Employers are legally required to assess the risks in the workplace. Risk assessment of violence is far more complex than assessing the risks of tasks such as lifting and handling.

IN COURT IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO SAY YOU HAVE CARRIED OUT A RISK ASSESSMENT. YOU MUST ACT ON IT

Five Steps to Risk Assessment

A risk assessment does not need to be over complicated. The HSE 5 steps to risk assessment defines a hazard as anything that can cause harm and a risk as the chance, high or low, that somebody will be harmed by the hazard. Here is a simple worked example:

Step 1: Look for the hazards
Jane is verbally abusive and regularly spits and swears at staff

Step 2: Decide who might be harmed and how
Staff and other service users are effected by her spitting and abuse – both physically and psychologically

Step 3: Evaluate the risks and decide whether the existing precautions are adequate or whether more should be done
Depending on how Jane is feeling, how staff or fellow service users deal with her, the risk can range from medium to high. Has she a history of this? What is her Modus Operandi?

Step 4: Record your findings
Document what happens – when, why, where and to whom
Document the action taken to manage, prevent or eliminate the hazard

Step 5: Review your assessment and revise it if necessary
Re-assess after one week. Did it work?
Can we make it better? Have we discovered something new?
Re-assess again after two weeks and then monthly

The Health and Safety Executive publish a freely available leaflet on this subject reference number INDG163 (rev1)

Walter Brennan's two minute risk assessment is a useful FREE tool

To discuss a risk assessment into violence at work contact us here