Case study – Safety Strategies for local government
Karen Armstrong’s Safety Strategies has been training council personnel for over 20 years in ‘Dealing Professionally with Aggressive Behaviour’, with outstanding results in confidence and assault prevention.
Our clients include:
- Brisbane City Council
- City of Canterbury Bankstown
- Cumberland Council
- Gold Coast City Council
- Hills Shire Council
- Hornsby Council
- Ku-rin-gai Council
- Mosman Council
- North Sydney Council
- City of Parramatta Council
- Parks Conservation & Lands ACT
Risk profile
Front line staff and managers are dealing with abusive and sometimes threatening behaviour. Safety Strategies training provides the skills to prevent and defuse aggression in challenging situations, such as:
- Verbal abuse
- Aggressive behaviour
- Drug/alcohol affected people
- Mentally unstable people
- Unpredictable attack
- Spitting
- Intimidation and stalking
- Multiple aggressors
- Objects thrown
- Threat with a weapon
- Working alone
- At night, early mornings
- Being in uniform
- Road rage
- Non-compliance – e.g.: issuing infringements, stop work notices
- High risk areas – e.g.: licensed premises, building sites, isolated areas, confined spaces
Our solution — practical, effective workshops
Safety Strategies training incorporates location scenarios based on specific workplace examples. Through this, staff can absorb, retain and apply the skills immediately on the job.
- Aquatics
- Animal management services
- Building maintenance
- Cleaning and waste services
- Customer service
- Development and planning
- Environmental health
- Library services
- Local law
- Parking
- Parks and recreation
- Rangers and local law
- Waste management services
The results
City of Sydney invited Safety Strategies to conduct over 50 workshops since 2009 for personnel from a range of business units.
The complete library team has been trained with customised skills for its specific risk environments. The whole cleansing and waste team was also trained with special emphasis on night staff who work in locations where there is a risk of alcohol-fuelled street violence.
One participant stated that the training would have enabled her to prevent an assault where an aggressive person grabbed her and pushed her off a property that had a ‘stop work’ notice on it.
We need this training – it gives us confidence out in the field, and the skills to prevent violence and protect ourselves …
we are no longer an easy target.
~ Cleaner, City of Sydney
One of the best courses I have ever done. Subject matter TOTALLY relevant to work environment.
~ Planning Officer
Excellent techniques learnt to take back to the workplace and use where needed. Will be great benefit for my work.
~ Parking Officer
Training design focused on:
- Identifying risks of aggression in the workplace
- Employing de-escalation techniques
- Completing follow-up activities, including reporting and post incident
support services.
These skills give me confidence and help me to be calmly assertive and professional.
Training is custom-designed every year to meet the specific needs of each division, and regular refreshers are conducted to keep skills updated.
In over 30 workshops, 99% of participants rated the training program as Excellent / Very Good
100% of participants rated the training program as Excellent / Very Good
All participants reported that the training was effective in providing strategies for preventing violence and for instilling confidence when dealing with threatening situations.
