Date Approved 6th February 2020
Review date 6th February 2021
1.0 STATEMENT OF INTENT
Working Options in Education is committed to ensuring full compliance with all health and safety legislation. We will promote a positive safety culture and ensure the welfare of our staff by adopting policies and procedures which supports the ethos, aims and vision of the Charity as outlined in our Strategic Intents.
This Health and Safety Policy Statement is the lead document for Health and Safety within the Charity and applies to all staff, trustees and volunteers. The objective of this document is:
1.3 This policy will be reviewed on an annual basis to sustain its effectiveness and bring changes to the notice of employees
2.0 DELEGATED RESPONSIBILITIES
2.1 Staff and volunteers are to take care of their own safety and that of other staff, volunteers and visitors and to co-operate with the Trustee Board and its officers to enable it to carry out its responsibilities.
In particular staff and volunteers have a duty to:
The Charity will ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the welfare, health and safety of all staff and any other person who may be directly affected by its operations by:
2.2 Lauren Monk shall be given delegated responsibility for ensuring that the Health and Safety policy is carried out within the organisation. In particular s/he will be given delegated responsibility for:
2.3 Trustee Board
Overall and final health and safety responsibility within the organisation lies with the Trustee Board. The Trustee Board shall appoint one person who will take the responsibility for drawing to the attention of the Trustee Board, staff and office volunteers any health and safety matters that need to be discussed and/or acted upon.
3.0 GENERAL ARRANGEMENTS
3.1 Reporting of accidents/incidents and near misses
The definition of accidents/incident/near misses are:
Accident – any unplanned event that results in personnel injury or damage to property, plant or equipment.
Incident – an unexpected and usually unpleasant event that has happened, including acts of aggression/verbal abuse.
Near miss – is an unplanned event that did not result in injury, illness, or damage, but had the potential to do so. Other familiar terms for these events are a âclose call,â a ânarrow escape,â or in the case of moving objects, ânear collisionâ or a ânear hit.â
3.2 The Charity will collect personal information on a record form about the injured person(s) in relation to accidents/injuries/diseases/near misses and dangerous occurrences arising out of or in connection with work. The Charity may be required to share personal information with the Health and Safety Executive to ensure that it meets our legal responsibilities under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013.
Note: The Data Protection Act 1998 requires that employeeâs personal information must be kept secure after the form has been completed.
The record form must:
3.3 Accidents, near-miss occurrences and hazardous situations
Working options in Education has a Health and Safety Accident Book located in the office at Stockwood Discovery Centre and all incidents, no matter how small, must be recorded as soon as possible after the incident. The incident should also be reported to Lauren Monk. In addition to reporting accidents it is equally important to report near misses and potential hazards so as to enable preventative action to be taken before it is too late. Once an incident has been recorded in the Accident Book the Sheet must be removed and stored separately, e.g. in the personnel file.
It is the responsibility of Lauren Monk to ensure that any necessary follow up action is taken to reduce the risk of the accident or near accident reoccurring.
A First Aid kit is available in the Stockwood Discovery Park office.
Lauren Monk is responsible for reporting incidents which come within the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases & Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR), to the Health and Safety Executive. RIDDOR covers the following incidents:
(a) fatal accidents
(b) major injury accidents/conditions
(c) dangerous occurrences
(d) accidents causing more than 7 days incapacity for work
(e) certain work-related diseases.
RIDDOR also requires employers and others in control of premises to report certain
accidents, diseases and dangerous occurrences arising out of, or in connection with, work.
3.5 What must be reported under RIDDOR?
Work-related accidents
3.6 For the purposes of RIDDOR, an accident is a separate, identifiable, unintended incident that causes physical injury. This specifically includes acts of non-consensual violence to people at work.
3.7 Not all accidents need to be reported, a RIDDOR report is required only when:
the accident is work-related; and it results in an injury of a type which is reportable (as listed under âTypes of
reportable injuriesâ).
3.8 When deciding if the accident that led to the death or injury is work-related, the key issues to consider are whether the accident was related to:
If none of these factors are relevant to the incident, it is likely that a report will not be required.
Types of reportable injury
3.9 Deaths – All deaths to workers and non-workers must be reported if they arise from a work related accident, including an act of physical violence to a worker. Suicides are not reportable, as the death does not result from a work-related accident.
3.10 Specified injuries to workers – The list of âspecified injuriesâ in RIDDOR 2013 (regulation 4) includes:
3.11 Over-seven-day injuries to workers – This is where an employee, or self-employed person, is away from work or unable to perform their normal work duties for more than seven consecutive days (not counting the day of the accident).
3.12 Injuries to non-workers â Work related accidents involving members of the public or people who are not at work must be reported if a person is injured, and is taken from the scene of the accident to hospital for treatment to that injury. There is no requirement to establish what hospital treatment was actually provided, and no need to report incidents where people are taken to hospital purely as a precaution when no injury is apparent. If the accident occurred at a hospital, the report only needs to be made if the injury is a âspecified injuryâ.
Reportable occupational diseases
3.13 Employers and self-employed people must report diagnoses of certain occupational diseases, where these are likely to have been caused or made worse by their work. These diseases include (regulations 8 and 9):
Reportable dangerous occurrences
3.14 Dangerous occurrences are certain, specified ânear-missâ events (incidents with the potential to cause harm.) Not all such events require reporting. There are 27 categories of dangerous occurrences that are relevant to most workplaces.
Reportable dangerous occurrences in schools and offices typically include:
3.15 Who should report and who to report to
The RIDDOR reporting system is only for notification of those incidents which require reports as above under the RIDDOR regulations. Reports should only be submitted by the âResponsible Personsâ It is not appropriate for injured persons, members of the public or others who do not have duties under RIDDOR to use this reporting system.
You can report all incidents online: http://www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/report.htm where you will find the appropriate form.
There is a telephone service for reporting fatal and specified injuries only: Incident Contact Centre on 0345 300 9923 (opening hours Monday to Friday 8.30 am to 5pm).
Any RIDDOR reportable incident must also be reported to the CEO.
Records must be kept for:
3.16 General fire safety
Lauren Monk is responsible for the maintenance of the firefighting equipment and the arrangement of regular fire safety checks and fire drills. Lauren Monk also undertakes a Fire Risk Assessment for the building in conjunction with the Stockwood Discovery Centre.
All staff must also read and understand the Fire Procedure. A fire notice is located in WOiE office.
3.17 When volunteers or staff are out on location the venue fire procedures will be followed as instructed by school or venue staff.
4.0 PERSONAL SAFETY
5.0 STRESS MANAGEMENT
5.1 Stress at work is a serious issue: workers can suffer severe medical problems, which can result in under-performance at work, and cause major disruptions to the organisation.
The responsibility for reducing stress at work lies both with employer and employee. Employees should become aware of the causes of stress, and ensure that they do not work in a way which could cause them to suffer an increase in stress, nor cause an increase in stress on others.
If an employee is suffering from stress at work, they should discuss this with their line manager or Lauren Monk at the first opportunity. Where practicable and reasonable, Working Options in Education will seek to provide assistance to the employee.
Working Options in Education will do all it can to eradicate problems relating to stress at work.
6.0 MANUAL HANDLING
6.1 The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (MHOR), (as amended in 2002) apply to a wide range of manual handling activities, including lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling or carrying. The load may be either animate, such as a person or inanimate, such as a box. The MHOR establish a clear hierarchy of measures for dealing with risks from manual handling:
6.2 Manual Handling Risk Assessment
The responsible person or delegated member of staff is responsible for the following:
Force to stop or start the load Men 20kg, Women 15kg
Sustained force to keep the load in motion Men 10kg, women 7kg
Manual handling problems often come from poor workplace environment or job design. Hazardous activities include:
7.0 DISPLAY SCREEN EQUIPMENT
7.1 The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 explains that the employer needs to protect employees from risks associated with DSE i.e., computers and laptops. A user is defined in the regulations as âan employee who habitually uses display screen equipment as a significant part of his/her normal workâ. This is usually interpreted as continuous period of an hour or more on most days of the week.
7.2 To comply with DSE regulations the âResponsible Personâ or delegated member of staff must:
7.3 Some DSE users may experience fatigue, eyestrain, upper limb problems and backache from overuse or improper use of DSE. These problems can also be experienced from poorly designed workstations or work environments. The causes may not always be obvious and can be due to a number of factors.
8.0 HEALTH AND SAFETY INDUCTIONSâ new staff
All new employees will complete a Health and Safety induction. Inductions must include:
New staff must also be made aware of:
First Aid provision
Accident/Incident/Near Miss reporting
Fire and Emergency Procedures
Welfare facilities
On completion of the health and safety induction, the employee should be required to sign a record form to say that they have been provided with, and understand the information provided.
Cross-reference with the following documents: