Figures are released today showing a staggering 50 per cent rise in the number of attacks on Council employees. Among the victims were no fewer than 1,100 social workers and 300 teachers, and those were just the incidents that were reported.

Examples of aggression and violence include a social worker being stabbed through the leg, a market attendant subjected to a brutal attack by two men with iron bars, and a teacher under siege in her own classroom from a gang wielding hammers.

Responding to the situation, Bradford Council has produced an action plan which seeks to give staff a larger measure of protection. The initiative has been welcomed by Liz Devlin, the Unison branch secretary, who is particularly pleased that the Council is now showing greater awareness of the problem of aggression towards staff as well as physical assault.

The measures, including the provision of mobile phones for high-risk workers and the amendment of daily work routines, are largely sensible. It is also good to see that the Council will be giving support to the victims of assault or aggression, as well as ensuring that interview rooms are fitted with alarms and safe exits.

All in all the action plan represents a fairly comprehensive package, and should go a considerable way to tackling this escalating problem.

This preventative strategy must, however, go hand-in-hand with a clear message from the courts and the police that aggressors who attack public servants will be pursued and punished.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.