National Conflict Resolution Training Begins For All NHS Frontline Staff
10/11/04 - PRNewswire
LONDON, March 30 /PRNewswire/ --
- New NHS Security Management Training Centre opened in Coventry
The largest ever national training exercise in the 56 year history of the
NHS will begin later this week, aiming to help 730,000 frontline staff deal
with the problem of violence and abuse in the workplace.
Conflict Resolution Training will be available to all NHS frontline staff
including doctors, nurses, paramedics and receptionists, and all those who
come in to regular contact with the public in the course of their jobs. The
one-day course will teach staff and professionals in how to defuse
potentially violent situations.
The first courses will be held from the 1st April 2004 and will take
place at the new NHS Security Management Service (NHS SMS) Training Centre in
Coventry.
The Conflict Resolution Training Course will include:
- How to recognise potentially violent situations;
- Verbal and non-verbal communication skills i.e. body language;
- Cultural awareness skills;
The new state-of-the-art training centre for NHS Security Management will
not only train NHS staff in conflict resolution but will train the new Local
Security Management Specialists (LSMS) who will investigate incidents of
violence against staff in their designated health body.
Jim Gee, Chief Executive of the NHS SMS said:
"Violence against NHS staff is inexcusable and will not be tolerated.
Conflict Resolution Training allows those on the frontline to protect
themselves and their colleagues without resorting to physical restraint.
Although we have introduced a number of security measures that will protect
staff from attack, we believe that it is important to empower and give them
the skills they need to control and defuse potentially violent situations.
The majority of the public would not dream of attacking any member of NHS
staff. Our intention is to fully protect them from the minority who would."
Bill Darling, Chair of the NHS SMS said:
"Over the last few years we have seen a steady rise in the number of
reported incidents of violence in the NHS. This is clearly unacceptable. With
the opening of our new training centre in security management and the
beginning of the Conflict Resolution Training we are seeing some of the
necessary measures being established to tackle the problem."
Doug Holloway, an Ambulance Officer with the Hereford and Worcester
Ambulance Service, has experienced a number of incidents involving himself
and colleagues. Doug took part in one of the course pilots, and said:
"The course is very interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed it - very
informative. I honestly believe people coming into the NHS will really
benefit from the course, particularly younger staff who might not know how to
deal with people threatening them or becoming abusive. People who have been
around in the NHS a long time tend to learn by experience how to deal with
the threat of violence.
This course helps people look for the signs so an incident doesn't jump
out at them. It helps you speak in a different way to people, read the signs
of how someone is reacting to what is happening or what is being said to them
and that could lead to a lot of incidents being avoided altogether."
Notes to Editors
1. In December 2003, Health Secretary John Reid announced the first ever
NHS Security Management Strategy to make the NHS a safer and more secure
place to work.
2. The course will cost a GBP30 per head and all monies will be retained
within the NHS. Health bodies also have the choice of using in-house trainers
or private training providers to deliver the syllabus if preferred.
3. The mental health and learning disability areas will each have a
separate syllabus, which are being developed by a CFSMS-led group. They will
also consider the issue of physical intervention techniques.
4. An information pack on the training is available by emailing
conflictresolutiontraining@cfsms.nhs.uk
5. As part of the strategy a series of practical steps to tackle violence
against NHS staff were developed. These include:
- Streamlined, national, IT based reporting systems for physical and
non-physical assaults introduced in November 2003. The systems will have the
ability to track cases from report to conclusion, allowing intervention, and
importantly, feedback to the person assaulted;
- A Legal Protection Unit to work with the police and the Crown
Prosecution Service (CPS) to increase the number of prosecutions against
those who assault NHS staff from November.
- The training of Local Security Management Specialists (LSMS) in each
health body from April 2004;
- Pending the training of the LSMS, highly trained and professional
counter fraud specialists will investigate cases of physical assault, where
these have not been pursued by the police or the CPS;
- The trial of new hi-tech device. NHS staff can use the new piece of
technology, which resembles an ordinary ID card holder, to raise the alarm
when they are feeling threatened. By pressing a button on the back of the
device they will be able to call for help. The latest mobile technology will
pin-point the location of the nurse and will record the incident so that
evidence can be collected to aid prosecutions.
6. The NHS Security Management Service (SMS) is part of the NHS Counter
Fraud and Security Management Service (CFSMS) which from April 2003 took full
responsibility for all policy and operational matters relating to the
management of security and for countering fraud in the NHS.
All enquiries should be made to Darren Aldrich or Matthew Willis at the NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management Service press office on +44 (0)20 7895 4523/4524 or at Darren.Aldrich@cfsms.nhs.uk or Matthew.Willis@cfsms.nhs.uk