Unreasonable Behaviour Policy
Our commitment
We have a commitment to our employees to protect them from unreasonable behaviour perpetrated by our residents or members of the general public. We will not tolerate abuse, threats of violence or acts of violence directed to our employees, contractors or anyone working on our behalf.
We retain the right, in circumstances where a resident’s actions or behaviour is unacceptable, to restrict contact with us and we will take swift, proportionate legal sanctions to safeguard employees from harm in cases of abusive or aggressive behaviour.
If we receive persistent complaints, we reserve the right to take similar appropriate action to protect the interests of the organisation and our residents. All complaints will be investigated in the first instance to confirm if there are reasonable grounds for the complaint before treating it as a ‘persistent complaint’.
We will:
· Take swift action when abusive or aggressive behaviour is targeted towards employees and contractors working on our behalf in accordance with our Health and Safety Policies.
· Ensure that employees are appropriately supported to deal with the effect of being subjected to abuse or harassment.
· Ensure that employee safety is paramount when managing residents who display unreasonable behaviour
· Ensure there is a clear definition of a ‘persistent complainer’ and a fair, objective and transparent approach to effectively managing their behaviour to prevent the unnecessary disruption of our services.
· Maintain confidentiality when making decisions about what sanction to apply to residents who are displaying unreasonable behaviour.
What is unreasonable behaviour?
We consider the following types of behaviour are unreasonable:
a) Physical or verbal abuse/ aggression
This includes the following whether directly aimed at the member of staff or regarding other employees:
· Verbal abuse in person, over the telephone, in writing or any other method.
· Physical violence or threats of violence.
· Sexual assault or threats of sexual violence.
· Derogatory remarks and rudeness.
· Verbal or written inflammatory of defamatory statement.
· Video/ audio recording employees without their consent/ refusing to cease recording upon request.
b) Persistent contact/ harassment
This includes the following:
· Persistently contacting employees regarding the same issues which have been dealt with.
· Persistently contacting employees for reasons not connected to our business.
· Following/ stalking employees; including attempting to follow them on their personal social media pages.
How we respond to incidents of unreasonable behaviour
Threats of, or actual physical violence
· Where a criminal offence is committed we will contact the police.
· We will consider whether to take our own legal action.
· We may also consider restricting the residents contact with our employees, including:
o Advising the resident that they can no longer visit CKH offices.
o Restricting contact to in writing only (with the exception of emergencies).
o Restricting contact to via a third party only (with the exception of emergencies) such as through an advocate or family member with third party authority.
o Limiting visits to the property including ‘no visits’ unless for an emergency repair/ health and safety checks such as a gas service.
Restriction of contact will need to be approved by the Assistant Director of Operations and will consider any issues which arise under the Equality Act 2010 and in particular any limitations to the residents’ ability to communicate in a restricted manner.
Verbal aggression
In instances of verbal aggression that are an isolated incident, we will follow up with either:
· A phone call to the resident advising that their behaviour is unacceptable.
· Visit to the resident to discuss the incident and inform them what CKH expects from them in terms of acceptable conduct (followed up in writing).
· A warning letter to the resident regarding their conduct.
If the behaviour continues, we will consider escalation that could include restriction of contact.
Persistent contact/harassment
When employees are subjected to persistent contact and/or harassment by a resident it will be escalated to the Assistant Director of Operations. Depending on the severity of any harassment it may be appropriate to report to the police.
We will also consider the following actions:
· Visiting or phoning the resident to discuss the concerns in person and agreeing an acceptable level of contact with CKH (followed up in writing).
· Identifying a single point of contact in agreement with that employee.
· Only accepting contact in a specified way (such as in writing unless an emergency).
· Referring issues to agencies supporting the resident such as mental health advocates and adult social care, to manage contact with us.
· Identifying the underlying reasons why the resident continually seeks contact (if these are known) and ensuring support is in place/ link up with services to reduce social isolation.
· Advising the resident that we will only respond to appropriate tenancy related contact and that all other correspondence will not be acknowledged or responded to.
· Advising the resident that we will not respond to issues that have already received an appropriate response and where there is nothing further to add.
Single point of contact
In instances of persistent contact, it may be decided to restrict contact from the resident to one person. This single point of contact will be a manager in the most appropriate team. The resident will be informed of their single point of contact and the reasons why.
The single point of contact should be initially put in place for the least amount of time possible (taking into account all of the circumstances) and for no more than 12 months at which time this should be reviewed by the Assistant Director of Operations with the relevant employees/ teams before the anniversary date. The resident should be informed in writing the outcome of this decision and if the single point of contact is to remain in place, the reasons for this should be set out.
The resident has a right to appeal the decision to extend the time they are to have a single point of contact. They should set out the reasons why they do not agree with the decision. This decision should then be reviewed by the Director of Operations and the resident informed of the outcome of their appeal in writing.
Should contact with the single point of contact either become persistent, so to be perceived as harassment or involve the use of unreasonable behaviour (as outlined above) we may take the exceptional step to seek legal advice and/ or refuse all but emergency contact. This may include terminating calls, blocking emails and not responding to any other contact for a period of time (no longer that three months before review). The Director of Operations must approve this action before implemented. The reasons why should be clearly set out to the resident in writing, along with a date for review. The first review should be no longer than three months from the date of the suspension.
In the event that legal action is taken and there is a court order in place, such as an injunction; that order supersedes the right to appeal any contact arrangements in place. The court order should be complied with until the date it expires/ is further revoked by the court – whichever is soonest.
What are persistent complaints?
We consider that persistent complaints can be:
· A history of persistently complaining where there are no reasonable grounds and these have been fully responded to.
· A strong likelihood that complaints are being made to intentionally cause harassment, divert resources or disrupt the proper workings of CKH. This can include, but is not limited to, threats against the organisation or employees, unreasonable legal action, contacting the press, making unreasonable comments on social media/ websites, making unreasonable demands or recording conversations/ calls.
· The complainant or their representative has been rude or aggressive to employees.
· The complainant has produced unreasonably excessive correspondence or persistently and unreasonably contacts the association.
· The complainant continually makes direct contact with contractors working on behalf of CKH in an attempt to divert resources and/ or disrupt the proper workings of the organisation.
Dealing with persistent complaints
We may consider a single point of contact as outlined above for residents who make persistent complaints. The single point of contact will have responsibility for liaising with the relevant employees dealing with the complaint to fully coordinate communication and any action.
If the resident has mental ill health or other disabilities, a referral to an appropriate agency or advocacy service should be made so that any communication can be carried out via a third party.
If all issues raised have been fully responded to and there is nothing further to add, we may end correspondence. Responding to future correspondence will serve no useful purpose and therefore correspondence is at an end.
Following investigation into all relevant details of the complaint, if there are no reasonable grounds for the complaint, we may refuse to deal with it.
We may dismiss the complaint in the circumstance that the complaint is unreasonable and has not caused the complainants any injustice. The resident would have the right to refer their complaint to the Ombudsman.
We may bypass steps in the complaints procedure where persistent complainers are judged to have abused the system, referring through to the final stage of the complaints procedure and offering a final response. The resident retains the right to refer the complaint to the Ombudsman.
If the behaviour is unreasonable and/ or amounts to harassment we may seek legal action to address breaches of the tenancy agreement/ anti-social behaviour and will therefore implement any conditions legally imposed (by an injunction or suspended possession order, for example).
Whilst CKH are seeking legal action and/or a final response to the complaint has been provided, thus enabling the resident to refer their complaint to the Ombudsman; we may refuse contact. This would be a temporary suspension, approved by the Director of Operations. The reasons why should be clearly set out to the resident in writing, along with a date for review. The first review should be no longer than three months from the date of the suspension.
Accessible services, equal opportunities and proportionality
Where possible, our services should be accessible to all our residents. Please see our Reasonable Adjustment Strategy for more information on how we make our services accessible.
In some circumstances, persistent contact/ complaints and/or unreasonable behaviour may be directly caused by mental ill health, learning disability or another medical condition. We will take reasonable steps to support access to support or seek a third party and/or advocacy services to promote tenancy sustainability whereby information is held to support that this could be an underlying factor. If information is not known, the resident should be given an opportunity to share any personal circumstances they wish us to be aware of when considering their case.
If consideration is being given to legal action against a resident or where a decision is to be taken to restrict contact, a proportionality assessment will be completed.
Further information:
Who is responsible for managing the Unreasonable Behaviour Policy?
The Assistant Director of Operations and Director of Operations are responsible for this policy.
Legislation and regulation
This policy is written in accordance with the following regulatory and legislative requirements:
· Equality Act 2010
· Housing Act 1996
· ASB Act 2003
· ASB, Crime and Policing Act 2014
Information sharing
Cross Keys Homes has an information sharing agreement with key agencies and contractors to share information in relation to the delivery of our services. Information shared must be relevant and the Data Protection Procedure adhered to when handling data. You can find more information about how we manage your data in our Transparency and Privacy Policy.
Monitoring and review
The Unreasonable Behaviour Policy was written and approved in June 2024 and will be reviewed annually – next review June 2025.