£45,000 for care worker injured caring for adults with learning disabilities

Mr S worked for a large care company engaged in caring for adults with various learning disabilities including severe autism.

A number of the service users were known to exhibit violent and unpredictable behaviour at times and many staff members were routinely subject to assault and battery injuries.  Despite this, no changes were made and the company continued to accommodate them.

Whilst Mr S was also subject to frequent assault injuries, he was regrettably subject to two very serious assault injuries. The first incident occurred whilst caring for an adult who had a reputation for violent behaviour. One day, whilst caring for him, suddenly the adult launched an attack upon Mr S, subjecting him to head butts, kicks and punches. Mr S was left with headaches for a number of weeks due to post-concussion injuries.

Further unfortunately, following this incident the company relocated him to care for one another vulnerable adult who was known to be perhaps the most dangerous service user cared for by the company. In the course of caring for him this adult suddenly attacked Mr S, subjecting him to have a prolonged assault injury in which he suffered significant elbow and shoulder injuries and facial lacerations.

Unsurprisingly, both incidents, as well as the general work environment, resulted in substantial psychological injuries including post-traumatic stress disorder.

As Aston Knight Solicitors have already represented other injured care workers in similar circumstances, Mr S was recommended to us by another injured former employee of the Defendant and we were pleased to accept his case.

Whilst initially the company tried arguing that Mr S was partly responsible for what happened, we refused to agree to this and they subsequently admitted liability in full.

The defendant representatives then indicated that they wished to settle the matter as quickly as possible and so we obtained expert evidence from a neurologist, upper limb surgeon and psychiatrist and subsequently negotiated a settlement of £45,000 which Mr S was delighted to receive.

Senior solicitor Mr James Winterbottom who dealt with the case comments:

“We are acting for a number of former care worker clients at present who have all suffered similar incidents whilst working at the same company. Whilst it is appreciated that caring for adults with learning disabilities brings significant challenges, there cannot be situations of staff being routinely physically attacked. The company in question had long been aware of the risk of injury to staff but no action was taken in time. It is known that the company receives substantial government payments to house these adults and there is therefore the concern that the profits secured from this work have overridden concerns about staff safety.

Suffering such significant events, both in the form of more serious one-off events as well as the trauma of having to work in those environments to today, frequently results in ongoing psychological injuries and diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder are common.

In my experience, carers are often some of the most dedicated and hardworking people and through speaking to them in this case their passion for their work and those they care for shines through despite the horrendous events they have been through.”

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