We are committed to providing high quality, inclusive and accessible services. The welfare of our staff, volunteers and service users is paramount, as is our ability to carry out our work safely and effectively.
We recognise that at times people approach us in distress and therefore may act out of character. The Trust also recognises the right of individuals to make complaints, challenge decisions and seek clarification. The fact that a person may be persistent or dissatisfied does not in itself constitute unreasonable behaviour. However, our staff and volunteers have the right to carry out their work without being subjected to or witness to discrimination or abuse.
We have a duty of care to safeguard the health and safety of our staff and volunteers and people that use our services. We may therefore decide to restrict access to our services, including our premises or event spaces, where we consider a person’s behaviour to be unreasonable, discriminatory and/or abusive and likely to have a negative effect on our staff, volunteers, service users or work.
This policy sets out the kinds of actions and behaviours that may have a negative effect and what we will do if they occur. It applies to everyone who interacts or communicates with us, including communications made in person, by telephone, email, post, social media, online meetings and other digital platforms.
The following types of behaviour fall within this policy; however, this is not an exhaustive list.
Aggressive or abusive conduct towards staff or other service users:
- Threats or actual use of violence or physical harm.
- Behaviour or language (verbal or written) that is unwanted and/or may cause staff or volunteers to feel afraid, threatened or abused.
- Use of insulting, degrading, obscene and derogatory language including swearing.
- Harassment and discrimination such as racism, misogyny and homophobia.
- Sexual harassment including sexual advances, comments and gestures, sexually offensive jokes, images and content.
- Refusing to leave premises, stop making phone calls or making other contact when formally requested to do so.
- Knowingly false, malicious or vexatious allegations against a staff member or volunteer.
Unreasonable demands:
We may decide a demand is unreasonable if it requires a disproportionate amount of time and resource to address it. For example:
- Demanding a response within an unreasonable timescale.
- Excessive contact – via phone calls, emails, letters and/or social media.
- Insistence on seeing or speaking to a particular member of staff.
- Repeatedly raising new complaints without affording us the opportunity to resolve earlier complaints.
- Repeatedly changing what your complaint is about.
- Persistent refusal to accept a complaint outcome including contacting different members of staff to try to get a different outcome.
- Requiring responses to correspondence where the content is malicious.
- Refusing to engage with, and abide by, the policies and guidelines of the service you are accessing including misusing a service after we have explained it’s intended purpose and/or demanding support for something that is outside of our remit.
Unreasonable behaviour on our premises or at events:
We are committed to delivering services (such as Support Groups and Study Days) in spaces that are welcoming and safe. We ask all service users for their co-operation in maintaining a safe and respectful environment. This includes in-person and online MSA Trust spaces.
Decision Making:
When we consider that a person’s actions or behaviour have, or are likely to have, a negative effect on our staff, volunteers, service users or work, we will, where appropriate and possible, tell them and give them the opportunity to modify their conduct. If they continue to act or behave in a way that we consider to be unreasonable, discriminatory and/or abusive we may take any of the following actions:
- Restrict or end contact, including immediately ending a phone call or in-person conversation if necessary.
- Remove someone from an online meeting space.
- Require that contact is with a specific member of staff, or third party, only.
- Require that contact is made via a specific method only e.g. email.
- Suspend access to services and/or our premises (including events spaces) for a specific period of time or permanently.
- Not reply to communications.
- Ban or block all future contact.
- Report the matter to the Police or appropriate governing body or take legal action. In such cases, we may not give the person prior warning.
All matters will be considered alongside relevant staff and implemented by a member of the Senior Management Team, with final approval from the CEO. Notes will be kept for reference and destroyed in line with our data retention processes.
When making a decision, we may consider:
- how it affects our staff, volunteers and/or work
- how it affects the individual (including their personal circumstances and any reasonable adjustments)
- the extent to which we are able to engage or provide support
- the extent to which the process or subject matter has been exhausted.
Decisions may be reconsidered on a case-by-case basis if the individual commits to behaving in line with our policies and procedures, and with approval from the CEO.
Decisions will only be reconsidered where the Trust is satisfied that the wellbeing of staff, volunteers and service users, and the effective delivery of services, will not be adversely affected.
Version: 1.0 Created: July 2027. Review: July 2030