Meeting documents

To consider item 9

The Lead Member for Health and Safety and Corporate Risk introduced the report and advised Members that that focus of the Health and Safety Department this year had been primarily on the promotion of safer working practices throughout the service and on the development of the Well-being Strategy. The Well-being Strategy was the framework to enable the improvement in the physical and mental well-being of the Authority’s staff through education, mental health first aiders and champions on station. Also, the Authority’s performance nationally in terms of injury to firefighters had been excellent and there had been a significant decrease in the total number of persons injured.

The Health and Safety Manager advised Members that it had been an excellent year in terms of the Authority’s performance statistics internally and nationally. Internally, for all staff groups, there had been a reduction in 4 of the 7 performance indicators, with a significant decrease in the number of safety events and injuries compared to last year. Nationally, the safety event statistics for injuries to operational personnel had reduced which was excellent news.

The Health and Safety department had been actively monitoring vehicle safety events since the installation of CCTV in fire appliances back in 2016. The decreasing number of vehicle safety events indicated that CCTV was having a positive impact especially as the investigating officer would view the footage as part of their investigation. The reasons for this decrease could be attributed to drivers being aware that CCTV was recording their actions; third parties who may have been inclined to initiate spurious claims against the Authority, for damage to their vehicle, were discouraged by the presence of CCTV; and lastly the difference in height in some of the new appliances has meant drivers have had to be aware of this when manoeuvring.

The Health and Safety Manager advised Members that the first mental health first aid course had been run and there were now 11 people across all areas of the Service trained to carry out this role. Health, safety and well-being noticeboards were being installed on all Authority sites which would display specific information regarding mental health awareness and the support mechanisms available as well as health and safety information. Early next year a mental health champions course would take place for 14 candidates across all areas of the Service who would act as the ‘eyes and ears’ on the ground and signpost people identified as suffering signs of mental ill health to the mental health first aiders and/or the other support mechanisms in place.

A Member asked why it was ‘disappointing’ that there had been a reduction in the number of near miss reports this year and was advised that a near miss report was something that could have caused either injury or loss, but an event had not actually taken place. Over the past three years staff had been encouraged to report these, which enables the Health and Safety Department to carry out an investigation into the circumstances of that near miss which would then put in recommended actions to prevent a safety event from occurring.

A Member asked if how we support our staff, as well as being part of the people strategy could also be added to this report and was advised that regular updates were reported at the Health, Safety and Well-being Committee, but it could also be added to this report in future.

RESOLVED –

That the performance of the Service in terms of Health, Safety and Well-being be noted.