Keeping Safe and Working Effectively For Social Workers and Health Professionals

Social workers and health professionals are often placed in situations where they are verbally or physically threatened by service users and others. This book helps them recognise potential risks in situations, when to avoid involvement, and how best to manage these risks, giving them the confidence to work effectively.

Suitable for practitioners, students, leaders and supervisors, this book covers topics such as managing risks, improving safety awareness, teamwork and organisational support within the modern-day context. 

Specifically, this second edition includes: 

• Interviews from current senior and first line managers in children’s and adult social care and health services, front line staff and more. 
  
  
• A new chapter on managing online and digital issues including managing the transition of back to work after Covid-19. 
  
  
• Greater emphasis on the responsibilities of employers and their duty of care to staff. 

• Further elaboration on the impairment of decision-making under stress caused by imitation and threat. 
  
  
• The use of new therapeutic approaches in reducing threat from service users and better responding to their needs.
  
  

This book helps students to become aware of the factors which may affect judgement in child protection cases and assist in managing cases on placement. It helps professional practitioners in managing the anxieties associated with their current case load and provides strategies to manage these unfortunately common workplace experiences.

Introduction – the extent of violence against social workers.

The psychological impact of threat and violence on decision-making.

What practitioners can do to keep themselves safe. 

What organisations can do to keep staff safe.

What practitioners can do keep themselves safe in an incident

Post incident responses

Links to working with resistant families

Staff safety training

Working in non-responsive institutions

Performance management in social care

Working effectively in stressful situations

Summary of issues

Brian Atkins BSc, CQSW, MBA has had an extensive career in social care as a practitioner, manager, trainer and independent consultant. He worked extensively in local authority child and adult protection, leaving care, residential care and youth offending, where he contributed to the national design and development of this service.

As an independent consultant he worked with organisations at a strategic level in organisational and systems development, including collaborations with senior academics on the development of the Front Door model for children’s Services. His company, ETC, was included in the register of recommended providers under the government’s Children Services Improvement Plan.

Brian has had a long term interest in the importance of personal safety for practitioners, and in supporting their ability to work effectively in challenging environments. He worked with government initiatives including the ‘Safer Place’ Task force. Within ETC he provided training in personal safety and constructive behaviour management for social care staff and managers.

He remains actively involved in the sport of judo, coaching regularly and is the chair of his local club. He is proud to be contributing to this life changing activity, and enjoys seeing the personal development of children and adults who take up the sport.