Posted By Richard Ball I have a member of staff who has been involved in a violent incidents in His/her private life. As an organisation that works with the public the individual is worried that he/she might be at risk whilst at work. Their work would usually involve lone working and home visits. As their employer I want to reduce the risk to my member of staff and other staff/ users of our service. The risk is not under our control, removing the need for lone working, would put another member of staff at risk, potientially increasing the risk. Any ideas?

Posted By Bill Bircham WHOOPS forgot to hit copy, ignore previous post, read this one! Richard, A difficult one, as evidenced by the lack of responses so far perhaps. I must admit to not being an expert in this area, but a few points do come to mind. Firstly, although the staff member experienced this incident outside of work, I gather that as they work alone in public areas, their assailant could catch up with them in public and repeat the assault, or worse. Fact – you are aware of this incident and the possible risk of reoccurrence. Fact – you are required to look after the health, safety and welfare of the employees, welfare now accepted as including their mental state. Ask yourself a simple question, if you continued to allow / ask the employee to work alone, in public, is there an increased risk of the employee suffering in any of the above areas? I think the answer would be yes. Now – taking a leap of faith. Can I assume you routinely teach people how to avoid conflict and support this with a counselling service? If so I would suggest that you amend the employees duties to ensure that the realisation of the risk is reduced, and that you engage the resources of the counsellors in helping the employee through the personal issues. If you don’t have supply this sort of training / support, you seriously need to think about it. Given that you do, and you put the employee through the support services, I envisage two likely outcomes. Either the personal problem will be resolved and you will have a grateful, loyal and motivated employee. OR Sadly if the problem does not go away and reaches the stage where it’s impact upon the continued employment is such that it cannot continue, you will have done all that a reasonable employer could have done under the circumstance. The position of your organisation, and perhaps your own conscience, will be that little easier. A harsh reality, but one that cannot be ignored. So having started out by admitting I’m not an expert in this area, these thoughts are offered in the hope that they may help. Good luck, perhaps you could come back to us all when it’s resolved with your experiences. Regards Bill