B.04d
Adults’ behaviour management – guidance for staff
1.0 SCOPE
1.1 This guidance concerns adults aged 18 and over. There is separate guidance (C.05d) for
children and young people who are 17 and under.
1.2 The aim of this document is to protect the health, safety and welfare of both you and any
service users you are caring for or supporting who have challenging behaviour.
1.3 You also need to read:
 adults’ personal care (B.01c)
 adults’ medication (B.02c)
 safeguarding adults (B.05c)
 lone working (F15c)
 harassment (E.08c)
 whistleblowing (E.09c).
1.4 Appendix 1 at the end of this documents gives definitions of the following:
 challenging behaviour
 positive handling.
2.0 DEALING WITH INCIDENTS OF CHALLENGING BEHAVIOUR
2.1 The person displaying challenging behaviour may not be acting that way deliberately and
may not be able to control what they are doing or saying. Try and see it as their way of
communicating that they are not happy with the situation they’re in and are finding it
challenging.
2.2 When you working with a service user with challenging behaviour, a care planner will do a
risk assessment to see how best to avoid any incidents, though this can never be guaranteed.
The guidance below sets out how you can try to avoid incidents and, if they do occur, what
action you need to take.
3.0 YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES
3.1 When you are at work you have a duty to protect yourself and others from harm and to
maintain a safe environment for the person with care needs at all times. If you are faced with an
incident of challenging behaviour, always put safety first.
3.2 If you are worried about your own safety or well-being at work, ask your line manager for help.
This will not be seen as a sign of weakness. For example, if a situation with a particular client
seems to be getting out of hand and you are finding their behaviour difficult to handle, talk to
your line manager about it. You might both decide it is better for you not to visit that person any
more. You will not be penalised if this is the case.
Policy/Behaviourmanagement/2012/08/APb04d
Last updated July 2014, to be implemented by October 2014. Review due July 2015.
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Adults’ behaviour management guidance for staff
3.3 If you know or suspect that the person you are supporting or someone else in the home (for
example their parent / carer, family member, visitor or friend) is misusing drugs or alcohol,
report this to your line manager / the person on call straight away. What they are doing may
make them aggressive, abusive or violent or present other risks and the matter will need to be
fully addressed.
3.4 If you are involved in an incident of challenging behaviour (including if you have needed to
use positive handling -see 7.0 below), you have a responsibility to record what happened and to
report it to your line manager / the person on call all straight away. You will be asked to fill in an
incident report form (DT.03) and your line manager will offer you follow-up support if you need it.
4.0 PROTECT YOURSELF
4.1 The best way of dealing with challenging behaviour is to try to stop it from happening in the
first place. Get to know the person you are caring for or supporting. Make sure you know what is
written in their risk assessment and care plan. The care plan will tell you:
 details of how the person communicates
 how they show if they are happy or distressed
 what stresses them
 what might trigger an episode of challenging behaviour
 how to avoid stressful situations and how to plan for them if they can’t be avoided
 what action you need to take if there is an episode of challenging behaviour.
4.2 Always follow the person's care plan. Let your line manager / the person on call know if the
information it gives about how to handle challenging behaviour is not working and / or you are
concerned about your own or the person with care needs’ safety. The information in the care
plan may need to be changed and your line manager may decide that the service needs to be
suspended until the situation is sorted out.
4.3 Make sure you know who to call in an emergency and that you have ready access to all the
necessary emergency contact telephone numbers.
 A responsible and competent person will be on call and contactable at all times when you
are on duty.
 Some schemes operate an agreed ‘call for assistance’ alert phrase that you can use to let
the person you are calling know you need help without letting the person causing the
problem know.
4.4 Make sure you have a fully charged mobile phone with you at all times so that you can get
help quickly if you need to and make sure the office has your mobile number. We also
recommend you carry a personal alarm.
5.0 WATCH YOUR OWN BEHAVIOUR
5.1 When you are faced with a challenging situation, be careful what you say and do.
 Follow the strategies laid out in the person’s care plan.
 Try to maintain a calm, polite, confident, professional approach that demonstrates
understanding and respect and gives the impression of being in control.
 Speak in a calm voice, slowly and firmly.
 Don’t raise your voice.
 Use clear, simple language.
 Try not to do anything that might come across as condescending or superior.
Policy/Behaviourmanagement/2012/08/APb04d
© Carers Trust 2014
Last updated July 2014
Review due July 2015
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Adults’ behaviour management guidance for staff
Try not to let yourself be provoked.
Be aware of your own body language and how you are coming across.
Avoid using any words or actions that could be seen as challenging, undermining or
threatening.
Keep out of the person’s personal space and keep out of it.
6.0 REMAIN TOLERANT AND SENSITIVE
6.1 When a person with challenging behaviour speaks to you aggressively or abusively it may
not be meant as a personal attack on you – it might just be the way they communicate.
Although this doesn’t make it right, it does call for a different response from a situation where
the abuse is directed at you personally.
6.2 If a person is agitated (for example, if they have received bad news, or are confused), they
may not be able to take in or to believe anything else you try to tell them. It is important to
calmly repeat information as many times as necessary to avoid the person becoming frustrated
and possibly challenging.
6.3 Sometimes there is an understandable reason why a person is angry. If you can
understand the reason and the events that led up to it you may be able to think of ways of
tackling it. Showing you understand can often shift anger away from physical aggression.
6.4 If a person’s behaviour becomes challenging, let them back down without losing face and
don’t try to save face yourself as this just increases the risk of an incident. Be prepared to put
your own feelings to one side.
6.5 Don’t feel you have to continue with an activity that is obviously distressing or annoying the
person receiving care. Instead:
 leave them alone for a time, or
 try a different activity or
 change the conversation to a less sensitive subject
 tell the person what you are doing and why.
6.6 If there are other people about and you think this is making the situation worse, either ask
them to leave or move away from them.
7.0 POSITIVE HANDLING
7.1 The use of positive handling (or restraint) is not encouraged. It may only be considered:
 as a last resort after all other options have been explored
 when the strategies set out in the care plan have failed to diffuse the person’s behaviour
 with the written consent of the person with care needs, their carer or advocate.
7.2 Positive handling involves the use of ‘reasonable force’, which is the minimum force
required to restrain the person concerned to prevent injury or damage. Force must never be
used just to make someone do something. You may be prosecuted if you use unlawful force.
7.3 You are not insured to carry out positive handling techniques unless they are written into the
person’s care plan and you have received the necessary training.
Policy/Behaviourmanagement/2012/08/APb04d
© Carers Trust 2014
Last updated July 2014
Review due July 2015
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Adults’ behaviour management guidance for staff
7.4 In order to practice positive handling, you need specific training from a BILD (British Institute
of Learning Disabilities) accredited trainer for each positive handling technique you use with
each person with care needs. This training has to be updated every six months.
7.5 If you are involved in an unforeseen incident where you had to use positive handling to
protect yourself and / or the person with care needs and it is not written in their care plan that
you can do so, this is described as an ‘exceptional circumstance’ not covered by 7.3 above.
7.6 If you have had to use positive handling, make a written record of the following:
 what prompted the incident
 what positive handling technique was used
 the time the positive handling started and ended
 the way the positive handling was carried out and by whom
 whether the positive handling caused any marks or bruises (give details)
 how the situation was resolved
 details of any witness/es present.
7.7 Contact your line manager / the person on call to report the incident as soon as possible.
You will also be asked to complete an incident report form (DT.03).
7.8 Let the person’s carer know about any incident of challenging behaviour and make a record
of it on the client report form in the home.
8.0 INAPPROPRIATE USE OF RESTRAINT BY OTHERS
8.1 Because you work in service users’ homes, you may well be in a position to observe how
other professionals handle the person with care needs, as well as the care given by relatives
and friends. If you notice or hear about any situations where positive handling or other forms of
restraint are being used inappropriately, let your line manager know straight away.
8.2 The use of medication and equipment (for example wheelchairs) as a means of restraint is
regarded as unethical and if you see it happening it is your duty to report it.
9.0 LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
9.1 You will find general learning and development requirements relevant to this guidance in the
learning and development guidance (E.13c).
10.0 ACCEPTANCE
10.1 You are required to sign to indicate that you have received, read and understood the
content of this guidance as directed by your line manager and on completion of training, it is
your personal responsibility to follow it. Failure to do so may result in disciplinary proceedings.
Policy/Behaviourmanagement/2012/08/APb04d
© Carers Trust 2014
Last updated July 2014
Review due July 2015
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Adults’ behaviour management guidance for staff
APPENDIX 1
Challenging behavior
This is defined as ‘culturally abnormal behavior(s) of such an intensity, frequency or duration
that the physical safety of the person or others is likely to be placed in serious jeopardy, or
behavior which is likely to seriously limit use of, or result in the person being denied access to,
ordinary community facilities’ (Emerson 1995, revised 2001)
For more information visit the Challenging Behaviour Website at:
www.challengingbehaviour.org.uk
Positive handling
This is defined as the positive application of force with the intention of protecting a person
from harming themselves or others or causing serious damage to property.
Policy/Behaviourmanagement/2012/08/APb04d
© Carers Trust 2014
Last updated July 2014
Review due July 2015
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