Review of progress made since 2001 and summary of outstanding issues

It is hard to measure the impact of the original initiative on safety from violence precisely in the absence of a fully researched evaluation. It is clear that there is much greater awareness, significantly improved training (both in terms of quality and quantity), better procedures, improved reporting of incidents and enhanced risk reduction strategies. On the other hand, as in other service areas, there are still too many incidents of violence towards social care staff and volunteers, and practices for effective risk reduction are not consistently good across the country.

The use of targeted money for training and reporting requirements in local authorities' performance assessment returns have been positive forces in raising awareness and in the development of improved practice. Unfortunately neither of these are requirements anymore, due to changes in the funding and reporting arrangements, and it remains to be seen what the longer term impact of this will be.

Since the original resources were launched there have been major developments in social care, particularly with the modernisation and transformation agendas and the growth in numbers of people managing their own services and those employing personal assistants.

This means that there are many more small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and micro employers. These developments produce additional considerations, although the principles remain the same. There is a need for more detailed guidance for such groups and this will be addressed when Skills for Care publishes new workforce development toolkits for both SMEs and micro employers later in 2009.

The focus of the materials published here is essentially a practical one, reflecting feedback from employers, trainers and individuals.

In summary, despite significant progress, there is a need for further work to raise awareness, and to encourage consistently good risk assessment, risk reduction strategies and responses to incidents of violence against workers.These updated resources provide the guidance and examples that employers can use to achieve this.

This work takes full account of the European Social Dialogue Framework Agreement on Harassment and Violence at Work 2007, which is due to be formally launched in 2009.