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Lone Working Advice for Third Sector Organisations

23rd October 2026

Supporting Staff and Volunteer Safety to Navigate Risk

Recent reports of abuse, intimidation and harassment directed at charity staff and volunteers have highlighted the need for organisations to regularly review how they keep their people safe.

From community outreach and home visits to advice services and event delivery, lone working is an everyday reality for many third sector organisations. Staff and volunteers often deliver essential services without immediate access to colleagues, making effective planning and risk management vital.

A lone worker isn’t simply someone working by themselves. People may also be considered lone workers when they are isolated by distance, location or the nature of their role, even if others are present nearby.

Robust planning helps organisations to do more than meet their legal responsibilities. They can reduce risk, support staff wellbeing, and ensure employees and volunteers feel confident and supported in their roles.

In this article, we share practical steps organisations can take to strengthen lone worker safety, improve risk assessments, and create safer working environments for staff and volunteers.

Personal Safety When Working Alone

Remove visible branding where appropriate: If there is a credible risk of vandalism, harassment or disruption, review whether highly visible external branding is necessary and proportionate.
Vary routes and schedules: Staff visiting high-risk external locations, such as contingency asylum accommodation or hotels, should avoid arriving at predictable times.
Driving for Work: In light of instances where activists have chased or recorded staff vehicles, employees should park in secure, well-lit, or monitored areas and use central locking as soon as they enter the car. Use organisation vehicles if available.

Keeping Offices, Community Venues and Events Safe

Remove visible branding: Consider removing prominent external signage from public-facing offices if there is a possible threat of incident. This makes the location less obvious to opportunistic vandals or flash protests.
Establish an “Invacuation” plan: Train staff on how to quickly secure exterior doors, move away from windows, and retreat to an internal safe room if a hostile group gathers outside before police arrive.
Conduct event risk screening: Before hosting events open to the public, vet the venue’s existing security setup. If a venue cannot guarantee controlled access or sufficient protection, consider running an online version or postponing the event to find more suitable premises.

Security Measures for Staff and Volunteers

Control building access: Install intercoms, keycard entry, and reinforced reception glass to create a barrier between public areas and private staff spaces.
Redesign waiting areas: Arrange furniture so staff always have a clear, unblocked path to an exit. Secure heavy objects that could be used as weapons.
Implement panic alarms: Equip reception desks with silent panic buttons linked to emergency services and provide mobile panic apps for staff.
Establish a “buddy system”: Ensure staff never conduct face-to-face meetings alone with high-risk clients or during out-of-hours shifts.
De-escalation training: Provide regular training on conflict resolution, reading body language, and verbal de-escalation techniques

Protecting Staff from Online Harassment and Digital Risks

Create a ‘doxxing’ response process: Doxxing is a term for online harassment and the exposure of personal information. Provide staff with clear instructions on how to quickly lock down their personal social media profiles, secure their home addresses on public registries, and handle coordinated “troll storms” or hostile review-bombing campaigns.
Anonymise public-facing details: Remove staff surnames, direct email addresses, and phone numbers from public websites to prevent targeted harassment.
Scrub personal data: Assist staff in removing their home addresses and personal details from public registers (like the electoral roll) to prevent “doxxing.”
Moderate social media: Turn off comments on sensitive posts, use strict keyword filters, and immediately block aggressive users.
Secure communications: Use centralised, recorded phone lines for client communication rather than personal or direct staff numbers.

Lone Worker Policies and Risk Management

Create a zero-tolerance culture: Create a clear, written code of conduct for clients and visitors. Display it prominently in multiple languages, expressing expected behaviour and interactions with staff, volunteers, etc.
Dynamic risk assessments: Assess the potential for aggression before appointments based on case history and move high-risk meetings to safer rooms or online formats. If you identify a high-risk meeting, remove it from a Lone Worker and assign it to 2 or more staff.
Incident reporting: Implement an easy, blame-free reporting system for all incidents, including “near-misses” and verbal abuse.
Create clear emergency plans: Develop standard operating procedures (SOPs) for active threats, building lockdowns, or protests, and run regular drills.

The HSE also provides information on lone working, or visit Suzy Lamplugh Trust for more support.

Support for Staff After an Incident

Mandatory debriefs: Hold immediate operational and emotional debriefs after any aggressive incident to review what happened and support the staff involved.
Provide post-incident support: Access to specialised counselling (like Employee Assistance Programs) to combat trauma and burnout.
Legal and police backing: Actively support staff, ensuring the organisation helps handle the administrative burden of a case going to court.

Working with Police and External Partners

Build local police liaisons: Do not wait for a crisis. Establish a direct contact with your local Community Policing Teams to share intelligence on upcoming local demonstrations.
Preserve evidence safely: Train staff not to engage with hostile individuals filming or shouting outside the premises. Instead, log the time, download internal CCTV footage, and preserve abusive emails or digital threats to pass directly to the police.

Supporting Staff Wellbeing and Confidence

Experiencing abuse, intimidation or threatening behaviour can have a significant impact on wellbeing. Encourage open conversations about safety concerns and ensure staff and volunteers know how to access support when needed. This may include:

Regular wellbeing check-ins.
Access to employee assistance programmes or counselling services.
Peer support and supervision sessions.
Clear reporting procedures for safety concerns.
Additional support following incidents or near misses.

A supportive culture can help staff feel safer, more confident, and better equipped to carry out their roles.

Strengthen Your Lone Working Arrangements

Lone worker safety is not just about responding to incidents. It is about creating systems, procedures, and working practices that help prevent problems in the first place.

GCVS can support charities, community groups and voluntary organisations with training to:

Understand legal responsibilities and good practice.
Carry out effective lone working risk assessments.
Identify practical measures to reduce risk.
Improve staff confidence and personal safety.
Strengthen incident response procedures.

Whether your team provides outreach services, community support, advice work, home visits or event delivery, we can help you develop a safer approach to lone working.

For more information and guidance on Lone Working, or to discuss your training needs, contact our Health and Safety advisor at peopleservices@gcvs.org.uk