Violence and Abuse Support Manager

Scope & Authority:

·       To provide direct support to staff following incidents of violence or abuse in the workplace. To enable staff to talk about violence and abuse, provide compassionate and empathetic support to staff and managers, including coaching and training in post incident support.

·       To improve knowledge and culture around post incident support in the workplace. Through improved effective post incident support thereby also feeding improvements into existing systems for our baseline information to monitor change and effectiveness initiatives to address violence and abuse. 

·       Lead the design of the centralised approach project working closely with the Quality and Governance and Culture & Organisational Development Leads drawing in challenges, barriers and potential opportunities, trends and themes from local managers.

·       As part of the design phase, interrogate the Trust's incident reporting system for key quantitative and qualitative risks, causal and impact factors for violence and abuse to inform centralised solutions for support and explore developments to Trust reporting system to improve data capture and quality.

·       Understand and including in the design, the links between violence and abuse, and the impact to wellbeing and sickness rates, playing back intelligence gained from engagement to inform the centralised system of work to contribute to reducing associated sickness through associated support provisions.

·       To also understand the links between violence and abuse, and Staff experience, feedback through Staff Survey results and contribute to the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) work to support the Trusts' objective to be an employer of choice.

·       To evidence their work through audit, evaluation, surveys, service review, as required and support the wider quality improvement activity through CQI relating to violence and abuse.

·       To work with Senior Managers within Quality and Governance and Culture & Organisational Development to build and maintain relationships for joined up working relating to tackling violence and abuse against Staff.

·       To develop Business Plans, Strategic Outline Cases (SOC), Outline Business Cases (OBC) and Full Business Cases (FBC) for capital developments as required to support potential provisions to tackle, reduce, and support following events of violence and abuse against Staff.

·       Provides advice, guidance and training to operational Staff and Managers on the use of the implemented centralised system for support relating to violence or abuse toward Staff. This includes analysing reported incidents of violence and abuse to, in accordance with the implanted system, provide an appropriate response level, contact, signposting to support.

·       Maintains and updates databases, reporting systems, preserving information quality, and confidentiality controls for any technical systems used (e.g. Ulysses).

·       Analyses outcomes/assessments and resolves failures to meet project standards for a fit for purpose centralised approach to tackling, reducing and supporting following events of violence and abuse against Staff.

·       To plan programmes of work relating to post incident support following events of violence and abuse, prioritising competing cases, coordinating reviews, and managing deadlines across Trust sites.

·       To attend project team meetings relating to tackling, reducing and supporting following events of violence and abuse, and lead the design of progress reports on the project as required.

·       To take the lead on the principles of joined up working between Quality and Governance and Culture & Organisational Development.

·       To contribute to the development and delivery of Directorate and Trust objectives/strategic goals and delivery of associated business plan targets.

·       To represent the Trust in agreed meetings as the operational managerial representative.

·       Communicate effectively with colleagues on a timely basis to ensure staff and managers remain informed.

·       To develop or create reports and documents using a range of IT applications.

·       To produce project briefs, options papers, conduct option appraisals, carrying through feasibility studies arriving at preferred solutions contextualising service or system re-design

·       To assist in the development of policies for specified projects and develop policies and protocols for own work area as required.

·       To ensure that the project continues to represent value for money.

Key Result Areas:

•       To provide training to a minimum of 80% of managers, ensuring they understand their responsibilities, how to provide support, actions and what support available to direct staff to.

•       Provide a psychologically safe, compassionate and empathetic space for staff or managers to discuss their experience.

•       Advise on steps to follow and available choices of actions to take.

•       Support staff and managers through post incident support, providing feedback on any actions taken.

•       Provide direct 1:1 coaching and training to staff and managers in post incident support processes

•       To deliver bespoke training to staff on site when required relating to post incident support

•       Develop and pilot post incident support workshop sessions, starting in North West Sussex, expanding to further sites within the Trust

•       To liaise between individuals, their line managers and other centralised roles e.g. Nursing, Health and Safety, Patient Safety, Governance, Security, People Advisors, Equality Diversity and Inclusion, Staff Health and Wellbeing etc.

•       Analyse data around incidents to establish trends.

•       Ensuring that violent incidents are systematically reviewed to enable lessons to be identified and shared across the organisation.

•       Feedback experiences to wider Trust work around prevention and management of incidents, to improve the safety and wellbeing of staff, contributing to relevant groups as appropriate e.g. People and Culture Sub Committee, VPR group, Health and Safety Committee.

•       Develop communication routes and methods as part of overarching Case Management Strategy.

•       Ensure the decision-making process is well documented.

•       Follow-up incident investigations and actions taken with the relevant Manager and Personal Safety Advisor ensuring information on the Incidents Reports is dealt with sensitively and confidentially.

•       Maintain a case management diary and where appropriate case files recording information, gathering and maintaining evidence and providing support to take forward prosecution.

•       Produce quarterly reports on progress made to the relevant security and violence operational groups.

•       Ensure all reported incidents of violence and abuse are reviewed with direct contact response provided to the affected Staff within 2 days.

•       Provide a psychologically safe space for affected Staff to describe their experience, and have a conversation either as part of a group or 1:2:1 confidentially and with an impartial approach to determine and make recommendations for support and/or further action as appropriate.

•       Work closely with the Victim and Police in building a case file and gathering essential evidence.

•       Work alongside Culture & OD with the Staff Survey programme of work, with a specific focus on supporting change to improve Staff experience regarding violence and abuse to be reflected back in improved Staff Survey scores on associated questions.

•       Convene a review meeting together with representatives from the department concerned to assess the incident.

•       Review incidents / trends and develop action plans to reduce risk as appropriate within the care groups allocated.

•       Contribute to improvements in staff survey results in relation to staff experience around incidents.

•       The post does not hold a budget.

Position in the Organisation & Key relationships

The post reports to the Reducing Restrictive Interventions Lead, V&A within the Nursing Governance Team which is led by the Associate Director of Clinical Governance and Quality Assurance. Primary governance relationship corporately for the post will include:

A dotted line to the Culture & OD Team (led by the Deputy Director Culture, Leadership & Organisational Development) which holds the Violence Prevention & Reduction programme

Key relationships for the role include:

Culture & OD Delivery Lead; Nursing Lead; Staff Health and Wellbeing Lead; EDI Lead; Security Lead; Trauma Informed Lead; Culture & OD Operational Delivery Manager; Continuous Quality Improvement Team; Ward Managers and Matrons; Staffside Representatives