Everyone knows that social work is a tough job but few realise that more than half have been attacked at work. Natalie Valios examines the alarming results of our exclusive research as we launch our new campaign to reduce violence and stress in our readers' working lives

Is it acceptable for a social worker to be sent to interview a parent who was believed to have a gun? Or to be told to stop being a wimp for requesting assistance from a manager for a joint visit to a known child abuser with a history of violence?

Obviously not. Yet these are among respondents' replies to a Community Care survey on violence and stress at work which kicks off our No Fear campaign this week.

Social work today is surrounded by violence, actual or threatened.

Based on a representative sample of 1,008 social workers, the survey reveals that more than half of social workers have faced non-racial violence at work (56 per cent), two-thirds of them men. Additionally, 4 per cent of social workers, according to our sample, have faced racial violence, highlighting the importance of Community Care's campaign to reduce the levels of violence and stress in social work.

While the majority of social workers had not been attacked within the past two years, of those who had been attacked, one in 10 had been attacked more than 20 times.

It is hardly surprising that 21 per cent had considered leaving their jobs after being attacked.

Eighty-seven per cent of staff who were victims of violence reported the attack, but almost one-third of these felt the employer had not addressed their complaint satisfactorily. Almost one-quarter took the matter up with the police. Although only 8 per cent of cases reached court, in almost all these cases the assailant was convicted.

However, 11 per cent decided against reporting the incident - and this is where Community Care's campaign plays such an important role. We want all violent incidents to be registered and closely monitored by those providing social care.

Community Care wants social workers to start fighting back against a culture that has crept in which allows stress and violence to be considered "part of the job". Social workers are realistic. One respondent said: "The culture of being able to deal with things means that we all take risks visiting unknown situations or home visits to service users with a high potential risk."

Indeed, 89 per cent of staff feel at risk of violence at some point while doing their job. But they deserve to have risk minimised. Employers will only realise that these are not isolated incidents but a common part of their employees' working day if all incidents are reported and then monitored.

Community Care's survey shows that although 77 per cent of agencies had violence and harassment policies covering employees, 12 per cent did not monitor the levels and frequency of violence against their staff. Staff cannot feel protected while they know there is no safety policy for them, and that even if they do report an incident the matter will end there.

Mobile phones and compulsory joint visits topped the list of suggested changes employers could make to reduce the risk of violence in the workplace.

Our survey reveals just how frequent violent attacks are - 3 per cent of staff who had faced non-racial violence had been on the receiving end of violence the week before answering the survey.

Almost one-third had experienced violence within the past year; 22 per cent of violent attacks were severe enough to warrant hospital treatment or a visit to their GP. The numbers injured without the use of a weapon (18 per cent) outnumbered more than fourfold those injured with a weapon (4 per cent); 12 per cent had needed time off work after the incident; 17 per cent of these had been off for more than a month. Anxiety and shock often followed an attack, while 8 per cent suffered depression.

In almost all cases the perpetrator was a user of the social worker's service. Forty per cent of our respondents felt they had been required to enter a potentially violent situation with inadequate support and just under half had received no formal training to cope with violent clients. This illustrates the need for our campaign aim of ensuring local authorities provide mandatory training for staff in risk management. At worst it shows a complete disregard by local authorities and voluntary organisations for their staff's safety.

Almost three-quarters of those surveyed had raised concerns about the risk of violence at work, but 38 per cent were not satisfied with the way their employer had dealt with their complaint.

Just 4 per cent of respondents had been sexually assaulted at work, three times as many female victims as males. One respondent was forced to travel alone with a young person who was alleged to have committed a serious sexual assault.

Racially motivated attacks and abuse rated far lower than the non-racial figures in an overall sample, but there are fewer black and ethnic minority social workers than white. On average black and ethnic minority social workers who said they had been attacked had been attacked nine times.

When it came to stress, almost half of respondents felt severely stressed at work. Half had told their managers that their stress levels were too high. Excessive caseloads were named as the biggest cause of stress.

Over half thought they had suffered stress-related illnesses that could be attributed to work, while 23 per cent had actually been diagnosed with stress-related illnesses as a result of their jobs: 14 per cent had been prescribed drugs for stress; other behavioural problems included losing their tempers with family or colleagues, drinking or eating too much, and smoking.

More than one-quarter of employers did not provide counselling for staff to help deal with stress.

In most cases, the perpetrator of the of attack, abuse, or harassment covered by the survey was a service user. People with mental health problems were the clients who most often instigated a non-racial violent attack or verbal abuse, racial abuse, a sexual assault, or persistent harassment or stalking.

People with learning difficulties were the second most common client group to commit most types of attack. In one-quarter of non-racial violent attacks it was the parent of a child involved in services who lashed out.

Older people were the third most likely group to sexually attack staff, accounting for 18 per cent of such attacks. Thirty-one per cent of racially motivated violent attacks were carried out by a young person looked after by their local authority. Incidents generally occurred in residential settings, except for non-racial and racial abuse which were most likely to take place at the employer's premises. This was closely followed by the service user's own home.

In 27 per cent of cases of persistent harassment and stalking the perpetrator was a person with mental health problems, but 18 per cent of social workers in this category were harassed or stalked by a colleague. Once employers are aware of the groups that put their staff most at risk - and the reasons why - social workers will be entitled to expect proper risk assessment procedures to protect them.

Don't ignore it, report it - that's the message Community Care's campaign is trying to get across to social workers. We want staff to feel safe when they walk into unpredictable situations. Employers will have to sit up and take notice of the danger their staff can be placed in and tackle it.