National media reports of mass orders of anti-stab vests being placed by local authorities and hospital trusts as a direct result of the rising incidence of knife-crime attacks have overstated the situation, the Local Government Association (LGA) has told SHP.
According to several newspapers, including The Observer, the Body Armour Company said it had received about 10,000 orders for protective vests, mainly for NHS workers, with increasing interest from teachers.
While conceding that it was not privy to the level of orders of body armour being made by councils, a spokesperson for the LGA rejected the suggestion that local-government employees were being kitted out en masse. He said: “Council workers come into contact with every household across the country in some capacity. Obviously, the risk that staff face varies enormously, and their level of protection needs to be both sensible and proportionate. Any council worker will have a risk assessment to make sure they are as safe as possible to carry out their day-to-day work.”
The LGA’s views were echoed by public services union, Unison. A spokesperson said: “Sensible risk assessment has to be the starting point. What may be appropriate in one area might not be in another.” Rather than kitting out ambulance staff in protective vests, which “can be quite bulky when kneeling down with patients”, she said violence against staff should be tackled by “many more prosecutions and tougher penalties, as people currently think they can get away with it”.
The Department of Health said it took the safety of NHS staff extremely seriously, but said it was up to individual trusts to purchase vests. It added: “We believe the security experts based in each individual ambulance service are best placed to decide safety priorities for their staff.”
