Over 40% of social work staff in the UK have faced abuse from service users, their families or members of the public this year, research has found.
The findings came from new UK-wide research by UNISON, in which 41% of almost 3,000 respondents working in care services said they had received verbal abuse at work.
Thirteen per cent of staff said they had been threatened, 11% had experienced harassment, 3% had been on the receiving end of online abuse and 2% had faced physical abuse – with younger staff more likely to report all categories of abuse.
In addition, 44% of survey participants reported a rise in such behaviour since the onset of Covid, while just 2% felt it had decreased.