Government in dark over violence target

The government has admitted it has no idea whether a target to reduce violence against social care workers by 25 per cent from 2002 to 2005 has been met.

The target was proposed in January 2001 by the National Task Force on Violence Against Social Care Staff, and accepted by John Hutton, then minister for social care.

Hutton said the Department of Health would work with employers to help them meet it. But in a parliamentary answer last week, health minister Rosie Winterton said “data to track this recommendation is not collected centrally”.

The taskforce called on employers to establish a baseline for violence against staff by March 2002 and take action to reduce this figure by 25 per cent by March 2005. It called for violence against social care staff “to be reduced very significantly”.