Issue - meetings

Further to a report that was taken to the Chief Executive Implementation Group on 8th January and the Resources programme Board on 26th June it was identified that there is a legal requirement to have a new health and safety policy statement in place for Buckinghamshire Council, to be effective from 1st April 2020.

RESOLVED: 

That the Shadow Executive considers the report; approves the adoption of the new Safety Policy and appoints an interim Member from the Planning, Growth and Sustainability Portfolio to be the Health and Safety Champion.

Katrina Wood introduced the report.  Each of the five councils had had its own Health and Safety Policy but one overarching Health and Safety Policy was required for the new Buckinghamshire Council prior to vesting day.  However, the existing reporting systems and policies were likely to remain in place and the vast majority of operational health and safety arrangements would remain valid and continue after 1 April 2020.

Members of the Shadow Executive raised the following points in discussion:

• In response to a query on whether there would be a central database which would act as an audit trail of training and competence it was confirmed that it was a requirement for all managers to hold training records.
• The Communications Team would launch the new Health and Safety Policy to all staff including staff based in the depots.
• In response to a query on what responsibility the Council had for staff currently working from home; it was confirmed that the Council still had a liability for its entire staff and that extensive guidance on homeworking was available along with support to help staff with their DSE assessments.

RESOLVED:  The Shadow Executive CONSIDERED the report; APPROVED the adoption of the new Health and Safety Policy and APPOINTED an interim Member from the Planning, Growth and Sustainability Portfolio to be the Health and Safety Champion.