Posted By Thomas Kennedy Hi Joel As you say the ethos these days to go for environments that are appear less confrontational and to facilitate acceptable levels of behaviour. I was asked to look into the reception including desk design a year or so ago. Some helpful staff had done their own reasearch printed off details for automatic screens and other defences they wanted installed. Of course we didn't go for any of this. We reduced the risk in other ways - removing cash handling in one case and improving the service and security arrangements in another. I gather you're in an LA in which case I would suggest you make contact with H&S staff at other authorities. A tour and discussion can go along way - LB Merton provided docs to me - the before and after design changes to their refurbished reception area was a useful persuasive tool. I also made use of a few good publications. You'll find loads of links and documents via the attached document link. http://www.hse.gov.uk/re...hsl_pdf/2006/hsl0681.pdf I also found Tolley’s Managing Violence in the Workplace was useful. It gives you a good grounding and discusses the wide range of strategies and solutions that are available. Thomas

Posted By Joel Benham Thomas Thank you for your very helpful response. As you say, I think the best way forward is to link up with other LAs and see how they have approached this. Joel