The Committee considered a report on the approval of a Zero Tolerance Policy, a copy of which was appended to the report.

The report explained that the implementation of the draft Policy would affect all customers and staff. It explained how the Council might respond, adapt or restrict access to a Service when it was considered that a customer’s behaviour was unacceptable. It also set how the Council expected staff to operate, this was to ensure that the Council could protect its staff and the services it provided.

The report was set out in two parts. The first section was a public document that set out the proposed Policy and the second part was for the Council’s and Brighter Future for Children’s use internally and provided guidance and strategies for dealing with situation where members of the public presented with unacceptable behaviours.

The report explained that Zero Tolerance would mean that the Council would not tolerate any form of abuse, assault or harassment of Council staff and would act directly against any such behaviour. The Policy set out and defined what it considered to be all categories of violence, harassment and abuse, all of which were detrimental to employee wellbeing. The target audience was firstly customers, business users, clients and members of the public who used the Council’s services and secondly, staff; the Policy covered employed staff and others who worked on behalf of the Council including contractors and volunteers. The Policy also provided guidance on what should happen during and after an incident, whether face-to-face, over the telephone, online (such as social media), or via postal correspondence. The Appendices contained examples of how to break contact and the plethora of training and supporting guidance that was available for staff and managers.

A working party, consisting or colleagues from Health and Safety, Human Resources, the Customer Relations Team and the Customer Fulfilment Centre had created the first draft of the Policy. A desk research exercise had been carried out to gauge and understand the approach that had been taken by other local authorities and public bodies to zero tolerance of violence, harassment and abuse. This had shown that Councils across the country were facing similar challenges and had published policies of zero tolerance. The Policy had been widely consulted on within the Council.

A plan was in place to communicate the Policy to managers, employees and customers which would include news items on the intranet informing staff of the new Policy, it would be highlighted in the weekly newsletter to all staff and there would be drop-in sessions for managers which would be run by Health and Safety colleagues. The communications plan for customer would include posters for public spaces and social media, updating all call centre telephone lines across the Council with the Zero Tolerance approach to call handling and updating the Council’s website with the Policy.

Resolved:       That the implementation of a Zero Tolerance Policy, attached to the report at Appendix 1, be approved.