Member peer virtual conference Day 2: Sector improvement and civility in public life, Friday 5 November 2021

Suzy Lamplugh Trust talk - notes & conference links

Notes made from delegate interaction during the session

Risk assessing

Identify the risks we might face. We can think of personal safety risks under three headings (the activity we are doing, the people involved, the place we are in). Examples given by delegates:

Activity

• Public meetings
• Travel to and from
• Canvassing alone
• People objecting to certain activities
• Mediating
• Dealing with complaints

People

• Mental health issues
• Emotional difficulties
• People carrying weapons
• Groups of people

Places

• Living in the community of people who may approach you for assistance
• Visiting higher risk places
• Visiting a variety of place
• Poor mobile signal
• Visiting places we aren’t familiar with

What ideas do we have to guard against those risks? We can ARM ourselves against risk, i.e. think ahead, how could we avoid, reduce, or manage risk in the moment? Some examples for visiting a venue:

Avoid

• Do you need to visit in person?
• Phone call/teams/zoom/letter

Reduce

• Research where you are going
• Get someone to call you during a meeting as a reason to finish/raise the alarm
• Ensure people know where you are and check in and out with them
• Visit in pairs if possible/appropriate
• Where do you park your car? Reverse into spaces, make your exit as easy as possible
• Where are lights/CCTV/people?
• Put a time constraint on the meeting so people have realistic expectations, and you have a reason to make a call/leave if necessary
• Know your exits
• Position yourself so your exits are available

Manage options

• 999
• Have excuses prepared to leave if needed
• Just leave
• Carry a personal alarm – easily found on the internet, should be about 140 decibels to be effective
• Use code words to raise the alarm secretly
Tracing systems – some questions to consider…
• Do people know where I will be? Do I have a calendar that is accessible to others? Can I check in and out with a buddy?
• Would people realise and follow up if I didn’t arrive/return/check in as expected?
• Is there a procedure to follow if I don’t return/check in/as expected, and if I am someone’s else’s buddy what would I do if I didn’t hear from someone as expected?
• Can I raise the alarm covertly if necessary?
• Who would I call in an emergency? Have I memorised any telephone numbers?
• Does the organisation I am representing have up to date contact details for me? Eg phone number, next of kin, car details?
• Does my partner, family or next of kin have details for my organisation if they need to contact them in an emergency eg if I haven’t arrived home as expected? (even if it is outside office hours)

Further reading: 

The Suzy Lamplugh Trust does not endorse one device or app or initiative over another as the best app/initiative for one organisation may not be the right one for another, so these are just examples of apps/further information that could potentially be useful.
Downloadable leaflets:

Day 2 Member peer conference links

 

Member peer virtual conference Day 1: Climate emergency, Thursday 4 November 2021