Archive for the ‘Workplace Health and Safety’ Category
The three day IOSH Managing Safely program is designed to get managers up to speed on the practical actions they need to take to handle health and safety in their teams.
The course is for managers and supervisors within any sector and provides full step-by-step guidance, with a sharp business focus.
Download the course summary here
To make an enquiry about this course, email training@redhills.co.uk or call: 01306 631820.
Redhills provides Institute of Health and Safety (IOSH) approved courses in managing and working safely; the NEBOSH General Certificate in occupational health and safety; working at heights, manual handling and fork lift driving; fire safety training for managers, marshals and employees; and water safety training; and COSHH management.
HEALTH and safety prosecutions are taking years to complete, and getting even longer, an inspector has warned.
The Crown Office’s health and safety division has been urged to deliver swifter justice.
The Inspectorate of Prosecution in Scotland (Ips) found that many prosecutions were now “several years old and the ‘time to clear’ figure of current work is increasing rather than decreasing”.
Chief inspector Joe O’Donnell said: “We found that the cases disposed of were of high quality, but our concern was the length of time taken to conclude them. Our recommendations, therefore, focus on ways to speed up the process.”
He was backed by Laura Cameron, head of legal firm Pinsent Masons’ regulatory group, who said: “It is a traumatic experience for surviving victims, their families and witnesses who are caught up in a health and safety incident, and to have a case hanging over them for years adds to their stress.”
The Crown Office launched a health and safety division in 2009 to bring greater expertise to the area.
This one day course designed to refresh the understanding and competency of those who undertake or supervise manual handling in their work and make them aware of their individual and collective legal responsibilities.
Download the course summary here
To make an enquiry about this course, email training@redhills.co.uk or call: 01306 631820.
Redhills provides Institute of Health and Safety (IOSH) approved courses in managing and working safely; the NEBOSH General Certificate in occupational health and safety; working at heights, manual handling and fork lift driving; fire safety training for managers, marshals and employees; and water safety training; and COSHH management.
“I hear so many companies that say health and safety is their number-one priority,” the HSE chair Judith Hackitt told a packed plenary session at the IOSH 13 Conference.
“Health and safety needs to become a core value in all businesses. Whether it has to become a bigger priority in its own right, I would really question.”
Speaking as part of a panel discussion on what action is needed over the coming 12 months to make health and safety a bigger priority across all industries, Ms Hackitt painted a very pragmatic picture of health and safety management for the year ahead, both within her own organisation and the myriad businesses it regulates.
She insisted that the regulatory framework is fit for purpose and that its reform work in this area is simply about “stripping out the duplication and the overlap”. When it comes to guidance, however, the HSE is focused on making it more accessible because “the easier you make things, the greater the compliance and the better the performance”.
Dr G Todd Wright, managing director of Sellafield, agreed, but added that priorities for businesses change and often get influenced by other priorities. He highlighted leadership, communication and training as the three core elements in health and safety that will help his business prepare for a crucial period of decommissioning nuclear facilities.
Dr Karl-Ulrich Kohler, CEO and managing director of Tata Steel, adopted a different stance, insisting that there is no discrepancy between saying health and safety is a priority and the realities of the business. He suggested that the reason his company describes health and safety as a priority is for communication. He said: “It’s not a question about motives. The one thing you can’t replace is health and the wellbeing of people. They are our strength and we need to protect them.”
The Health and Safety Executive is a great source for all the updates you need for health and safety within the workplace.
It seems that the issue of incorrect manual handling is causing more workplace injuries therefore the HSE has up to date information on how you as a employer and employee can prevent injuries happening.
Manual handling causes over a third of all workplace injuries. These include work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) such as pain and injuries to arms, legs and joints, and repetitive strain injuries of various sorts.
The term manual handling covers a wide variety of activities including lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling and carrying. If any of these tasks are not carried out appropriately there is a risk of injury.
Why is dealing with manual handling important?
Manual handling injuries can have serious implications for the employer and the person who has been injured. They can occur almost anywhere in the workplace and heavy manual labour, awkward postures, repetitive movements of arms, legs and back or previous/existing injury can increase the risk.
Behavioural safety training and accident reduction specialists Azea Ltd announced the launch of a new campaign to promote their behavioural safety training programmes aimed at improving workplace safety and reducing workplace accidents in the energy & utilities sector.
The campaign called ‘Create your Safety Bubble in 2013’ will focus on delivering messages to organisations in the construction, mining, rail and utilities sectors, to enable them to achieve long term positive change within 12 months. Azea has worked with a broad range of clients from the utilities industry to provide safety training solutions designed to improve workplace safety culture, improve productivity and ultimately reduce workplace accidents. Clients include Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions, Amec, National Grid, Enterprise, Babcock.
“Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions is one of the UK’s leading utility suppliers, and the safety of our employees is our top priority. Over a seven-year relationship, Azea has delivered a number of bespoke employee behavioural safety projects for Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions, consistently providing above industry average results. I would not hesitate to recommend them to other companies looking to enhance the culture and safety mind set within their own organisation”. UK Training Manager, Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions.
Results – We are renowned within industry for rapidly reducing accidents by delivering innovative behavioural training safety solutions. This also applies to improving employee’s ability to react correctly and deal effectively with emergency incidents.
Engaged – Azea was commissioned by one of its large construction and utility clients to try and improve their existing safety record by evaluating their emergency response actions to an incident (in this case it was ‘Tower Rescue’ for working at heights).
The client wanted to improve their employee’s ability to plan and then action emergency responses should an incident occur on site. This was carried out as part of their ‘Zero Harm’ campaign.
Download the full case study here:
If you are new to health and safety, the Health and Safety Executive(HSE) have published step-by-step guides to help.
The HSE wants everyone at work to be healthy and safe – bringing money and other benefits to your business.
Health and safety is relevant to all businesses. So, if you are an employer – or are self employed – you are responsible for the health, safety and welfare of employees and any others who may be affected by what you do. This includes employees, casual or part time workers, trainees, customers, neighbours, sales people and members of the public.
If you need the key started tips, visit the HSE website, for more information on where to start and how to make health and safety more simple.
Introduction
From the 1990’s Behavioural Safety Training has fast become an established ‘tool of choice’ in the war on workplace accidents, and its use has helped various companies to dramatically cut through their accident plateau, something that many years ago we could only dream of.
A large body of research confirms the effectiveness of Behavioural Safety Training initiatives across a wide range of industries in many countries. Many companies, for example, have experienced 45-80 percent reductions in their accident rates within 12 months as a direct output of implementing a Behavioural Safety Training system.
What is Behavioural Safety Training?
Behavioural Safety Training is the systematic application of psychological research on human behaviour to the problems of safety in the workplace. Given that 96 percent of all workplace accidents are triggered by unsafe behaviour, most people will be aware that reducing accidents and improving safety performance can only be achieved by systematically focusing upon those unsafe behaviours in the workplace. For example, ducking under or climbing over assembly lines to reach the controls; not holding the handrail when ascending/descending stairs; not putting equipment away after completing a job, etc., are all unsafe behaviours in the direct control of the person engaging in them, and therefore can be targeted for improvement via a workforce driven Behavioural Safety Training initiative.