Supporting Vulnerable People

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Those working in the night time economy contribute to a fun, lively environment, and no two nights in their town or city are ever the same. Along with this, however, those on the frontline also regularly have to deal with situations involving vulnerable people. From alcohol-related illness to safety concerns, staff in licensed premises need to have their eye on the ball at all times.

To help you provide a safe drinking environment for all, Jo Cox-Brown, Director of Night Time Economy Solutions provides her top tips on dealing with vulnerable people.

Safely tackling vulnerabilities

Below we’ve listed the vulnerability issues licensed premises deal with most often, together with effective ways to handle them.

  1. Drunk people trying to enter your venue – All staff should recognise signs of drunk behaviour, so ensure training is given to anyone needing it. A drunk person should never be allowed entry to your premises, not only because serving them is illegal and could you land you a fine of up to £20,000, but because it’s irresponsible and unsafe. Instead, offer to call them a taxi or ask if a friend can bring them home. Letting them wait while their transport arrives and providing water and some simple food will help them sober up and this show of kindness can also help relieve their embarrassment over being refused entry. Remain friendly and calm at all times, explaining the risk of a fine or venue closure if you were to grant access.
  2. Vulnerable people leaving your premises – If there is a lone person leaving your venue, check in with them by asking how they are, where their friends are and how they’re getting home. This can be enough to tell you whether or not they need additional help and if they are safe on their own. If they do need help, talk to them to create a safe plan to get home, partnering with other agencies if needed such as a licensed taxi company. If you see someone leaving your venue with a different person than they came in with, approach them and ask if they are ok. Don’t be afraid to check if they know the person they are leaving with and if their friends know where they are going. Look out for signs of intoxication or date rape drugs and assess their ability to hold a conversation. If you discover they don’t know the person or suspect they’ve been spiked, engage them in a separate conversation and clearly state you’ll remain with them until they’re reunited with their friends. If the situation escalates, contact the police.
  3. Lost or stolen property – Losing personal items, particularly a wallet or house keys can be very distressing. Help the person remain calm as they search for their belongings. Escort them around the venue if necessary, and if they can’t locate their things, support them to get home safely by offering them use of a phone or engaging a voluntary group such as Street Angels to help them. Don’t let them wander off alone without a phone or money for transport.
  4. Anger or aggression – If a customer becomes angry, for whatever reason, display non-threatening body language such as having your hands loosely by your side with palms forward, stand back to give the customer space and use a calm voice to try and deescalate the situation. Don’t attempt to manage it alone, and always keep your safety and the safety of other-staff paramount. In some instances, it may help if a staff member who would be considered unthreatening offers an incentive to leave, such as a free drink next time the customer comes in. In any instance of aggression, always utilise services available to you like the police or appropriate volunteers, who can support with looking after the customer until he or she is calm and sober.
  5. Distress, illness or upset – Our instincts when faced with sickness or upset are often to either turn away or rush straight in. However, it’s best to step back and assess first, and always ask the person’s permission before doing anything – whether that’s collecting their things or holding their hair as they vomit. Letting them leave the premises alone will make them vulnerable to predators, so try and establish who the best person is to care for them – whether that’s their friends within your venue or a voluntary service like Street Angels. In the case of severe illness or unconsciousness, call an ambulance immediately and stay with the person at all times. If they are conscious, encourage them to sit up and give them something suitable to vomit in if needed. If they are unconscious, put them in the recovery position and monitor their breathing and body temperature. Talk to the person but never try to force them into consciousness by pouring cold water over them as the shock and sudden temperature change can be very dangerous.

Also ensure all staff members understand signs of alcohol poisoning, which are:

  • Hyperthermia or low body temperature
  • Being conscious but unresponsive
  • Irregular breathing
  • Seizures
  • Confusion
  • Vomiting
  • Poor coordination
  • Fainting or passing out

If you suspect alcohol poisoning or are concerned about symptoms someone is displaying, always dial 999.

As well as following the above five points for safe drinking practice, it’s also essential to keep in mind the following when involved in a situation:

Protect your own safety
Work alongside another staff member to help a customer, as alone you are vulnerable too. Always keep firm boundaries in place and never offer lifts home or do anything that could put your own safety at risk.

Intoxicated people can be volatile, have lowered inhibitions and can have hazy memories the next day, all of which can put you at risk of danger or accusation.

Make use of CCTV and radio communications.

By communicating with other venues, you can arrange joint monitoring of lone, vulnerable or aggressive people to improve their safety and that of others. We recently asked CCTV to monitor a lone woman from a venue back to her hotel, which is something that can be easily arranged thanks to most town and city centres having excellent CCTV networks.

Work with other agencies
It’s your responsibility to ensure any vulnerable patrons leave your venue safely, and there are other agencies who can support you.

We advise:

  • Creating a link with a local taxi company who are happy to pick up those at risk of being vulnerable.
  • Connecting with volunteer organisations such as Street Pastors and Street Angels. They can offer invaluable help to those who find themselves vulnerable in the night time economy. Groups like these can support people in various ways as they exit your venue into the city at large.
  • If someone genuinely can’t get home and there are no volunteers available, work with your local policing team to see if they can help, even by letting the person spend a few hours waiting at the local station’s front counter until they can be picked up or make their way home safely.

Working with other agencies can remove some of the worry of dealing with vulnerable people, as well as helping your whole town or city’s night time economy be as safe, fun and prosperous as possible.

Make it official
It’s important that all staff feel confident in practically dealing with vulnerability, as scenarios covered in this guide are liable to crop up regularly. However, practical knowledge must be accompanied by an airtight Vulnerable Persons Policy, together with staff training. We’ll cover how to create and implement this in Subject 4 – Policy and staff training for dealing with vulnerable people

Note that the text above is provided by Night Time Economy Solutions www.nighttimeeconomy.com.

It’s well known that regular contact with vulnerable people comes hand in hand with managing a licensed venue. Many factors contribute to a customer becoming vulnerable, from lowered inhibition and impaired judgment, to spiked drinks and being left alone.

To help you consider how to develop policy and staff training, Jo Cox-Brown, Director of Night Time Economy Solutions provides her top tips on dealing with vulnerable people.

Your responsibility towards a vulnerable person starts as soon as they approach your venue. Dealing with vulnerability is a complicated, moving process, so it’s important that every member of staff feels confident handling situations safely.

Having effective measures in place to deal with vulnerabilities helps to keep both customers and staff safe. To do this, venues must develop a policy and risk assessment on dealing with vulnerable patrons. Quality training should then be delivered to staff so they feel equipped to implement the policy with confidence.

How to create a Vulnerable Persons Policy for your premises

Your policy for dealing with vulnerable people should be extensive in the types of vulnerability it covers, and clear on the ways in which it should be rolled out. A policy won’t be effective if it isn’t clear and specific about how staff should deal with situations, they’re likely to be presented with.

When we work with licensed businesses, we start by helping them create a matrix of every possible type of vulnerability they come across, together with the ways they currently deal with them. This is reviewed, amended for best practice and presented in a chart so it can be broken down into:

  • Types of vulnerability
  • Duty of each staff member, e.g., bar staff, supervisor, door contractors
  • Action to be taken
  • When to contact an external agency such as police or ambulance service

This provides important clarity to all staff both in preparation for, and during, an incident. It’s essential that everyone feels equipped to deal with situations that arise as a result of vulnerability, and that they have a quick and clear chart to refer to when needed.

What should your policy cover?

All vulnerable people policies should include the following information:

  • A definition of the different types of vulnerability that may present at your premises.
  • How best to communicate with vulnerable people, with individual sections for different types. For example, people who are drunk, people on their own, people behaving aggressively and people who are ill.
  • How to safeguard vulnerable people, including information on First Aid administration and referral to the ambulance service where relevant.
  • Best practice for partnering with agencies, such as taxi companies and other venues.
  • What to do if you sense a vulnerable person is in danger, for example if they leave the venue alone or with people they didn’t arrive with.

Creating a dynamic risk assessment

Those of us experienced in working in a licensed premise know that a risk assessment needs to be much more than a form with ticked boxes. Staff and management respond to a variety of situations on a nightly basis and need to be able to react in a dynamic way.

Staff should be taught to:

  • Evaluate the situation as it develops
  • Treat each person as an individual and not make snap judgments
  • Assess who is the best person to help in the circumstance
  • Work with the vulnerable person to find a solution where possible
  • Spot signs of danger including aggression and alcohol poisoning

We recommend creating a risk assessment that starts with assessment of the vulnerability (e.g., a lone vulnerable person) and follows with a simple safety scale and clear actions to take. Taking the example above, if a patron was leaving the venue alone at night, the safety scale would be higher if they were drunk or if they were female, and a clear action to take would be to ask if they were ok, how they were getting home and to assist them by calling a taxi or a friend.

Staff need to feel able to make these decisions in a live way. The best way to help ensure they’re making informed choices in the moment is to provide them with thorough, interactive training.

Training staff in working with vulnerable people

The best way to manage vulnerability is to ensure that you have equipped your team with the skills to effectively deal with vulnerable people before it becomes an issue. This can be done by using a variety of paid for or free electronic tools, such as the National Pubwatch – Supporting Vulnerable People training film or asking your local police or volunteer Street Angels or Street Pastors, or bringing in a specialist training company’

All staff should receive regular training on working with vulnerable people, ideally once a quarter. We recommend this as a group exercise in the first instance at least, as this allows the expertise of different staff members to be shared and for the session to cover more real-life scenarios.

Training updates can then be given to a supervisor and cascaded down to staff if the supervisor feels confident with this.

Training should cover:

  • Going through the policy as a team and discussing the practical management of vulnerable people
  • Ways to protect a staff member’s own safety, for example not engaging with a vulnerable person alone
  • Practical training exercises to ensure the policy is understood
  • Opportunities for questions and discussion
  • Signing of the policy by all staff members

Note that the text above is provided by Jo Cox-Brown Night Time Economy Solutions www.nighttimeeconomy.com.

Everyone has a right to feel safe on a night out, and the hospitality sector prioritises their safety and welfare, doing everything we can to protect this right. Whilst incidents are extremely rare, when drink spiking (or other vulnerability issues) occur, we take every case extremely seriously. We work hard to create a welcoming, inclusive and safe environment so that all our customers can enjoy a fun night out.

Many venues within the wider hospitality sector have door staff, established search procedures, staff training to identify problems before they occur and training on how to offer support. Venues also have CCTV, and many of them will have metal detectors and other safeguarding measures in place. The Licensing Act also allows these measures to be required through legal conditions on a venue’s licence where appropriate and proportionate, and conditions are in place in some venues (some operators will do so voluntarily as a matter of course).

Our industry takes the safety of our customers extremely seriously. Vulnerability and wider customer safety (including reports of drink spiking) remains an ongoing focus of the sector.

This factsheet is intended to bring together in one place the resources developed and made available by both the Government and a wide range of organisations, to bolster the work already ongoing and ensure our venues remain the safest places to enjoy a night out.

What is drink spiking?

Guidance issued under section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003 lists a number of examples of spiking:

  • Putting alcohol into someone’s drink without their knowledge or permission
  • Putting prescription or illegal drugs into an alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink without their knowledge or permission
  • Injecting another person with prescription or illegal drugs without their knowledge or permission
  • Putting prescription or illegal drugs into another person’s food without their knowledge or permission
  • Putting prescription or illegal drugs into another person’s cigarette or vape without their knowledge or permission

As shown above, drink spiking can be defined as adding a substance to someone’s drink without their knowledge. Alcohol is the most common substance to be added, but illegal or legal drugs are other substances that might also be used. This is illegal, and there are a number of different criminal offences that such an action falls under. Any motivation for drink spiking – be it for criminal purposes or any other reason – should not be tolerated as it is a crime.

In addition to drink spiking occurrences, there have been some reports of criminal activity involving needles being used to injure and/or inject customers. Whilst the numbers of such reports remain low, they further underline the need to ensure that welfare and safety of customers remains a key focus for operators.

What should I do to prevent drink spiking in my premises?

There are many resources available (listed below) and actions that can be taken, as outlined above, that can help you to minimise the likelihood of drink spiking occurring in your premises and to assist any customers that are affected by spiking.

What should I do if drink spiking is reported in my premises?

If a vulnerability issue (such as drink spiking) is reported in your premises, there are three key initial actions that should always take place:

  • Always act on the report – activate the safeguarding procedures you have in place in your venue, and take steps to identify those suspected, if possible, in the situation.
  • Ensure the health and safety of the customer – this could be by calling emergency services, ensuring they are with trusted friends who will look after them, offering assistance if needed, and ensuring a safe space for the customer.
  • Logging and recording – report incidences to the police and record the details for further internal action. Review CCTV footage to check if the incident has been captured.

Many venues will have procedures that go above and beyond those noted above for reported occurrences, plus their ongoing internal procedures to prevent vulnerability crimes occurring in the first place. Some venues offer anti-spiking bottle stoppers and protective drink covers, so you may wish to consider this as an option. In addition, drug testing kits have been made available in some local areas provided by the police or local authorities. However, the main preventive measure will always be well-trained, vigilant and supportive staff that know how to respond to situations that they observe or are reported to them.

Another key factor is to demonstrate that those looking to commit crimes in your premises are not welcome. This can be achieved in a number of ways such as:

  • via communication to your customers as to the signs to look out for (e.g. posters, social media),
  • staff training to enable them to identify potential issues before they develop further,
  • practical and physical measures such as ensuring that CCTV coverage is optimised e.g. minimising ‘blind spots’ through removing obstacles, increasing lighting, using mirrors.

The list of resources below covers all of these actions plus other useful resources for safeguarding within the Night Time Economy:

Key resources

Home Office

The Government has published a range of advice, guidance and information documents, available on the Home Office’s website. This includes:

  • A spiking factsheet – which provides information on what spiking is, why and where it happens, the laws against it and the police’s role.
  • Information for venues and festivals – this includes posters that you can download to display in your venue and social media materials you can use:

    The Enough campaign also provides information on spiking organisations which offer UK-wide support, and has a partnership with universities across the UK where spiking prevention materials such as posters and social media materials are also used.

  • Guidance on spiking – offering advice and support on what to do if you are spiked, or are with someone who has been, and where to get more information.

Night Time Industries Association (NTIA)

British Institute of Innkeeping (BII) posters

“Ask for Angela” scheme

There are a range of resources available for venues to sign-up to and support the Ask for Angela initiative:

National Pubwatch

Best Bar None

Best Bar None is an industry accreditation scheme for licensed premises. The accreditation includes questions on how a venue supports its staff to identify and help vulnerable people, together with any steps it can take to prevent spiking. Support is provided to implement appropriate policies and practices if needed. BBN can be contacted here.

Welfare and Vulnerability Engagement (WAVE) training

  • WAVE Training aims to increase the skills, knowledge and confidence of those working in licensed premises focusing on identifying vulnerability and making appropriate interventions.

CPL Learning

  • CPL Learning have provided free access to their online drink spiking awareness course for staff here.

Drinkaware

Women’s Night Safety Charters

Following the launch of a Women’s Night Safety Charter by the Mayor of London, other regions and cities across the UK are starting to launch their own versions. We encourage members that operate in these locations to become signatories.

Information provided by British Beer and Pub Association.

National Pubwatch can offer you two free training opportunities which can be used separately or combined to provide a more comprehensive package.

The first is our Supporting Vulnerable People film. This is an interactive film which takes viewers through a number of common vulnerability scenarios. The film has been designed so that it can be paused to allow team discussion about the various scenarios. The film can be viewed on the NPW YouTube link here. 

The second is an e-learning module provided though a partnership agreement with Drinkaware. NB: Unfortunately at the moment this module is unavailable. We are seeking to provide this free training in another format and will update as soon as possible.

Further material you may find useful

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