Third-party harassment from residents, relatives, visitors, and professionals

Sexual harassment in care homes can come from people other than colleagues. Staff may experience sexualised comments, unwanted touching, intimidation, or repeated boundary-crossing from residents, family members, visitors, contractors, transport staff, or visiting professionals. Employer guidance makes clear that the duty to prevent harassment covers third-party behaviour in the workplace.

Research on the adult social care workforce shows harassment, bullying and abuse from people being supported, family members or the public is common. Staff should not be expected to tolerate sexualised or abusive behaviour as part of the job.

Examples of third-party harassment

• Residents: sexual comments, grabbing, exposing themselves, repeated sexual invitations, or following staff.
• Relatives and visitors: staring, sexual jokes, comments about bodies, touching, cornering, or sexual messages after visits.
• Professionals and contractors: inappropriate comments in offices or staff-only areas, invitations that become pressurising, or sexualised behaviour during joint work.
• Public-facing contact: harassment while receiving calls, handling admissions, or meeting people at entrances and reception areas.

What managers should think about

Residents, relatives, visitors, and other third parties can all be sources of sexual harassment. Care staff should not be expected to accept sexualised or intimidating behaviour as an ordinary part of the job.