Archive for the ‘Health and Safety’ Category

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Consulting on the Compensation Culture

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

One of the outcomes from Lord Young’s review of Health and Safety is to question the marketing methods employed by some Claims Management companies.

The Issue

Health and Safety Manual on the Shelf

The issue that Lord Young identified is that a number of companies offer cash inducements to encourage accident victims to make claims for compensation. Such claims may be against businesses, employers or anyone who might possibly be held responsible for the accident.

Cash inducements are considered to be against the spirit, though not the letter of the rules set up by the government to regulate the Claims Management sector.

Under the ‘Conduct of Authorised Persons Rules 2007‘, Rule 6(b) of Client Specific Rules states:

“A business must – - – not offer an immediate cash payment or a similar benefit as an inducement for making a claim.”

A few companies avoid this restriction by offering cash payments “as soon as we accept your claim” or similar terminology that suggests the payment is not “immediate”.

By offering such inducements, the claims companies are encouraging people to pursue claims through the legal system that may have little or no real merit.

Consequences

Over the past decade or so, this has given rise to a perceived “compensation culture” that makes everyone nervous in case a small mistake that results in a minor incident should become escalated into a costly court case.

The evidence suggests that this is more of a perception than a reality. However, as long as the perception exists, it inevitably affects the attitudes and practical reactions of people and businesses – often to the disadvantage of society in general.

The perception can be exaggerated by the media when they report on and raise the profile of compensation cases beyond what might be justified by the facts. Genuine Health and Safety suffers through being implicated in press stories – often unjustifiably – as being the justification for unwarranted claims.

Responding to Government Proposals

The government is proposing to amend Rule 6(b) to broaden the scope of inducements that are prohibited. Under their proposals the rule would be amended to read:

“A business must – - – not offer any cash payments or similar benefits as an inducement for making a claim.”

These proposals, along with a few other tweaks to the ‘Conduct of Authorised Persons Rules‘, are included in a Consultation currently being undertaken by the Ministry of Justice.

Whilst the Consultation is aimed primarily at the Claims Management industry, responses are welcomed from anyone.

If you have an interest or views on these changes then you can access the Consultation document, which includes a response form, on the Ministry of Justice website.

This is one small way in which we can influence the application of Health and Safety to genuinely save lives and keep people safe instead of being used as a convenient excuse for those who want to ban or avoid some perfectly legitimate activity.

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When did You Last Review Your Health and Safety System?

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

Health and Safety Manual on the Shelf

EDP is a Health and Safety Consultancy. We have been involved with Health and Safety for more than 20 years and have clients in many different sectors, ranging from the smallest SMEs to large multinational Corporations. Whatever your size or business, we can put together a Health and Safety system that is ideally suited to your needs.

This might be sounding like a very direct marketing letter but that is not our intention. We are simply making the point that we have a breadth of experience in devising and implementing Health and Safety systems.

The Problem of Neglect

The big question, however, is what happens after the initial system implementation project is finished. What happens to the policies, risk assessments, registers, training programmes, reporting mechanisms and the rest?

Our concern is that far too many systems, whether they exist in electronic form or as hard copy documents end up gathering dust on the proverbial shelf. When that happens, the investment that the organisation has made can actually work against them by creating a false sense of security – “we have our health and safety all buttoned up”.

We might suggest all kinds of ways in which a good Health and Safety system can actually save money rather than be a net cost – by reducing sickness absence, for example, by improving staff moral or by reducing insurance premiums. In fact, if the system is consigned to the shelf rather than being an integral part of your everyday business, then it cannot deliver any of these benefits.

Does this touch a nerve with you? When did you last dust off those risk assessments? Possibly even worse, if your position in the organisation means that you have overall responsibility for Health and Safety though someone else deals with the day to day operations, do you have to admit that you have no idea when or even if your Health and Safety documentation was last examined.

For some organisations, their policies and risk assessments may be years out of date. During the intervening time, all kinds of changes may have occurred, including role responsibilities, business activities, levels of risk, risk management strategies and much more.

Ensure You and Your Employees Are Safe

If none of this relates to you because you genuinely have everything covered then may we congratulate you. If however you have allowed standards to slip and you no longer feel you have adequate control, then we would urge you to review your Health and Safety system now.

For many organisations a review should not require all that much effort and if it reveals that you have a lot of catching up to do, then better to find out yourself now, rather than have someone else poring over your systems following a major accident or worse.

Of course if your system does need some major work to bring it up to date – and this is our low key sales pitch – then we are here to help with as much or as little of the work as you need.

Let’s all start the New Year knowing that we really are managing Health and Safety properly.

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Who is Responsible for Health and Safety in Your School?

Tuesday, December 21st, 2010

Health and Safety in Schools

Do you have any responsibility for health and safety in your school or the school that your children attend?

The answer may not be as straightforward as you think..

Who is responsible?

There are actually various sets of guidelines that might apply, for example:

  • If your school is community or voluntary controlled, then the local authority is responsible for the health and safety policy
  • If yours is a foundation or voluntary aided school, then the governing body is usually responsible for the health and safety policy
  • If yours is an independent school, then the responsibility for health and safety might be with the governing body or with the proprietor of the school
  • Regardless of the type of school, it is members of staff who are responsible for the practical implementation of the health and safety policy on a day to day basis.

What are they responsible for?

It is also worth bearing in mind the extent of health and safety responsibilities, which cover:

  • The safety and welfare of the pupils wherever and whenever they are under the care of the school.
  • Teachers and others who are directly employed by the school such as teaching assistants, caretakers and catering staff
  • Others who are not employed but who are visiting or helping with any school related activities
  • Contractors who may be called in for any number of tasks such as property maintenance, security and similar tasks.

In fact, schools may be considered a special case in respect of health and safety because there are usually more people present who are not employees than there are employees.

So who is responsible and for what aspects of health and safety?

Under UK Health and Safety legislation, it is the person or body designated as the employer who is ultimately responsible for health and safety and in the case of schools, the body or person can vary according to the type of school.

However, in every school, the governing body has a major role to play in health and safety, regardless of whether or not they are officially recognised as the employer.

Amongst the many aspects they need to consider are:

  • Existence of a Health and Safety policy that takes account of any special requirements of the school, its pupils and the activities in which they are involved
  • Risk assessments for those school activities that might be considered hazardous, whether they take place on school premises or elsewhere
  • Provision of appropriate training for all members of staff as well as an understanding of essential health and safety principles by pupils.
  • Security issues since they can have a major impact on the health, safety and protection of the children

Why raise the issue just now?

Earlier this year, the HSE in conjunction with the Department for Education undertook a survey about the management of asbestos in system-build schools. These are schools built mostly in the 1960s and 1970s that often incorporated asbestos to reduce the likelihood of fire.

This form of construction is not a problem in itself but can become a problem if the school needs to extend or requires internal remodelling. Good asbestos management is an essential pre-requisite for any such work, and a number of schools in the survey were found to be wanting in this respect.

You can read more about this survey on the HSE website at
http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2010/hse-asbestosinschools.htm

Of course, asbestos is only one hazard and if there is uncertainty about who is ultimately responsible for health and safety it is easy to lose control.

From time to time, therefore, it is worth asking the question, who is responsible for health and safety in your school and is health and safety being properly managed?

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Compact Health and Safety Guide for Employees

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations state that Health and Safety information provided by employers to their employees must be “Comprehensible and Relevant“.

Signature

Clear Communication

Effectively, this means that any information provided by an employer must be at an appropriate level for the persons receiving it, taking into account many variables such as age, experience, disabilities, language and anything else that may hinder their understanding.

Health and Safety information must also be fit for purpose insofar as it enables employees to keep themselves and their colleagues safe from injury and sickness whilst going about their duties at work.

This requires a good deal of careful thought as to what information needs to be made available and how it is to be communicated.

If something goes wrong and a prosecution is brought against an employer, a very important question will be how effectively the employer communicated these safety messages. If there is a careless or cavalier attitude amongst any employees in regard to Health and Safety, this is not an excuse for poor communication.

New Guide for Workers

In this respect, the Health and Safety Executive, in conjunction with the Trades Union Congress has just published a particularly succinct leaflet as a guide to employees about Health and Safety. This is not sufficient information in itself, but it provides an excellent foundation statement on which to assemble other information that is relevant to your workforce, industry sector and workplace.

The leaflet is entitled “Your Health, Your Safety” and consists of a little over a single side of A4. It is aimed at every UK employee, whether they be full-time, part-time, permanent or temporary. It even makes reference to those who are genuinely self-employed.

In a few well-crafted bullet points, it spells out an employee’s:

  • Rights from an employer
  • Personal responsibilities in regard to Health and Safety
  • Information that must be provided by an employer
  • Equipment and services that an employer must provide
  • What to do about any Health and Safety concerns

Whilst being comprehensive in its coverage, it is also very brief, which means that it is more likely to be read and, once read, may encourage employees to seek out more information to help them remain safe at work.

Useful for Employers

This leaflet is not only valuable for employees. It can also act as a high-level checklist for busy employers and managers as an aide memoire that they have everything in place that is required of them by Health and Safety law. As with employees, it is not sufficient in itself, but can be a useful prompt as to what questions to ask or what to investigate in more detail.

You can view the English language version of the “Your health, your safety” leaflet on the HSE website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/hse27.pdf. Alternatively, it is available for download in a further 24 languages to ensure everyone can understand it with ease.

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Register of Health and Safety Consultants

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

In October we reported on the results of Lord Young’s review of Health and Safety in the UK. One of the concerns expressed by Lord Young is in respect of poor advice from consultants who may lack necessary experience and/or not be adequately qualified for the role they undertake.

Signature

At present, there are no real constraints on who can set up as a Health and Safety Consultant and obviously anyone who is not properly qualified is unlikely to advertise the fact to the big wide world.

Our recommendation to any organisation that is thinking of turning to a consultant or of hiring someone to run their Health and Safety is to thoroughly check their qualifications and experience.

A New Registration System

A new initiative is set to be implemented in January 2011 that will help organisations to locate consultants with the highest qualifications and relevant experience. It will also be a strong incentive for less qualified people to attain to the same high standards. This is a new register of consultants, known formally as the Occupational Safety Consultants Register or OSCR

As mentioned above, only consultants with the highest qualifications and experience will be able to apply for inclusion. They will be required to have:

  • A degree level qualification
  • Chartered membership of IOSH, CIEH or REHIS or fellow of IIRSM
  • A minimum of two years’ Assessed Experience
  • Professional Indemnity Insurance

They will also be required to sign up to a Code of Conduct requiring that they provide only sensible and proportionate advice.

Who’s Involved?

A number of organisations have been involved in designing the registration system, including the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) along with professional bodies that represent UK Health and Safety practitioners, including:

  • BOHS – British Occupational Hygiene Society
  • BSC – British Safety Council
  • BSIF – British Safety Industry Federation
  • CIEH – Chartered Institute of Environmental Health
  • IEHF – Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors
  • IIRSM – International Institute of Risk and Safety Management
  • IOSH – Institution of Occupational Safety and Health
  • NEBOSH – National Exam Board in Occupational Safety and Health
  • REHIS – Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland
  • ROSPA – Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents

Who can Register?

Registration with the scheme will be voluntary but clearly there will be a strong commercial incentive for those who are qualified to do so and for those who are not yet qualified to work towards becoming eligible.

All of this means that as of January next year, organisations who need high quality, reliable advice will be able to consult a single website to find registered professional people with the particular experience they need.

You can view a useful Question and Answer page about the register on the HSE’s website.

EDP has long been a strong advocate of properly qualified professional people who have the experience and support to provide the best available advice for every situation.

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Health and Safety in Care Homes

Monday, November 15th, 2010

Residential Care Homes are places of work and are therefore potentially subject to the whole range of Health and Safety legislation just as are offices, schools, factories or nuclear installations.

Caring Hands

However, as Lord Young pointed out in his recent report on Health and Safety, it is not appropriate to blindly apply legislation in exactly the same way for every workplace. Each has its own peculiarities when it comes to health and safety risks and it is therefore important that we concentrate on those aspects of legislation that are most pertinent. Care Homes provide an interesting case study to illustrate this point.

Obviously, when assessing the situation for Care Homes, the primary Health and Safety legislation must be applied including, for example:

  • The Health and Safety at Work etc Act
  • The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations
  • All the specific regulations covering such aspects as Fire, Electrical Installations and Equipment, First Aid, Manual Handling, Violence at Work, Work Related Stress, Asbestos and Lone Working.

However, the factors that distinguish Residential Care Homes from most other places of work include:

  • Care Homes have to provide social assistance 24 hours a day and for every day of the year
  • They deliver services to some of the most vulnerable people in society, whether they be children, the elderly or other special categories of people.
  • As well as being workplaces they are also “home” for many people.

Because of these factors, it is important to give special attention to particular items of Health and Safety legislation, some of which may receive scant attention elsewhere, for example:

  • Lifting Operations and Manual Handling are often a prominent aspect of work in Care Homes
  • Control of Infection is a vital activity which typically involves specialist training, good hygiene practices, control of hazardous substances, safe handling of sharps, disposal of clinical waste and much more.
  • Because it is a home environment, kitchen safety is an important consideration that also covers a wide range of aspects from slips and trips to high temperature surfaces and substances.
  • Similarly, being a home environment, outdoor Health and Safety takes on a special importance when considering, surfaces, steps, lighting, chemicals, work equipment and evacuation routes, for example.

Wherever we work, we can almost certainly indentify special factors that make our workplace different from most others.

Identifying the distinguishing features up front, helps us to assess the risks that are most important and which need extra care and attention.

If you are unsure about how to go about creating relevant risk assessments, consider one of our risk assessment training courses, such as:

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Containing Risk During the Fire Service Dispute

Monday, November 1st, 2010

As of the time of writing, emergency fire services in London continue to be disrupted as a result of industrial action over proposed shift pattern changes. It now seems increasingly likely that the industrial action will continue over the weekend, extending 47 hours from Friday 5th November.

Whilst this particular dispute affects those in the London area, it is also a timely reminder for all of us to consider our own circumstances as we review fire safety provisions, and strategies for responding to similar disruption of this vital public service.

How prepared is your business when it comes to minimising risks to personal safety and business continuity arising from fire?

Employers are expected to apply risk management measures under all circumstances, including emergency situations arising from disruption of vital public services.

Although at first sight it may appear that there is little that businesses can do, the emphasis, as always in relation to fire, is to concentrate on avoidance measures as the highest priority.
Things you can do

It is worth reviewing your fire safety measures for any lapses that have been allowed to develop, for example:

* Keep stocks of flammable materials at the lowest levels that still support operation of your business. It would probably also be prudent to arrange for delivery, transfer and transport of such materials to take place on days when the fire service is not on strike.
* Similarly, do not allow flammable waste to accumulate unnecessarily and ensure that which must be kept is stored in a safe manner.
* Check for and control sources of potential ignition, such as damaged electrical cables or faulty heaters
* Challenge all unsafe practices such as propping open fire doors or allowing rubbish to accumulate around heat sources or in stairwells.

Your Fire Risk Assessment should indicate specific areas where you are vulnerable to business disruption in the event of fire.

As always, it is vitally important to check out your fire warning systems and emergency evacuation routes and procedures. Ensure employees are aware of the increased risk levels and seek their cooperation in containing them.

We rely on the emergency fire service for more than extinguishing fires, so the same thought needs to be given to activities where there could be a risk of flooding or contamination by toxic substances, for example.

The London Fire Brigade has published guidance on how businesses should respond if an emergency arises during the period of this dispute. It is well worth while checking your own arrangements against this advice and making adjustments accordingly.

Now is also a good time to check out your Fire Risk Aassessments to ensure they continue to be consistent with changing circumstances and that all recommended precautions are in place.

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European Safety Week – Can You Benefit?

Tuesday, October 12th, 2010

Earlier this year we published an article on the importance to Workplace Health and Safety of good, well-managed maintenance.

We take account of Health and Safety when designing new plant and premises. Health and Safety issues also come to the fore when something tragic happens and we have to face the courts and the blaze of adverse publicity. However, in between there is the ongoing work of maintenance and over time it is easy to become distracted from the importance of this critical activity.

Back in April when we published our previous article, it coincided with the BP Oil tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico. Today our news channels are dominated by the massive spillage of toxic waste in Hungary and the plight of the trapped miners in Chile. We don’t yet know the full circumstances behind these situations but there is a good chance that failures in the maintenance regime will be implicated to some degree.

Maintenance is to be the focus of European Safety Week which is scheduled to run between 25th and 29th October this year. Everyone who has an interest in or responsibility for health and safety is able to take part in this initiative. To quote the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work:

“The Week is intended for organisations, enterprises and companies of various sizes and from various sectors. The Week is mainly intended for participants from the SME sector. Everyone involved in matters relating to health and safety at work are invited to take part, in particular health and safety institutes and organisations, trade unions, employer organisations, companies, managers, employees and representatives of organisations in the area of working conditions.”

Participating organisations are able to submit their solutions for the week’s theme, i.e. Maintenance. The submissions will be judged to identify the most practical and innovative approaches to managing risk, with the best receiving awards for good practice. Any organisation that operates in Europe can benefit from the EU wide recognition of their efforts.

Many organisations in the UK will be arranging events to coincide with the European Safety Week, so it is worth searching online for any that are planned in your area.

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Workplace Fatalities

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

The Health and Safety Executive have just released their latest statistics for work related fatal injuries in the UK.

It is always difficult to write impartially about such matters since all fatal injuries are catastrophic for the relatives and friends of those who have lost their lives. Consequently, it can seem somewhat insensitive to lose those personal tragedies within a table of statistics.

Nevertheless, at a time when the work of health and safety appears to be under serious scrutiny, primarily because it has been trivialised in some quarters, it is worth examining the information to reveal the true achievements of health and safety legislation.

When first released by the HSE, figures are stated as provisional since many incidents are still the subject of investigation. However they are probably close enough to reveal significant trends.

Workplace Fatalities

Taking the overall figures for the current year (2009/10) there have been 151 fatal accidents, which equates to one person losing their life for every 200,000 workers.

This number of fatalities shows a considerable improvement on the average of 220 fatalities over the previous five years. It is still 151 deaths too many but with more than 30% reduction it is certainly a welcome improvement.

Not only is this an improvement for the UK workforce, but when compared with other EU States, the UK is consistently seen to have one of the lowest levels of fatalities.

Some Workers at Higher Risk than Others

This does not mean there is room for complacency as long as there are any people losing their lives or being seriously injured at work. Quite the contrary, it should spur us on to make our workplaces even safer. Not only so, but there are wide variations of accidents across industry sectors so perhaps there should be increased emphasis on these areas, for example:

  • According to the statistics, Agriculture is top for fatal injuries. Although there has been a small improvement in the latest figures, there are still between eight and nine fatalities for every 100,000 workers.
  • Then there is Construction where there are typically two fatal accidents for every 100,000 workers.

From time to time a review of Health and Safety is welcome, but we should beware of being distracted by incidents that are either mythical or which demonstrate a serious lack of common sense. These should be addressed by all means but we must never lose sight of the real achievements of health and safety and the obvious potential to save more lives and avoid serious injuries.

You can view the latest information on the HSE website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/

And you can view corresponding information from across the EU at http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/

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Too Tired to Drive

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

Tired Driver

Concerns have been raised over the dangers of driving when tired.

The Issue

The latest survey, jointly sponsored by Direct Line Insurance and Brake (a road safety charity) found that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of drivers who admit to driving whilst tired as compared to previous research carried out six years ago.

  • Those admitting to driving whilst tired sometime during the past 12 months has increased from 46% to 74%.
  • 9% of those surveyed admitted to driving whilst tired at least once a week.
  • It is estimated that 20% of fatal road accidents on trunk roads are caused by drivers who are too tired to be behind the wheel. This figure has to be an estimate because it is difficult to establish that a driver was asleep at the time of an accident, so the actual figure could be significantly higher.

Whether driving for social reasons or driving for work, this represents a particularly high risk for those who are driving whilst tired and for other road users. An accident that occurs because a driver has fallen asleep tends to be a high-speed collision simply because the unaware driver makes no attempt to break.

From an employer’s point of view, it is important to educate drivers about the dangers of driving when tired and what to do about it since there are all kinds of misunderstandings and even myths about how to stay awake.

Drivers need to be aware of what to do (what works) and what not to do (what doesn’t work) if they begin to feel tired whilst driving or before setting off.

Remedies that Do Not Work

There are some actions that seem to be almost instinctive but they simply don’t help, for example:

  • Opening a window. 70% of drivers have tried this but it is not effective.
  • Listening to the radio, CD or tape. 54% of drivers try this but it doesn’t work either.
  • Stopping and going for a short walk. 39% have tried this but any effect is very short term.
  • Face washing. 29% have tried this but there is no lasting effect.

These techniques don’t work because the only real cure for tiredness is to sleep. A problem associated with all these attempts is that they may result in micro-sleeps. These are short periods of sleep that might last for a few seconds up to half a minute, after which drivers recover consciousness without realising they have been asleep. Clearly, during these short naps, drivers are completely unaware of what is happening around them and they are unable to take any defensive action.

Remedies that Do Work

Following good health and safety principles, the first aim is to eliminate the risk entirely. If this is not possible, the aim should be to reduce risk to acceptable levels.

  • Consider avoiding driving all together by using trains or other forms of public transport.
  • For anyone planning a road journey, there is no substitute for a good night’s sleep the night before. In fact, a driver who feels tired should not set out on the journey at all.
  • For longer journeys, plan the route and timing to allow for regular breaks – typically take a break of at least 15 minutes every two hours.
  • Ensure those who drive for work do not exceed recommended limits on driving hours. These are legally enforced for large vehicles but they should also be encouraged for car and van drivers.
  • Avoid pressures that might encourage workers to carry on driving when they are tired.
  • Test for sleep apnoea. This is a condition that interferes with a person’s breathing while they are asleep and which often goes undiagnosed. However the result is daytime sleepiness and fatigue, making it much more likely that the sufferer will fall asleep when driving.

Drivers who start feeling tired during a journey are recommended to:

  • Find somewhere safe to stop as soon as possible.
  • Since the only really effective cure for tiredness is sleep, the best option is to find somewhere to have a good night’s sleep.
  • If a full night’s sleep is not a practicable option, take a short nap for 10 to 15 minutes duration before carrying on with the journey.
  • If possible, combine a short nap with a caffeinated drink, for example two cups of strong coffee. However, the effects of caffeine and a short nap don’t last long. They may help in an emergency but are not adequate for long journeys or for drivers who are still feeling the effects of tiredness.

It is important that drivers appreciate that they are in charge of a lethal weapon that has to be under tight control at all times.



Contact EDP HS&E Consultants for all your health, safety and environment needs. We can check your current arrangements and advise you about any changes or improvements you need to make.

To discuss your requirements, without any obligation on your part, please gives us a call on 01744 766000 or complete the Enquiry Form on our website.

In addition to our regular newsletters, you can also keep up with the latest information from EDP by visiting our blog at http://edp-uk.blogspot.com/

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