Guidance on completing the assessment
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The risk assessor should ordinarily 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.
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 and recorded on the online incident reporting system.
Violence and aggression risk assessments should be completed using the standard HSF - 01(a) risk assessment form found in section 2 of this Health, Safety and Welfare Manual, under the heading 'Forms'.