Neal's Notes For December 2009
Avoid Prosecution
To avoid prosecution under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, a demonstrable and effective health and safety management system should be in place. When considering whether or not a gross breach has taken place, the Act requires juries to consider, among other matters, the attitudes, policies, systems or accepted practices likely to have encouraged the failure. A health and safety management system should be based on effective risk assessment and be subject to robust systems of internal control and review. The health and safety roles and responsibilities of senior managers need to be clearly outlined, and their performance should be measured and evaluated to ensure they have the necessary competencies to carry out their roles and responsibilities effectively. The attitude of those at director level plays an important part in developing the organisation's culture and its tolerance of breaches of safety legislation. The effective management of health and safety will depend on a suitable and sufficient risk assessment being carried out and the findings being effectively used. An organisation needs to establish an effective health and safety management system to implement their health and safety policy. It needs to be proportionate to the hazards and risks they need to combat. Managers need to ensure that all employees, at all levels, are motivated and empowered to work safely. A systematic review of performance, based on the information obtained from monitoring and auditing, is required if an organisation is to learn from all relevant experience. Only when directors and senior executives give a positive commitment to any changes that need to be implemented will those occupying other managerial levels follow suit. In order to ensure that an organisation's health and safety management system operates efficiently and in a way that provides a defence under the requirements of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 (the Act), it is essential that evidence can be obtained, when required, that demonstrates that effective management systems are in place and that those occupying senior management positions are both competent and fully committed to ensuring the effectiveness of the health and safety management system.
Entry now available for 2010 Safety Awards
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents has launched its 2010 Occupational Health and Safety Awards, coinciding with the anniversary of a law that led to major improvements in the protection of workers. The RoSPA Awards - an annual celebration of good practice in health and safety in the UK and overseas - are open to businesses and organisations of all sizes and types. In addition to looking at accident records, they consider organisations' overarching health and safety management systems and recognise practices such as strong leadership and workforce involvement in accident and ill health prevention. The development of robust health and safety management systems was encouraged by the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, which celebrates its 35th anniversary today. The Act, which was an umbrella for bringing together and reforming a patchwork of existing health and safety laws, provided a framework of goal-setting duties for reducing occupational accidents and ill health, stating that organisations should ensure the health and safety of their workers and others “so far as is reasonably practicable”. The closing date for entries into the RoSPA Awards is February 12, 2010, although entrants should start preparing their submissions now. New features have been added to the awards scheme, now in its 54th year, in response to requests from previous winners. For the first time, organisations can pre-register (before December 24) to benefit from discounted entry. They then have until February 12 to send their full submissions. There is also a new optional feedback service for organisations entering for a non-competitive achievement award. Feedback will still be given as standard to those entering the competitive sector awards. The awards are sponsored by NEBOSH – the National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health – and presentations will take place next year in Birmingham in May (alongside Safety and Health Expo) and Glasgow in September. The majority of awards are non-competitive and mark achievement at merit, bronze, silver and gold levels. Gold medals, president's awards and orders of distinction are presented to organisations maintaining high standards over time. Competitive awards go to the best entries in 22 industry sectors including construction, healthcare, transport and logistics, engineering, manufacturing and education. There are awards for workforce involvement, training, occupational health, environmental management and managing occupational road risk (MORR), and a trophy for the best organisation operating or based in Scotland. RoSPA's top accolade is the Sir George Earle Trophy, which was won by Northern Rail in 2009. The top MORR award is being sponsored by Allianz Insurance plc for the first time, becoming the RoSPA/Allianz MORR Trophy. Tom Mullarkey, RoSPA chief executive, said: “It is 35 years since the introduction of one of the most enduring and successful pieces of social legislation of the past four decades, which set the scene for the proper management of health and safety to save lives and reduce injuries. “The RoSPA Awards recognise organisations which have achieved or are striving to attain excellence in such management practices. More than 1,650 winners were honoured in 2009 and I hope their example will inspire other organisations to enter the scheme, both to gain independent recognition of their own achievements and to contribute to our shared knowledge of good practice.” A new tool to help organisations establish the safety training needs of their staff has been launched by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. Fitting into an organisation's overarching health and safety management system, the RoSPA Employee Safety Profiler can assist managers to identify and prioritise development and training needs among existing and prospective employees. The psychometric assessment, launched at the RoSPA Scotland Occupational Safety and Health at Work Congress in Glasgow, can aid managers by indicating an individual's aptitude for jobs in which safety procedures have to be followed rigorously as well as his or her attitude to working with others and under supervision. In the current economic climate, there is a danger that some firms could see good health and safety management as an “optional extra”. However, managing health and safety, including training staff, is a legal requirement, as well as being good for business. RoSPA hopes its Employee Safety Profiler will assist human resources and health and safety managers as they conduct safety training and development needs analyses, both prior to and during employment. Developed by SHL in conjunction with RoSPA, the Employee Safety Profiler is based on SHL's Dependability and Safety Instrument. The assessments consist of 18 questions and are conducted online. John Lester, RoSPA's workplace safety general manager, said: "A good job-person fit is important no matter what line of business you are in, and this is clearly true for safety-critical roles in which procedures must be followed rigorously. It would be far too simplistic to say that any one factor causes accidents or ill health, but part of effective health and safety management is ensuring staff, and this includes managers, have the right knowledge, skills and attitudes for the job. “We hope our Employee Safety Profiler will help organisations prevent accidents and avoid the sizeable related costs, both human and financial, by proactively focusing attention on where interventions, which could include training, the provision of information or supervision, might be appropriate. “The RoSPA Employee Safety Profiler is not designed to be used in isolation or to divert attention from other elements of a good risk management system, but rather to be used in concert with other recruitment and employee development tools, and we hope it will help organisations move away from a 'one size fits all' approach to safety training and development.”
A new handbook the 'Visual guide to DSE assessments'
Research re DSE assessment is often quoted in the media and acted on by leading occupational health and safety advisors. Demonstrate time and time again, posture and the human body is not understood adequately to prevent physical, cognitive and visual problems occurring to the DSE user. The Visual guide to DSE assessments is designed to equip the DSE assessor with a visual reference for the assessment of DSE users and offers assessment guidance for standard, double, laptop and PDA users, as well as for bespoke assessments ie neck, upper back, lower back etc You can read more about the handbook at www.enricosmog.com/handbooks or www.badbacks2go.co.uk/vga
Deaths at work are down
First aid at work may be getting a makeover to offer businesses more flexibility and help save companies time but fatalities are currently decreasing to 180 per year from 233 per year. Training courses are to be reduced from four days to three with a one day course for smaller businesses. Current trained first aiders will still be required to attend a two-day re-qualification course every three years as is current practice.
New look for sick notes
Its goodbye to the traditional sick note and hello to the “fit for work”, “not fit for work” and “may be fit for some work” from doctors. The third is intended to get employees back to work with adjusted hours and responsibilities.
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