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Carl Free, Corporate Health and Safety Officer, attended
the meeting to present the report and assist the Committee with its enquires. The
Committee heard that the report covered the period October 2020 to September
2021, and as a result of this the main health and safety focus had been on the
response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the work that had been undertaken to
ensure the safety of staff and members of the public. Some of the more usual
health and safety audits and reviews were now being carried out and were in
progress, with no significant concerns to the health and safety of staff had
been identified.
The Committee heard that the health and safety committee
meetings had continued to be held online, allowing designated officers to share
training, guidance and best practice for Covid safety measures and staff
health, together with monitoring corporate health and safety action priorities
for the future.
The regular Fire Risk Assessments for all corporate
buildings had been completed by an experienced Fire Safety Consultant. These
reviews were carried out on an annual basis as the Council’s buildings
contained staff or customers. No significant issues had been identified, and
standard continual improvement work was ongoing.
Although face to face training sessions had been curtailed
due to the pandemic, however, essential courses had continued via online
training, and additional training had been organised to take place over the
coming months. This included a recognised qualification for the Executive
Management Team of the Council to help them become better influencers of health
and safety.
There had been no serious health and safety incidents over
the past reporting year which were reportable to the Health and Safety
Executive (HSE) under the Reporting of Injuries Diseases and Dangerous
Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR). Incidents which needed to be reported were
serious such as fractures or incidents leading to more than seven days off
work, or members of the public being taken go hospital for treatment. The
number of reportable incidents had been declining over the past few years, but
it was important that vigilance was maintained and incidents reported whenever
necessary.
One of the focusses for the upcoming year was water safety,
to ensure that the Council was legally compliant, and residents were kept safe around
water sources in the borough.
Hayley McGrath, Corporate Governance Manager, explained to
the Committee that the health and safety processes were a fundamental part of
the Council’s approach to physical risk management, and that as such the
Committee were invited to review these on an annual basis to provide assurance as
part of the Council’s overall risk management process.
Councillor Willetts noted that there had been no serious
incidents which may have indicated that the policies were deficient in some
way, and that he assumed that the Committee could be assured that the policies
were subject to the usual range of amendment and improvement as necessary. Further
detail was requested with regard to the reported incident of an injury while
lifting a bin, in order to give the Committee assurance that incidents were
being dealt with under existing policies and no significant changes in
procedure had been prompted.
Carl Free confirmed that as the reported wrist fracture
while using a bin lift had been a more serious incident, he had investigated this,
and as part of this investigation the polices and procedures in place had been
reviewed. The member of staff had been trained and the lift was working as it
should have been, and the accident had been caused through a number of
environmental factors and individual error. All staff had subsequently been
reminded of correct procedure, and no further incidents had been reported.
Councillor Fox enquired what processes had been put in
place to safeguard staff who had been working from home over the past year, and
it was confirmed that as the majority of staff working from home were using
computers the guidance on screen usage had been updated, and additional
guidance had been provided in respect of slips, trips and falls as well as fire
safety. Care had been taken to provide staff with the correct equipment that
they needed to work as safely as possible, including laptops, risers and chairs
from the office, and the system seemed to be working well with no major
incidents being reported.
In response to an enquiry from Councillor King concerning
the current works at Rowan House, the Committee heard that although the
building did need an uplift, this did not create specific health and safety
hazards. Some minor amendments had been recommended as part of the fire safety
report, but one of the key changes which was being made was the introduction of
improve ventilation as part of the overall response to Covid-19, and the
greater awareness that there now was to the importance of good ventilation in
managing Covid-19 and other respiratory diseases. Improvements to areas where
poor ventilation had been identified would be carried out as part of the
overall improvement works which were taking place. In response to an enquiry
from Councillor Willetts, the Committee were assured that all necessary
improvement works were being carried out in Rowan House to fulfil the Council’s
duty to safeguard its staff.
With regard to the UK Drowning Prevention Strategy, the
Committee heard that data in respect of fatalities was shared via the Essex
Resilience Forum, but less information was available with regard to other
incidents. The Council had identified areas of open water under its control and
had developed action plans and risk assessments which were focussed on
preventing people entering the water. It was hope that the current review would
reveal whether or not the Council was doing enough to promote water safety, and
potential suitable measures that could be taken to improve this. It was
confirmed to the Committee that the Council’s safeguarding obligation related
to areas where the Council owned the land on which a body of water was situated,
or the water source itself, however, often the responsibility was shared with
others, and the report would identify who those additional stakeholders were to
enable joint working to be carried out to. Areas would be identified where
there was a specific risk, and action taken to ensure that such risks were
suitably mitigated against.
Councillor Burrows enquired whether there was a particular
operational area of the Council where near miss reporting raised any concerns,
and the Committee heard that the leisure and waste services reported the
highest numbers of near miss incidents. The reporting of near misses was
considered to be of key importance in preventing future accidents and was
encouraged as much as possible, and was a feature of the new staff induction
process. No issue was considered to be too small to report, and risk and hazard
reporting contributed to overall safety management. The Committee were assured
that no concerns had been raised over the working practices of a particular service
area of the Council as a result of the reporting of near misses.
RESOLVED: that the Health and
Safety Report for 2020/2021 be noted, and the Health and Safety Policy for
2021/2022 be approved.