98% of childcare workers abused

That shocking figure was revealed in a Glasgow City Branch survey of their residential childcare members about violence at work over a twelve month period.

At the same time, the union at UK level has issued a ten-point plan to address the problem.

The survey finds that the vast majority of the city’s residential childcare workers were worried about violence in their job, and they don’t feel that their managers take their concerns seriously.

The survey also found that a majority of workers have been physically assaulted (53%) and threatened with a weapon (51%) in the past year.

Almost all workers responding (98%) said that they had suffered threats or verbal abuse.

Andy McCallion, UNISON’s Glasgow branch Residential convenor said, “This survey was organised because our stewards were telling us that the levels of violence were increasing. Even we, however, were surprised at the levels of the concern and the frequency of the violence.”

10 point plan

However, the union has found similar problems across the UK, and has issued a ten-point plan to tackle the issue http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=1731

UNISON has raised the survey findings in negotiation with management to improve the service to young people in residential units, and to build a safer working environment for our members.

The ten point plan will be used both at local level with individual employers, at Scottish level in the joint working group set up with the Scottish Government, the STUC and CoSLA, and directly with employers representative groups.

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