“Zero Tolerance” Means Little Unless Your Staff Know What Happens Next

A zero-tolerance statement is easy to put on a website, display in reception or include in an employee handbook. Its real value becomes clear when someone reports abuse and discovers what their manager is prepared to do about it.

As The Daily Round reported, London Ambulance Service has launched a campaign after staff reported hundreds of incidents of sexual abuse. The service recorded 462 incidents between July 2025 and July 2026, with almost a third of reports coming from call handlers. The announcement is a reminder that employees can experience abuse face to face and over the telephone.

For leaders across health and social care, this raises a practical question: if an employee reported something similar today, would they know what would happen next?

The answer should be clear before anyone needs to ask.

Start with safety and support

The first response should establish whether the employee is safe, whether anyone else is at risk and what immediate help is needed. Someone reporting an incident may still be in a person’s home, preparing to attend another visit or trying to finish a shift while distressed.

Make time to listen privately. Thank them for telling you, take the report seriously and avoid responses that minimise what happened. Describing someone as difficult, suggesting they did not mean it or explaining that staff have always had to deal with this behaviour can leave an employee feeling that reporting was pointless.

You do not need every detail before offering support. Establishing the facts fairly and responding with compassion can happen together.

Make reporting straightforward

Employees should know who to contact, how to record an incident and where to go if their usual manager is unavailable or involved in the concern. A policy stored somewhere in a shared folder offers little reassurance to someone who needs help immediately.

For homecare staff working alone, those arrangements need to work outside office hours. Consider whether an employee could quickly reach someone with the authority to arrange assistance, review the next visit or make a decision about immediate safety.

Managers should also help employees record what happened clearly, including the time, location, behaviour, witnesses and action already taken. Relevant messages or other evidence should be preserved securely through the organisation’s approved processes. Recording should support a proper response without becoming another burden placed entirely on the person affected.

Explain what happens next

After listening, explain what you will do, who needs to be involved and when the employee can expect an update. Depending on the circumstances, that may include an incident review, changes to working arrangements or escalation through safeguarding, emergency or police procedures.

Be honest about what you can promise. Avoid guaranteeing a particular outcome or complete confidentiality when information may need to be shared appropriately. You can, however, explain that the concern will be taken seriously, handled sensitively and followed up.

Give the employee a named contact. If there is no immediate resolution, an agreed update still matters. Silence can leave someone unsure whether anything has happened at all.

Respond to risk without overlooking care needs

In health and social care, responding to abusive behaviour can involve complex circumstances. A person’s distress, cognitive impairment or communication needs may be relevant to understanding an incident and deciding how to manage it.

Those considerations should inform a safer care plan. They should not bring the conversation about staff safety to an end.

Review whether working arrangements, staffing, specialist input or the approach to care need to change. Decisions about continuing or changing a service require careful assessment and appropriate coordination so that staff safety and the person’s care needs are both addressed.

Sending another employee into the same situation without reviewing the risk leaves the underlying problem unresolved.

Follow up after the immediate incident

An employee may appear composed when reporting and feel the impact later. Check in again, ask what support would help and explain any available occupational health, counselling or employee assistance services.

Discuss temporary adjustments where appropriate, without assuming you know what the employee wants. They may need time, additional support on visits or reassurance about returning to a particular setting.

Follow-up should also establish whether agreed actions have happened. If someone was promised a review of lone-working arrangements, a conversation with a relative or an update from a senior manager, make sure that promise has been kept.

Look for patterns across the service

Individual reports should also inform wider management decisions. Repeated incidents involving the same person, location, shift or type of interaction may reveal a risk that cannot be understood by looking at each report separately.

Ask whether previous concerns led to meaningful changes and whether relevant information reaches the people who need it before their next visit or shift.

Be thoughtful about reporting figures, too. A low number of reports does not automatically demonstrate a safe workplace. Leaders also need to understand whether employees feel able to speak up and believe doing so will lead to action.

Make the policy visible through your decisions

The most useful test of a zero-tolerance policy is whether employees can explain how it works. They should know how to get help, how concerns will be handled and who will keep them informed.

Leaders build that confidence through their response to each report. Listening carefully, reviewing risks, explaining decisions and following through give a policy practical meaning.

When someone tells you they have been abused at work, your response helps them decide whether they can trust the organisation to support them. It also shapes whether the next person feels able to speak up.

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