Press Release

HFI training short-listed for national award

September 2008

Homes for Islington (HFI) have been short-listed for a national training award for work carried out training staff in how to deal with violent or aggressive customers.

The training which has improved staff morale, perception of safety and increased their confidence, has earned HFI a place in the finals of the National Training Awards 2008.

The training was led by HFI’s Learning & Development team working with and accredited by the Suzy Lamplugh Trust. Before the training, staff felt that dealing with violent incidents was “part of the job”. Research showed that just over half the staff who had experienced violence or harassment from customers did not report the incident.

The training aimed to equip staff with techniques for defusing/avoiding potential incidents, to ensure they knew how to report any incidents they were involved in and what action would be taken afterwards. It also aimed to increase incident reporting.

A series of one-day training course were held with content tailored to three groups of staff: field based staff, office based staff and managers. A total of 655 staff went through the training, in a series of 27 workshops which covered assessing risk, recognising violence and aggression, defusion skills and needs after an incident.

The training is now delivered in-house by HFI staff and is mandatory for all frontline staff.

David Selo, HFI’s Director of resources said: “This training has been enormously important in helping those staff who have to deal with the public on a day-to-day basis and tackles a problem faced by many public bodies.

“The training has had a considerable impact on staff’s confidence and ability to deal with potentially violent incidents. This makes them feel safer, improves the service we offer and will lead to a safer environment for residents too.

“We have also seen the number of incidents reported increase, this gives us a much clearer picture of what incidents are occurring and enabling us to manage them better.”

ENDS

For media enquiries please contact James Asser in the HFI communications team on 020 7527 4379 or email james.asser@homesforislington.org.uk

Notes to editors:

Homes for Islington, one of the UK’s largest arms length management organisations (ALMO), which began operations in April 2004, is charged with managing council housing stock throughout the borough. It is owned by Islington Council and managed by a Board of Directors, made up of Islington tenants and leaseholders, council representatives and independent members.

The National Training Awards are designed to celebrate organisations and individuals that demonstrate outstanding business and personal success through investment in training. Recognised as the most prestigious training awards in the UK, The National Training Awards are now in their 21st year.

The awards ceremony takes place on 9th October.