Hitesh ( Patel) shared that it is increasingly common for clients to be abusive when they visit the office. His experiences are echoed up and down the country – some consideration is being given to use of CCTV – there are concerns that CA guidance on this area of our work (ie inappropriate behaviour of clients and staff safety/wellbeing) is not up to date.

Jason ( Bishop) noted that where we have moved to direct delivery of items of value/vouchers – foodbank or HSF etc the anger of clients has been focused on us instead of the other agency we have shifted from impartial support to agency which holds things the client wants with poor impact for our teams.

Jan (Nichols) said they had had problems like this in the past and used a security guard firm who were helpful for a while – they are since the pandemic working remotely so not a current issue for them. She would recommend that LCAs consider use of secutiry guards.

Elaine (Lowe) confirmed that they had experienced similar incidents – their local police were helpful and gave a direct line number for immediate access – it has worked well – police were there in three minutes when last needed.

Zoe (Bradley) – they deliver from shared accom where security staff are onsite for the host agency (eg townhall) . They have had issues when using their outreach van.

Andy ( Brown) said they used CCTV – non recordable – and it worked well – giving visuals on what is happening in the interview rooms