Agenda item

Report of the Service Director of Human Resources & Workforce Development

The Committee received a report to provide an update on the Annual Health and Safety Performance Report.

The Committee were presented with the statistics for 2022- 23:

-       There had been a rise in the total number of incidents reported; 21-22 reported 620 incidents whilst, 22-23 had 677 incidents reported.

-       The number of accidents had decreased by 23 in the past year.

-       Near misses and hazards had increased by 81.

Following from the statistics above, it was highlighted there are three categories which accounted for the highest number of reported incidents for 2022-23:

·         Physical assaults                      (208 accidents and near misses)

·         Threatening behaviour             (76 nearmisses)

·         Verbal abuse                            (58 near misses)

98% of physical assaults were reported within care settings and schools. 78% were classified as ‘unintentional’ due to employees supporting service users/ pupils with complex care needs. Services are developing a program to help reduce the number of assaults in these settings. In the next report the statistics will show schools data separately.

22- 23 reported one industrial disease case with a diagnosis of hand arm vibration. A watch is being procured to trial whilst using vibration tools to understand what is happening whilst using these tools.

The council’s long-term plan is to create a safety culture which would expect an initial increase in near misses but fewer accidents.

Sickness: Sickness levels have fallen over the last 5 years however stress is still the main cause for sickness. Work related injuries have increased over the last few years with 12 incidents in the last year.

A discussion was noted to report sickness statistics with covid listed separately to understand how much sickness is not covid related. A further discussion was noted on stress being one of the main causes for sickness, why managers are not attending their training to help combat staff stress levels and if there was trend with departments. An investigation has been ongoing, and it has observed certain departments have a higher level of absence due to stress, and these services are being targeted for management training.

Councillors raised concerns if they are part of causing stress for officers. It was discussed if there was a process that could be implemented for officers to know if the councillors request was urgent or not.

Occupational Health: Occupation Health have recruited a physician to help support the team with the increased number of appointments.

It has been recognized there is a high rate of non-attendance over the past two years. This is currently under investigation within the Occupation Health team.

Enforcement Action: There were no prosecutions or enforcement notices issued by the Health and Safety Executive.

The council were issued with one fee for intervention (FFI) in July 2022. The building was deemed to be unfit for tenants as they were unaware of asbestos containing materials in the building. An investigation has been carried out to ensure incidents like this do not happen again.

Proactive Monitoring: Two audits were carried out in 22-23 for ‘Corporate Warning Alert System (CWAS)’ and Work at Height within Construction services.

In CWAS the following was identified;

-       20 Recommendations in total: 6 High Priority, 11 Medium and 3 Best Practise.

Key findings;

-       Not all teams who have planned face to face meetings with members of the public have access to CWAS.

-       Details of system administrators are not being kept suitably up to date.

-       Several areas of clarification around responsibilities required within the user guide and procedure.

-       A lack of consistency regarding how information is classified and displayed from feeder system.

Working at height audit the follow was identified:

-       23 Recommendations in total: 2 non-Compliant, 12 Partial Compliant and 18 compliant.

A meeting with Construction Services is scheduled to agree an action list with timescales.

Inspections: In the last reporting period, there have been 279 inspections carried out across construction sites, schools, and other council areas. Risk assessments, method statements and training records have been checked and verified.

All areas of services that were not compliant have been fed back to managers to implement corrective measures.

Health & Safety Training: The Health and Safety team have been working with Workforce Development on reviewing the suitability of existing e-learning modules available on Learning Hub and to also design and launch new ones. It has been advised a range of e-learning and classroom-based training is beneficial for employees.

Any employee who is not attending training is being reported back to the relevant Service Director.

Educational and Other Visits: In the academic year 2022/23 a total of 11,020 visits were recorded. 112 of these visits involved residential stays, 167 involved adventurous activities. Overseas travel has recommenced.

Corporate procedures and Codes of Practice: In the period of 2022-23, 42 documents were produced or revised. All these documents are presented to the Corporate Health and Safety Committee as part of the consultation process. All documents are available on the intranet.

2023/24 Priorities:

-       Setting a vision strategy

-       Health and Safety Culture

-       Data Metrics

-       Implementation of a new incident reporting system.

-       Health and Safety Campaigns

-       Annual Health and Safety Performance Report (HS39)

-       Occupational Health Software

-       Policy/Procedure reviews.

RESOLVED:   i) that the committee have agreed the actions taken are appropriate.