrator you should consider changes in the employee’s pay arrangements. This could be particularly important if the employee is planning on leaving the perpetrator.

Options available include:

• Preventing a salary from going to the nominated bank account up to 48 hours prior to payday. Pay can be held until a new account is nominated;
• Arranging for the employee to be paid by cheque until a new account has been nominated.

Any changes to salary payments should be arranged confidentially with payroll and you should ensure that payment can be made on the appropriate date before confirming this with the employee.

Trades Unions may be able to offer loans to their members; it is worth discussing this with the employee and their union representative.