Health and Safety

Hampshire County Council annual health and safety report for 2006 – 2007

Introduction
Risks
Performance for 2006/ 07
Accidents/incidents and other related statistical data
Definitions
Plans for 2007/ 08

Introduction

This report covers the year from March 2006 to April 2007.  The aim is to provide the public of Hampshire and others interested in health and safety with information on what the County Council is doing to protect its employees, volunteers, contractors, clients and service users, pupils and members of the public.

Health and safety in the County Council is part of the overall Risk Management Strategy, which aims to identify and manage risks to the County Council and its services to the public.  Health and safety focuses on the risks of injury and ill health that can arise from the wide range of activities necessary to deliver the services to the people of Hampshire.

Hampshire County Council has signed up to the Health and Safety Executive’s campaign of “Sensible health and safety”.  We are committed to managing our risks in a balanced and proportionate way that supports the delivery of services in Hampshire.  “Risk aware, not Risk averse” has been the basis of our approach to all sorts of risk for some years now.

View Hampshire County Council's Health and Safety Policy Statement and Corporate Health and Safety Strategy.

Risks

The types of health and safety risks involved are varied, but can include:

  • Lone working

  • Violence and aggression

  • Transport and road risk

  • Manual handling risks

  • Slips and falls

  • Work related ill health, including work related stress

An organisation with such a broad range of activities as the County Council has a wide variety of risks to manage and the above list represents only some of the most common risks from across the Council.  To ensure that all risks are identified, the Council has risk assessment processes for use by managers and staff.

Our services are often delivered via partnerships arrangements.  These can include a wide range of external organisations such as the NHS, charities, contractors and volunteers.  By focusing on co-operation, communication and co-ordination with our partners, we aim to ensure that these operations are also managed as safely as is reasonably practicable.

To support management, the County Council employs a number of specialists, including Health and Safety specialists, Occupational Health specialists, trained counsellors who provide counselling and support for employees, occupational hygienists and a Fire Safety Manager.  In the workplace over 630 trained safety representatives, both trade union nominated and non-trade union staff representatives, help monitor health and safety and represent employees during consultation.

Performance for 2006/7

The statistics for this latest year show a slight increase in reportable incidents to staff with a higher number of major injury events.  There is an increase in the number of days recorded as being caused by work related stress.  The number of days lost due to work related injury or ill health have increased compared to last year but have decreased as a percentage of the overall absence figure.

The data has been taken from the incident reporting systems plus reports from schools.

A number of initiatives were undertaken during the year

Work has been undertaken to improve the health and safety arrangements in partnerships.  This has been part of a wider drive to improve the governance and risk management arrangements of partnerships and the health and safety policy links closely in to the work done elsewhere in the Council.

The HSE’s stress assessment tool has been successfully piloted and the corporate policy has been revised to reflect the HSE’s Management Standards for work related stress.  Work on linking the launch of the revised policy and guidance to the Wellbeing Strategy and the leadership competencies is now being undertaken.

Work arising from the Review of health and safety management arrangements is now complete, with the corporate health and safety specialists now managed by the Corporate Risk Manager and the health and safety specialists who support departments are now part of their departmental team.  The senior health and safety group meeting has been changed and is called the Health and Safety Executive Group and is chaired by the lead manager for corporate governance and answers to the corporate Risk Management Board.

Work to develop a common approach to the management of all types of events run by the Council has resulted in a policy document which is close to completing its consultation phase before consideration by the Health and Safety Executive Group.

Accidents/incidents and other related statistical data

2001/2

2002/3

2003/4*

2004/5

2005/6

2006/7

Total number of incidents reported to the Health and Safety Executive

143

172

124

93

82

97

Number of injuries causing over 3 day absences from work

51

50

45

37

49

57

Number of major injuries (as defined in RIDDOR)

10

7

2

1

2

7

Fatalities

0

0

0

2

1

0

Reportable dangerous occurrences (as defined in RIDDOR)

3

4

5

2

0

0

Reportable work related illnesses (as defined in RIDDOR)

1

1

0

2

1

1

Number of non-employees taken straight to hospital

78

110

72

53

33

33

Days lost due to work related stress (as a percentage of total sickness absence in brackets)

Not available

Not available

8875 (9.5 %)

6401 (7.2%)

6780 (3.5%)

7977.61 (3.88%)

Days lost due to work related injury and ill health (as a percentage of total sickness absence in brackets)

Not available

Not available

1845 (2%)

1774 (2%)

2272 (1.18%)

2378.3 (1.16%)

Number of Improvement Notices served

2

0

0

1

0

0

Number of Prohibition Notices served

0

0

0

0

0

0

Prosecutions

0

0

1

0

0

0

Incidence Rate for over 3 day injuries (number of over 3 day injuries per 100,000)

244.04

207.82

164.09

147.78

214.24

214.82

Incidence rate for major injuries (number of major injuries per 100,000 employees)

47.85

29.10

7.29

3.99

11.48

26.38

Number attending at health and safety training courses (internal)

3,725

3,933

3,583

2,676

4405

3888

*Data for 2003/4 has been amended to reflect additional incidents missed due to system changes.

**The incidence rate for over 3 day injuries in the UK for 2005/6 was 452.2 according to the HSE’s figures.

***The increase in the major injury incidence rate is due to two additional major injuries this year compared to the previous year.  The HSE’s figures for 2005/6 put the UK major injury incidence rate at 110.1  The rate for the County Council remains low but more work is needed to reduce the rate next year, if possible.

Definitions

RIDDOR

The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995.  For definitions of major injury, dangerous occurrence, work related ill health, etc., visit the HSE web pages.

Plans for 2007/ 08

Develop a revised corporate Health and Safety Strategy and plan which incorporates the HSE’s “Sensible health and safety” approach.

Improve the quantity and quality of incident investigations and the way lessons are learnt and improvements made.

Launch the revised Stress Policy and guidance.

July 2007