Overview
The most recent NHS staff survey showed that more than 15% of NHS employees have experienced violence from patients, their relatives or the public in the last 12 months – the highest figure for 5 years. 38% of staff reported feeling unwell due to work related stress in the last 12 months. 68% said their immediate manager takes an interest in their health & well-being.
Research by HSJ and Unison has found an absolute increase of 9.7 per cent in violent attacks on NHS hospital staff. The data gathered showed 56,435 reported physical assaults on NHS staff in 2016-17. Extrapolating numbers from this sample to cover the whole NHS in England, this suggests there were an average of just over 200 reported physical assaults on NHS staff every day.
In October 2018 Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced the NHS Violence Reduction Strategy which aims to protect the NHS workforce against deliberate violence and aggression from patients, their families and the public. It will also include improved training for staff to deal with violent situations including specialist circumstances involving patients with dementia or mental illness.
Part of the new strategy is a partnership between the NHS, Police and Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute offenders quickly and the Care Quality Commission will scrutinise violence as part of its inspection regime and identify trusts that need further support. The new plans come alongside the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Bill, which was recently brought into law and will see the maximum prison sentence for assaulting an emergency worker double from six months to a year.
Why Attend:
The Better Protecting NHS Staff: Implementing the NHS Violence Reduction Strategy Conference 2019 will provide delegates with an opportunity to:
✓ Share key insights into protecting NHS staff and implementing the NHS Violence Reduction Strategy
✓ Listen and learn from leading industry experts across the Sector
✓ Networking opportunities with speakers and delegates from the Sector
✓ Understand and hear recommended best practice and case-studies
✓ CPD (gain 8 hours of CPD points towards your yearly quota)
For more information or to make a booking please call 0330 058 4285

Agenda
08:45
Registration, Refreshments and Networking
09:30
Chair’s Welcome Address
Michael Holland, Consultant Liaison Psychiatrist and Medical Director, South London and Maudsley Foundation Trust (CONFIRMED)
09.40
Special Keynote Address: Implementing The NHS Violence Reduction Strategy For Increased Staff Protection And Easier Prosecution of Offenders
- Allowing staff to more easily record assaults and other incidents of abuse or harassment to understand the reasons behind the rise in reported violence
- Working with the police and Crown Prosecution Service to help victims give evidence and get prosecutions in the quickest and most efficient way
- Ensuring trusts investigate every incident in full and use lessons to protect staff from future incidents
- Determining which staff are most vulnerable to violence and allow for appropriate action to be taken by reporting violence and abuse data from across the NHS nationally
- The impact of the Assault on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act on reducing violence in the NHS
Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (invited)
10.00
Improving The Health And Wellbeing Of The NHS Workforce By Providing An Environment That Supports Staff
- The commitment of the Five Year Forward View to improving the health of the NHS workforce
- The NHS England healthy workforce programme: developing a ‘core offer’ of what NHS organisations should do to promote staff health and wellbeing
- Enabling employers to intervene appropriately, in a timely manner when issues arise and providing individual support when necessary
- Ensuring that conflict resolution training is given to frontline staff to enable them to deal with aggressive situations
- Recognising different causes of violence against staff and that they need different solutions, particularly where there are clinical conditions affecting patient behaviour
Sean Duggan, Chief Executive, Mental Health Network, NHS Confederation (invited)
10.20
Special Keynote Presentation: Ensuring Adherence To The 2018 Nice Quality Standard On Violent And Aggressive Behaviours In People With Mental Health Problems
- Identifying triggers and early warning signs for violent and aggressive behaviours
- Identifying successful de-escalation techniques and making advance statements about the use of restrictive interventions
- Physical health during and after manual restraint
- Ensuring that people with a mental health problem who are given rapid tranquillisation have side effects, vital signs, hydration level and consciousness monitored
- Carrying out an immediate post-incident debrief after each incident when restraint, rapid tranquillisation or seclusion was used
Professor Gillian Leng, Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Health and Social Care, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) (invited)
10.40
Questions and Answers Session
11.00
Refreshments and Networking
11.20
Analysing National Data On Reported Violence Against Staff To Identify Increased Risk Factors And Reasons For The Increase In Incidents
- The impact of staffing shortages on tackling violence against staff
- Patients in wrong settings: elderly and mental health patients, who are on an emergency medical unit awaiting beds as the main sectors where violence is coming from
- Mental health: by far the most physically dangerous place in the NHS to work although the rate of increase is slowing
- The strong correlation between those acute trusts with bigger rises in the number of reported assaults and those with large financial deficits and poor performance on elective care waiting time
- Ensuring that the collection of data about assaults, and the criminal or civil sanctions that should follow, happen in a robust or consistent manner in the future
Alan Lofthouse, National Officer, UNISON (CONFIRMED)
11.40
Case Study: Identifying Environmental Factors That Make Individuals More Likely To Be Violent Or Aggressive And Using Building Design To Eradicate Them
- The Design Council’s A&E Challenge
- The prevalence of violence and aggression in A&E because they are especially complex, high pressured and unpredictable department
- Identifying escalators and triggers of violence and aggression and the importance of environment and design in helping to avoid these triggers
- Breaking down the different key stages of a typical patient journey through A&E, the team were able to create an ideal patient experience to help inform solutions
- Producing a toolkit for guidance to inspire and enable NHS Trusts to implement these changes within their A&E departments
Ellie Runcie, Director, Growth & Innovation, Design Council (invited)
12.00
Case Study: Developing a Strategy Which Ensures That Systems And Processes Are In Place To Minimise And Control Security Risks To Patients, Staff, Visitors And The Organisation
- Increasing training provision and number of security officers
- Increased security presence overnight in addition to investment in new door control systems and CCTV
- Working in collaboration with the police and local organisations to reduce risk
- Delivering conflict resolution training, traumatic incident support service and counselling
- Investigating every incident to ensure action can be taken to prevent recurrence
Nick Howlett, Health and Safety Services Manager, University Hospitals of Leicester (invited)
12.20
Questions and Answers Session
12.40
Lunch and Networking
13.40
Case Study: “No Force First”: Using A Restrictive Intervention Reduction Programme To Create A Safer Environment For Patients And Staff
- Moving away from the historical use of physical restraint as a means of supporting people who become distressed
- Changing the culture of care within our services and transforming the care narrative from “containment” to “recovery”
- Transforming the culture of care by appealing to the very best instincts of staff teams
- Underpinning recovery-focused principles to free staff up to try new approaches to improving the in-patient experience and reduce conflict as a result
- Celebrating interventions by staff that have de-escalated conflict and changing physical intervention training to reduce the amount of physical techniques taught and align it with the “No Force First” approach
Joe Rafferty, Chief Executive, Mersey Care Foundation Trust (CONFIRMED)
14.00
Case Study: Collaboration Between Emergency Services to Highlight And Reduce The Number Of Assaults On Their Staff
- Launching a new campaign #Unacceptable to highlight the unacceptable trend in the number of assaults on their staff whilst on duty
- Getting support from Exeter City Football Club and the Exeter Chiefs who are encouraging the public to get behind the initiative by showing their support on social media
- Updating internal support process where officers have been assaulted in the line of duty
- Increasing the reporting of assaults and improving the understanding of the scale of assaults
- Making a significant impact in reducing the number of assaults on our staff so that they can continue to provide an excellent service to the public without fear of attack or abuse
Sue Mountstevens, Police and Crime Commissioner, Avon & Somerset Police (invited)
14.20
Case Study: Rolling Out And Promoting Conflict Resolution Training To Equip Staff With Skills To Deal With Violent Situations
- Encouraging staff to complete the training regularly and often, not just when mandatory training expires
- Recognising warning and danger signs when entering into situations that are at risk of escalating into confrontational or violent acts.
- Teaching staff to resolve conflict safely, efficiently and with minimal distress to those involved
- Using communication models that can assist in conflict resolution
- Providing breakaway and restraint training to give staff confidence in difficult situations
Karen Moore, Head of Security and Safety Management, West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust (invited)
14.40
Questions and Answers Session
15.00
Refreshments and Networking
15.20
Case Study: Delivering Aftercare and Prompt Mental Health Support For Staff Who Have Been Victims Of Violence
- Useful advice and information – developing an information sheet for all staff about managing aggressive patients and where to go for support
- Assisting victims of violence with incident management and involvement of the police
- Developing a widespread promotional campaign of the support available for any member of staff who has been assaulted
- Providing a high level of counselling, advice and support
- On-going support and the need to review the member of staff work pattern in relation to contact with the service user
Alex Nestor, Director of HR, Weston Area Health NHS Trust (invited)
15.40
Case Study: Achieving A 30% Reduction In Physical Violence In An Acute Care Setting
- Shifting the power to staff in clinical teams and to service users, to come together to try and discover better ways of working to prevent violence
- Bringing about several concrete changes in dealing with aggression as a result of the approach
- Having more therapeutic activities available, having places where people could go to have some more sensory stimulation when they were feeling frustrated to reduce boredom and frustration in older adults
- Using intentional rounding – every couple of hours staff go round and ask if there’s anything they could do to help someone have a better experience on the ward
- Using dynamic risk assessment tools to identify behaviours that seem to be predictive of violence in the next 24 hours for adults with mental health problems
Amar Shah, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist and Chief Quality Officer, East London NHS Foundation Trust (invited)
16.00
Questions and Answers Session
16.20
Chair’s Summary and Close
*Programme subject to change

Who Should Attend
Who Should Attend?
Delegates who will have an interest in this event will be:
*This Conference is open to Public, Private and Third Sectors
For more information or to make a booking please call 0330 058 4285

Sponsorship and Exhibition
We are now taking bookings for our wide range of sponsorship and exhibition packages; we also offer bespoke packages tailored for your organisation.
Why Sponsor and Exhibit at this event:
✓ Network with key decision makers across the Mental Health Sector
✓ Meet your target audience in the Sector
✓ Listen and Learn from leading industry experts across the Sector
✓ Opportunity to demonstrate your products or services
✓ Speak alongside industry leading experts
✓ Work with your dedicated account manager to generate the maximum amount of leads
Exhibition and Sponsorship Packages:
Strategic Headline Sponsor:
- 20-minute speaking slot followed by Q&A
- 3x2m Exhibition Space (In the Refreshments and Catering room)
- Pre show marketing email to all registered delegates
- Post show inclusion on presentation email
- Branding on Website and Event Guide (Logo and 100 Word Profile)
- A4 Insert or A4 Chair Drop
- 5 Delegate Conference Passes
- 1 Speaker Pass
Key Supporter Package:
- 20-minute speaking slot followed by Q&A
- Branding on Website and Event Guide (Logo and 100 Word Profile)
- A4 Insert or Chair Drop
- 1 Speaker Pass
- 2 Delegate Conference Passes
Exhibition Stand:
- 3x2m Exhibition Space (In the Refreshments and Catering room)
- Power, Wifi, Table and 2 Chairs (If required)
- Branding on Website and Event Guide (Logo and 100 Word Profile)
- 2 Delegate Conference Passes
- 1 Stand Manager Pass
Insert or Chair Drop:
- 1 Delegate Conference Pass
- A4 insert into delegate pack or A4 Chair Drop
For more information or to discuss the available option please call 0203 961 5002 or email [email protected]

Prices and Discount
Public Sector Rate:
- £379
- £349
- + £319
Private Sector Rate:
- £550
- + £520
Voluntary Sector Rate:
- £299
- + £269
Event Documentation: *If you can’t attend the event you can purchase the event documentation
Electronic – £99 Printed – £99
Group bookings: If you would like to make a group booking of 5 or more please call 0330 058 4285 to find out if we can offer any more discount.
*All prices are excluding VAT
For more information or to make a booking please call 0330 058 4285
