Staff working in sheltered accommodation, supported housing and other residential sites often work alone on site. They may visit individual flats, deal with disputes between residents, respond to unexpected situations in communal areas and meet visitors and contractors they do not know. Risks can also arise outside scheduled appointments, including when staff are moving between buildings, locking up, leaving a property or working without a colleague nearby.

Because the setting is familiar and the work is routine, residential sites can be treated as lower risk than visits in the community. The arrangements that protect a housing officer on a doorstep, such as warning markers, check-in calls, a monitored lone worker device and a clear rule on when to withdraw, may not be applied with the same rigour to staff based on a scheme. Item 02 in this edition shows why that matters: Torus obtained an emergency injunction after a customer waved a hammer at the team at one of its sheltered housing schemes. A survey of 2,500 lone workers in the UK and Ireland, published in March 2026 by the lone worker device provider SoloProtect, found that half had avoided a task or location because they felt unsafe.

Under section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, employers have a duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of their employees, and the Health and Safety Executive says this includes protecting them from work-related violence. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require a suitable and sufficient risk assessment. The Health and Safety Executive defines work-related violence as any incident in which a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work. For residential services, the assessment should reflect the work actually done on site: who works alone and when, access to relevant warning information, isolated locations, how staff summon help, and who responds when they do.

On 26 October 2026, housing association Torus published an anti-social behaviour update setting out recent enforcement cases from its Safer Estates Team. Torus says that in one St Helens case, team members received threats of violence from a customer with links to organised crime. Torus obtained an injunction to protect its team, and there have been no breaches to date. In a second case, a customer threatened the team at a sheltered housing scheme, waving a hammer, and damaged another customer's car. Torus obtained an emergency injunction; the interim injunction and power of arrest were made final in September and remain in place until June 2027. The update also notes the new anti-social behaviour powers that came into force on 26 October 2026, including Respect Orders, which Edition 22 covered.

The update is the landlord's own account rather than independent news, but it shows a housing provider treating threats to its staff as enforcement business. The second case is a reminder that the risks described in item 01 are not hypothetical: the team was threatened on site, at a sheltered scheme, not on a visit.

The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires housing providers, as employers, to protect staff from foreseeable violence so far as is reasonably practicable. Injunctions under Part 1 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 can have a power of arrest attached where the conduct includes violence or threatened violence against other people, or there is a significant risk of harm to others. Since 26 October 2026, the Crime and Policing Act 2026 has limited new Part 1 injunctions to youth injunctions (ages 10 to 17) and housing injunctions (ages 18 and over); injunctions granted, or applied for, before that date continue under the previous rules.

On 24 October 2026, KentOnline reported that Kevin Lusher, 62, of Chatham, had admitted attacking a hospital worker at Medway Maritime Hospital. The court heard that Lusher was rude to reception staff just after 2pm on 12 October and was asked to leave. A member of staff followed him to a bus stop, where Lusher racially abused the worker twice and punched him in the face. He then continued to goad the worker, and police were called. Lusher admitted racially aggravated harassment, racially aggravated assault and assault at Sevenoaks Magistrates' Court on 13 October before District Judge Claire Luxford. The court heard he has 102 offences on his record, including 23 racially aggravated offences. In a statement, the worker said: "I was only doing my job and I don't consent to getting hurt." A pre-sentence report was ordered and Lusher was bailed to appear at Medway Magistrates' Court on 17 December.

On 29 October 2026, West Bridgford Wire reported that Charley Wright, 34, had been jailed for 32 weeks after repeatedly racially abusing security staff at the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham and biting one of them. She pleaded guilty to offences including two racially aggravated public order offences, assault by beating and assault of an emergency worker, which also breached an existing suspended sentence order. Sergeant Alex Thomas of Nottinghamshire Police said: "Each of the people she targeted were just trying to do their job when they were subjected to Wright's horrible behaviour."

The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires employers to protect staff from foreseeable violence so far as is reasonably practicable, and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require a suitable and sufficient risk assessment. Both incidents involve racist abuse of staff by members of the public. Since 30 October 2026, under changes made by the Employment Rights Act 2025, employers in Great Britain can be liable under the Equality Act 2010 for harassment of their employees by third parties, such as patients and visitors, in the course of their employment, where the employer has not taken all reasonable steps to prevent it. Both of these incidents happened before that date.

On 30 October 2026, London Ambulance Service NHS Trust published an account by its Violence Reduction Manager, Louise Murray, who has spent nearly 25 years on the frontline and in violence reduction. She describes being locked inside a patient's home with her crewmate for more than 15 minutes earlier in her career. London Ambulance Service was the first ambulance trust to set up a Violence Reduction Unit, five years ago, and the unit now supports about 640 active police investigations. With the colleague's consent, the team can ask police to review a case that has been closed; one such case went on to the Crown Prosecution Service and ended in a conviction. The article also refers to a recent case in which a paramedic was sexually assaulted by a patient; the man was jailed for 18 weeks. Ms Murray writes that ambulance crews and call handlers report sexual abuse every single day, and that abuse and aggression are not part of the job.

The account follows the trust's "Abuse on the line" release of 22 October 2026 on sexual harassment of 999 and 111 staff. The Mirror reported the same day that the trust recorded 462 incidents between July 2025 and July 2026, about a third of them from its 999 and 111 control rooms. These figures are dated before this edition's window and are given as context.

The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 apply to violence towards ambulance staff, including verbal and sexual abuse over the telephone. Since 30 October 2026, employers in Great Britain must take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees, including by callers and patients, and can be liable for harassment of their employees by third parties such as callers and patients unless they took all reasonable steps to prevent it (see the Legislative Spotlight). Common assault or battery of ambulance crews while they are working is also covered by the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018, which applies in England and Wales and raises the maximum sentence.

On 29 October 2026, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service launched its "Bang Out Of Order" campaign with Greater Manchester Police, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the city region's 10 local councils. The service said 20 attacks on firefighters were recorded between 1 September and 10 November 2025, up from 17 in 2024. Over the same period there were 1,020 anti-social behaviour incidents involving nuisance from fireworks, 935 deliberate fires and 767 hoax calls. Matt Hamer, Director for Community Safety and Training, said: "Our firefighters are there to protect communities and should never face abuse, violence or intimidation while carrying out their duties." Superintendent Mike Russell of Greater Manchester Police said: "Any form of attack on emergency service workers is appalling, and will be treated with zero tolerance."

The figures cover last year's bonfire period, and the campaign is a launch rather than a single incident. The same evenings put pressure on everyone who works in the community after dark, not only emergency crews.

Under the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018, which applies in England and Wales, common assault or battery of firefighters, paramedics, police and other emergency workers while they are working carries a higher maximum sentence, and the Sentencing Act 2020 requires courts to treat more serious assaults on emergency workers as aggravated. Fire and rescue authorities, as employers, also have duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 to protect crews from foreseeable violence so far as is reasonably practicable.

All Reasonable Steps: The Harassment Law Changes Now Apply in Great Britain. Can Employers Show Their Preventative Steps?