Strengthen protections for key workers from hate incidents and hate crime to encourage reporting

We call for strengthening of protections for key workers from hate incidents and hate crime to encourage reporting. The new normal after the lockdown should be one where the continued abuse of keyworkers is no longer accepted as an expected part of the job.

Reporting systems should be created that are agile, not time consuming, and above all, tied to quick responses that are supported top-down within organisations.

Key workers report to us that they have given up reporting incidents because it happens daily and it would take took long to fill in the admin for monitoring this.

As a result, the norm is for workers to ignore or shrug off routine abuse, and communities to also expect this to be the case.

If this an opportunity to set a new normal where abuse is no longer ignored, it is worth adjusting this practice as part and parcel of public services.