Policy on Unacceptable Actions by Customers

Staff that directly experience aggressive or abusive behaviour from a customer have the authority to deal immediately with that behaviour in a manner they consider appropriate to the situation and in line with this Policy and the Violence at Work Procedure.

With the exception of such immediate decisions taken at the time of an incident, decisions to restrict contact with the council are only taken after careful consideration of the situation by a senior member of staff, Wherever possible, we give a customer the opportunity to modify their behaviour or action before a decision is taken.

Customers will be issued with a warning letter containing a copy of this Policy. They will be told why their actions are deemed to be unacceptable, and asked to moderate this behaviour. If this is not done, then they will be told that a contact restriction can be put in place. It should be noted that, in around half of all cases, a warning letter has the desired effect with the customer moderating their behaviour accordingly. In certain circumstances, where a customer's behaviour has been deemed particularly vexatious or unreasonable, the council reserves the right to impose some form of restricted contact without issuing a formal warning letter. The customer's right of appeal is unaffected.

When a decision has been made to restrict future contact, the customer will be written to with details of the restricted contact arrangements and, if relevant, the length of time that these restrictions will be in place.

If a serious threat of violence is made, then a warning letter is not necessary and the customer can be issued with a restricted contact letter immediately.

Where a decision is made to restrict a customer's contact we will always try to ascertain if that customer is known to Social Work Services, and whether any reasonable adjustments are required. For example, where a customer faces restricted telephone contact, due to unacceptable behaviour, and is unable to read or write to a standard where he/she may therefore be denied legitimate access to a service, we may consider adjusting the restriction to provide the customer with a named officer who shall be the sole point of telephone contact.

Where a customer has mental health issues, and is a client of Social Work Services, that customer's social or care worker may be an appropriate point of contact under the circumstances described above.

Where any restriction provides the customer with a sole point of contact, and the customer continues to attempt to contact multiple officers, the additional contact which falls outside of the restriction will be disregarded.