Health and Safety

Hampshire County Council annual health and safety report for 2008 – 2009

Introduction
Risks
Performance for 2008 - 2009
Accidents/incidents and other related statistical data
Definitions
Plans for 2009 - 2010

Introduction

This report covers the year from 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009.  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 is 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 counselors who provide counselling and support for employees, occupational hygienists and a Fire Safety Manager. In the workplace over 670 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 2008 - 2009

There has been a reduction in the number of days lost due to sickness absence because of work related injury and ill health compared to last year. There has also been a further decrease in the work related stress absence, which is very welcome and reflects the level of focus on this issue.

There has been a welcome drop in the number of major injuries (as defined in RIDDOR) with only 2 major injuries in the course of the year. However, there has also been an overall rise in the numbers of incidents reported to the HSE.  This appears to be mainly related to significant improvements in the level of incident reports from schools in Hampshire following work to support and audit schools by the health and safety advisers in that department.  This includes data  on pupils taken  to hospital, which whilst this may only involve a check up as a precautionary measure, this is still reportable to the HSE.

Work has started to look at the four key risks identified as being significant and affecting most of the Council’s activities. These are:-

  • Work Related Stress

  • Violence and Aggression to staff

  • Driving and road risks

  • Contractor and partnership management

An audit of contractor and partnership management arrangements has taken place and work is being undertaken in departments and at a corporate level to improve the way potential risks and benefits from contracts and partnerships are identified up front and how contracts and partnerships are managed to ensure significant risks are reduced and benefits achieved.

Work on effective interventions for work related stress problems is taking place and this is closely linked to the processes to manage overall sickness absence and with occupational health activities on wellbeing.

Data collection of reports of violence and aggression are being improved so there is a better understanding of the types of issues staff are having to deal with and better protective measures and support can be planned.

Work on road risk and driving is in the early investigation stages.

Accidents/incidents and other related statistical data

2004-05

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

Total number of incidents reported to the Health and Safety Executive

93

82

97

87

132

Number of injuries causing over 3 day absences from work

37

49

57

54

61

Number of major injuries (as defined in RIDDOR)

1

2

7

7

2

Fatalities

2

1

0

0

0

Reportable dangerous occurrences (as defined in RIDDOR)

2

0

0

0

0

Reportable work related illnesses (as defined in RIDDOR)

2

1

1

0

0

Number of non-employees taken straight to hospital

53

33

33

26

69

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

6401 (7.2%)

6780 (3.5%)

7977.61 (3.88%)

7773.57 (3.92%)

7444.28 (3.7%)

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

1774 (2%)

2272 (1.18%)

2378.3 (1.16%)

2832.02 (1.43%)

2267.79 (1.1%)

Number of Improvement Notices served

1

0

0

0

0

Number of Prohibition Notices served

0

0

0

0

0

Prosecutions

0

0

0

0

0

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

147.78

214.24

214.82

201.45

224.28

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

3.99

11.48

26.38

26.11

7.12

Number attending at health and safety training courses (internal)

2,676

4405

3888

4999

4686

* The incidence rate for over 3 day injuries in the UK for 2007/8 was 411.9 according to the HSE’s figures.

Definitions

INJURY
RIDDOR
WORK-RELATED ILLNESSESS
WORK-RELATED STRESS

For definitions of major injury, dangerous occurrence, work related ill health, etc., visit the HSE accident reporting web pages.

Plans for 2009 - 2010

The work on the four key risks started in 2008/9 will continue over the next year.  The aim is to ensure as far as possible that these risks are addressed by all parts of the County Council that experience them, in order that the number of reported incidents relating to these risks reduces over time.

Work is planned to improve the range of data and other information used for health and safety performance measurement so that a clearer overview of health and safety performance, in a simple standard format, is available.  This will better enable senior managers and members to see where risks are well managed and where more work is needed, thereby both improving safety and resource allocation.

We aim to improve the way competency and training is measured, both in terms of quantity and quality. We will find methods to better measure the benefits of training in terms of improved performance and competency.  This will better enable managers and senior managers to see where resources and management focus is needed to build up the health and safety competency of the workforce and thereby reduce injuries and ill health from work.

July 2009