Meeting documents

To consider Item 12

The Lead Member for Health and Safety and Corporate Risk advised Members that it had been a really excellent year for the Authority in terms of its health and safety performance.

The Health and Safety Manager updated Members on the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) Audit outcomes. The audit process looked at the Authority’s policies and procedures and more importantly the practical implementation of them across the Service. The Service as a whole was complimented on the continued development of the health and safety management system which was reflected in the excellent score achieved. In the report there were eighteen recommendations to follow up. Eight were identified as high priority and ten as medium priority. These recommendations had been given a RAG status for completion. Of the eighteen recommendations, six were now complete with the remainder progressing well. The lead auditor revisited the Service in November and was pleased to see that good progress was being made on all of the action points from the audit.

The Health and Safety Manager advised Members that with regard to national statistics, Members would see in the report this service was the best performing in its family group. There was an increase in the injury rate of 0.39% despite a reduction in actual injuries. In 2014/15 the Service had thirty-one injuries to firefighters and 2015/16 it had twenty-seven injuries to firefighters. The reason for the increase was that the Service now had fewer employees. In 2014/15 there were 609 and in 2015/16 there were 528. There was an increase in acts of violence against fire fighters from zero in 2014/15 to one in 2015/16. There was also an increase in RIDDOR reportable incidents to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) from two to three.

The Health and Safety Manager advised Members that near miss incidents were shown as red and there was a decrease in the number of near miss reports for that year. There were two ways of looking at this. It may mean there were less near misses occurring, which was a positive as it shows the Service was getting safer. Or, was it that there should be more near miss reports than accidents which was currently not the case. Following a programme of training in reporting of near misses, the Authority would be able to report next year an increase in near miss reporting and a reduction in accidents which was what it strived for.

The Health and Safety Manager also advised Members about the well-being of its employees. As ‘People’ was one of its strategic aims, the focus had been on improving the well-being of staff. Considerable progress had been made in identifying and implementing ways to achieve this, including participation in the Global Corporate Challenge, signing up the Authority to the MIND Blue light pledge and subsequent instruction of Blue Light Champions within the Service. The Service had actually improved the way it responded when staff were suffering from stress, with stress audits, counselling through the occupational health provider, return to work risk assessments, and creation of wellness action plans. Working with Human Resources (HR) on ways to prevent and protect staff from stress, The Health and Safety Manager would be able to report on progress in next year’s report.

The Health and Safety Manager thanked the Lead Member for Health and Safety and Corporate Risk for his continued support throughout the year.

A Member asked if all Services were nationally audited and was advised that no they were not, but this would change when the new inspection regime was brought in by the Home Office.

RESOLVED –

That the performance of the Service in terms of Health, Safety and Wellbeing be noted.