Assessing customer or premises as a risk

Purpose

This procedure provides guidance to staff on assessment of risk posed to individuals by the customer, those living with the customer and the physical environment of their premises.

Responsibility

All staff

Process

Staff must be continuously vigilant for risks to their personal health and safety when visiting customer’s premises. Please see - Personal Safety and Lone Working

External environment

1. In neighbourhoods where there is a particular history of street problems, staff must take this into account when selecting parking spaces and in ensuring that they park vehicles to allow a quick exit and to minimise the potential for being blocked in.
2. When walking between their vehicle and a customer’s premises, staff should be aware of potential hazards such as damaged road / pavement surfaces, rubbish or debris in the street, narrow pathways, blind corners, recessed doorways and poor lighting and should plan their route to avoid or minimise these hazards.
3. Prior to opening or closing a key safe, staff should check the immediate environment for risks and should ensure that they are alone or not being crowded when approaching and operating the key safe. Internal environment

On entering the customer’s premises, staff should take account of any risks that may be apparent as a result of:

1. Items on the floor
2. Damage to floor surfaces
3. Items stacked on surfaces that might fall
4. Poor property maintenance e.g. exposed wiring or partially completed building works.
5. Wet surfaces.

Large, unusual or aggressive pets.

Staff should take account of the risks that may arise from the behaviour of the customer and those making up his or her household. These may risks may involve:

• Aggressive behaviour.
• Drunken behaviour.
• Apparent extreme mood swings.
• Unusual or extremely poor hygiene practices.
• The presence of vermin.
• Persistent and strong unpleasant odours within the dwelling.

Staff must plan and carry out their work to avoid and manage any identified hazards, while protecting their personal health and safety and that of others in the premises.

NB: Where a staff member feels that a hazard presents a clear and present and unacceptable danger to their health and safety and that this cannot be safely managed or mitigated, they should make their excuses and leave.  

Reporting hazards/incidentsStaff should document all identified hazards associated with a particular premises or customer in a factual manner and should report these to the relevant professionals. 

• Alerts and any changed working instructions pertaining to a particular customer must be placed within Jontek notes.

NOTE: Some factors causing a risk to staff may be indicators of unmet needs for care & support or symptomatic of medical conditions that the customer is managing. Staff may consider management of the risks via referral of the customer for relevant professional support.

After an Incident (action by the employee(s) involved

1. Since incidents will vary in the level of aggression, a suitable guide is that you should report any incident where you felt threatened.
2. Report it immediately to the management team. Ensure that a detailed call out report of the incident is completed and notes must be entered into the Jontek warnings area.
3. Any violent incident involving physical assault and/or injury must be reported to the Police immediately. Verbal threats or abuse may also need to be reported to the Police; whether to do this must be decided based on the individual circumstances of the case.
4. If required seek medical advice, both to ensure that any necessary treatment is obtained and to provide evidence of injury should this be needed at a later stage.
5. A member of the management team will then contact Camden’s accident and incident report line to ensure that it is logged on the system.