Would Your Staff Report Abuse — or Assume Nothing Would Change?

If your incident figures show very few reports of abuse, how confident are you that they reflect what employees experience?

They may indicate that prevention measures are working. They may also leave important questions unanswered. Do staff recognise which behaviours should be reported? Can they access the reporting system? Do they believe anyone will act?

As The Daily Round reported, London Ambulance Service has launched a campaign after hundreds of staff reported sexual abuse. The service has also warned that reported incidents underestimate the scale of what its employees face.

For care leaders, that makes confidence in reporting an important subject for supervision, team meetings and management review. Having a process is only the starting point. Employees need to believe they can use it safely and that doing so serves a purpose.

Ask what might stop someone speaking up

Rather than simply reminding employees to report incidents, ask what could make reporting difficult.

Someone may worry that they will be blamed for failing to manage a situation. Another may feel embarrassed about sexual comments or fear being seen as oversensitive. A worker who has previously raised concerns without receiving an update may question whether completing another report is worth the effort.

Make room for these answers without immediately defending the organisation. Asking why people hesitate is useful only if leaders are prepared to hear that their own processes or responses may be part of the problem.

Challenge the idea that abuse must be endured

Employees need clear guidance about the behaviours the organisation expects them to raise. Avoid leaving each worker to decide whether an incident was serious enough to count.

Threats, sexual comments, unwanted touching, discriminatory abuse and intimidation should not disappear from view because the employee completed the visit or continued their shift. Someone appearing able to cope does not remove the need to understand what happened.

Our article, Abuse Is Not Part of the Job: Protecting Care Workers From Aggression, explores this wider responsibility. Leaders should also examine the everyday language used within their teams. Describing repeated behaviour as something everyone simply gets used to can discourage the next person from raising it.

Make reporting usable during a real shift

Review the process from an employee’s perspective. Can a homecare worker access it between visits? Does a night worker know whom to contact? What happens if someone cannot log in or feels unsure about completing the form?

An online system may be convenient for managers while creating barriers for the people expected to use it. As explored in Why Digital Confidence Is Becoming a Care Workforce Issue, staff may need practical support to use workplace technology confidently.

Demonstrate how to submit a report using a fictional example. Explain what happens after submission and provide an alternative route when the system is unavailable. Urgent help should never depend on completing a form first.

Allow time for recording incidents, too. A process that staff can complete only by sacrificing their break or staying late creates an avoidable obstacle.

Provide a route beyond the immediate manager

Employees should know where to go if their manager is unavailable, dismisses a concern or is involved in what happened.

That alternative needs to be visible and credible. Naming a senior contact in a handbook achieves little if employees do not know how to reach them or worry that approaching them will be treated as disloyal.

Explain how concerns will be handled, who may need access to the information and the limits of confidentiality. Where anonymous reporting is available, be honest about how it works and how anonymity may affect investigation or follow-up.

Managers should also make clear that employees can raise concerns without being disadvantaged for doing so, and respond promptly to any suggestion that someone has experienced pressure or unfair treatment after speaking up.

Close the gap between reporting and hearing back

A report can be acknowledged automatically while leaving the employee unsure whether a person has actually considered it.

Provide a named contact, explain the next steps and agree when an update will follow. You may be unable to share every detail of an investigation, but you can usually explain whether the matter is being reviewed, whether immediate precautions have been considered and when you will speak again.

If action takes longer than expected, say so. Employees should not have to repeatedly chase a concern that was difficult to raise in the first place.

Where wider changes result, communicate them appropriately without identifying those involved. Showing that feedback has informed safer working arrangements helps staff understand the value of reporting.

Interpret rising figures carefully

An increase in reports needs investigation. It may reflect more incidents, better recognition of unacceptable behaviour, greater confidence in reporting or several factors at once.

Leaders should examine the nature and severity of incidents, repeat locations or individuals, the number of staff affected and any changes in reporting arrangements. Compare figures with the amount of care delivered and listen to employees’ accounts of what is happening.

Avoid making a lower reporting total a performance target in isolation. Managers under pressure to reduce the number may become focused on the figure rather than the experience behind it.

Equally, do not describe an increase as evidence of improved openness without checking whether employees are facing greater harm. Reporting data needs context and scrutiny.

Test confidence through ordinary conversations

During supervision, ask whether employees know how to report abuse, what response they would expect and whether anything would make them hesitate. Ask those who have reported whether they received support and understood the outcome.

These conversations can reveal gaps that a completed training record will not show.

The strongest reassurance comes from what employees see leaders do: take concerns seriously, respond fairly, explain decisions and keep people informed. Over time, those experiences shape whether the next employee speaks up—or decides there is little point.

Stay informed with the stories shaping health and social care.

Register with The Daily Round for the latest sector news, inspections & reports, wellbeing content, workforce insights, expert features and practical updates—delivered free to your inbox.