Hard-working staff have reported facing daily violence while trying to care for their patients, as a survey by the GMB union found 52% had been physically assaulted at work
Care workers have suffered nearly 6,500 violent attacks that kept them off work over the past five years, shocking figures reveal.
Hard-working staff have reported facing daily violence while trying to care for their patients, with carers being bitten, headbutted and choked.
A survey of more than 1,700 care workers by the GMB union found 52% had been physically assaulted at work, while two thirds (66%) said they had been verbally assaulted.
One respondent said: “I have been punched, slapped across the face, spat at, scratched and bitten.”
Another said: “Had plates thrown at me, threatened with a full boiled kettle to be thrown at me, had my glasses punched off my face, hair pulled, top grabbed, bottom pinched and tapped, chest grabbed.”
A third added: “A patient knocked eight of my teeth out.”
Over the past five years, care workers suffered 6,469 injuries that kept them from doing their job for at least a week.
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The figures, revealed through a Freedom of Information request to the Health and Safety Executive, show more than 1,200 of those suffered a ‘specified injury’, such as broken bones, brain injury or loss of consciousness.
In 2023/24, violence accounted for 39% of all reported workplace injuries in the residential care sector. That compares to 9% across the whole workforce in Britain.
One care worker, who has worked in the industry for 25 years, said the situation was getting worse.
The woman, who asked not to be named, said: “You are working with people with challenging behaviour, yes I’ve been bitten, I’ve been scratched, I’ve been hit.”
She said she had been trapped in the home of a client who threatened her, while another patient with learning difficulties left her with scars on her arm.
“He would pick his nails often so his nails were very jagged, so he would grab hold of you and sink his nails in.”
The 60-year-old, who is based in the Birmingham area, said: “The violence is getting more. What I find in domiciliary care, it’s not always the service users, you’re getting very abusive family members.”
She said sometimes families get agitated and angry if carers don’t clean the house for them or help with shopping. “We’re facing this angry society now,” she said. “Society has changed a lot.”
She said there was a lack of respect for carers from the public, adding: “We’re not here to be used and abused.”
She added: “Why would you want to go to work for minimum wage to be spoken to like this or put at risk?”
The figures were recently presented to the GMB’s annual congress, as part of their campaign to extend the Assaults Against Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 to cover care workers.
Will Dalton, GMB National Officer, said: “Care workers face physical violence day in day out, including the kind of attacks that would be treated as criminal offences in most other jobs.
“Carers do a tough, skilful, physically demanding job – usually for pennies above the minimum wage. They do it because they are dedicated and want to do the best for the people they look after. But as the care staffing black hole shows, that dedication has its limits.
“When attacks do happen, care workers need to be taken seriously and backed to the hilt by their employers – that’s why GMB is calling for better risk assessments and tougher sentences for those found guilty of attacking care workers.
“Ultimately, carers need to be paid a minimum of £15 per hour if we don’t want the entire system to collapse.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Care workers are the backbone of our society, showing extraordinary compassion and strength every day. It is simply unacceptable that they should be subjected to abuse or violence.
“No-one should face assaults or harassment at work, and it is vital that care and health staff have the confidence to know they will be listened to and supported if they speak out.
“This government is tackling violence towards staff with a new package of support to make sure they get the security, training and emotional help they need.”
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