Hampshire County Council Corporate Health & Safety Policy
This Health and Safety Policy Statement is the lead document for Health and Safety in Hampshire County Council. All other health and safety documents at a corporate or departmental level will match or exceed the principles set out here. All people who work in or with the Council and those who use its services are encouraged to read this policy and to consider how they can contribute to achieving its aims.
Organisation – people and responsibilities
Cabinet
Corporate Management Team
Risk Management Board
Health & Safety Executive Group
Health & Safety/ Fire Safety Advisers
Managers
Staff
Contractors
Safety Representatives
Clients, members of the public, etc
Arrangements – documentation and procedures
Level 1 - Corporate
Level 2 - Departmental
Level 3 - Local
Health & Safety Policy Statement
The Council recognises that good health and safety management supports the delivery of our services for the people of Hampshire. As part of the overall Risk Management process and culture, good health and safety management will help reduce injury and loss, help promote a healthy workforce and help protect all who are affected by the Council’s services.
This Policy and the management structure and arrangements that supports it, contributes to the achievement of the three Corporate Priorities by reducing injury and loss and promoting a healthy workforce. This supports making Hampshire safer and more secure for all, it reduces injuries and ill health to employees and the wider public, thereby Maximising Wellbeing and reduces potential damage to the environment supporting Enhancing our Quality of Place.
Hampshire County Council recognises and will meet its common law and statutory health and safety responsibilities. The Council will provide, so far as is reasonably practicable, a safe and healthy environment for its staff and all persons affected by its undertaking. This will be based on providing safe environments for learning, leisure and care work, safe systems of work, safe equipment and materials for use at work and individuals who are competent.
The Council will maintain appropriate health and safety management systems, arrangements and organisational structures to ensure adequate health and safety for all people affected by its operations. The Council has adopted as the model for its health and safety management systems the HSE’s “Successful Health and Safety Management” (HSG 65) and will measure its health and safety management systems against that model. The Council will monitor and review the effectiveness of these systems.
Managers will ensure health and safety matters are an integral part of all activities and health and safety is given due consideration with other service commitments.
The Council will endeavour to consult on significant health and safety issues with the workforce in good time to enable staff to express their views on health and safety issues. All staff must actively support the Council’s efforts by working with due regard to the safety of themselves and others. The Council expects and encourages similar support from contractors, partners and volunteers and co-operation from clients and other visitors who use its facilities or visit premises.
Organisation – people and responsibilities
The following are the principal responsibilities for health and safety in Hampshire County Council.
Members of the Cabinet and other elected members shall:
Ensure that suitable resources and strategic direction are available to discharge the Council’s health and safety responsibilities.
Monitor, via reports, the overall performance of the Council’s health and safety management systems.
The Chief Executive shall:
Take overall responsibility for health & safety across the County Council, and lead in setting corporate policy and direction.
The Corporate Management Team shall:
Provide strategic direction and oversight of corporate health and safety strategies and policies.
Ensure that robust health and safety management systems, arrangements and organisation exist in each department.
Support the Chief Executive in meeting his safety responsibilities for the Council as a whole.
Support the work of Risk Management Board and the Health and Safety Executive Group.
The Risk Management Board
The Risk Management Board has the overall responsibility for monitoring and advising on all aspects of Risk in the Council, including Health and Safety. The senior managers who make up the Risk Management Board include representatives from all the departments as well as specialists and advisers. The Risk Management Board can endorse decisions made by the Health and Safety Executive Group who have the responsibility for managing health and safety at a corporate level.
The Risk Management Board working on behalf of CMT shall:
Have overall responsibility on behalf of CMT to monitor the effectiveness of the Health and Safety arrangements as part of the over-arching Risk Management arrangements.
Consider reports and recommendations from the Health and Safety Executive Group.
Endorse the work of the Health and Safety Executive Group.
The Health and Safety Executive Group
The Health and Safety Executive Group is the senior health and safety decision making body in the Council. The members of the Group are the health and safety Champions for the departments who are members of the departmental management teams and have been appointed by their Director or Chief Officer. The Group discusses and agrees policy and strategy documentation and monitors health and safety performance across all departments.
The Health and Safety Executive Group shall:
Ensure that suitable corporate health and safety policies, standards and Guidance are developed and maintained.
Devise and agree plans for the appropriate implementation of corporate health and safety policies and standards.
Monitor health and safety performance in all areas and compare performance with other suitable organisations where appropriate.
Agree performance indicators and targets for improved health and safety performance and compare performance with other similar organisations.
Agree over-arching annual plans and strategies to improve health and safety performance across the Council which will feed into departmental annual health and safety planning.
To engender a culture of responsible Health and Safety Management across the County Council.
Direct corporate health and safety activities including monitoring, inspection, audits and review activities.
Review the health and safety performance annually and produce reports for the Risk Management Board, the Governance Committee, as well as for public publication.
To enable the spread of best practice whether found within the organisation or from other organisations.
Chief Officers shall:
Have overall responsibility for health and safety in their department.
Appoint a member of their Departmental Management Team to lead on health and safety issues (Health and Safety “Champion”).
The Departmental Health and Safety “Champions”
Lead on health and safety issues in the department.
Support the Chief Officer and other Departmental Management Team members to meet their health and safety responsibilities.
Represent their department at the Health and Safety Executive Group
Ensure that corporate policies and plans are implemented in their department.
Bring forward ideas and proposals for the continual improvement of health and safety.
Departmental Management Teams shall:
Ensure the department has adequate professional advice to enable them to comply with the legal and corporate standards applicable to the operations of the department.
Ensure the development of health and safety documentation for their departments that meet, as a minimum, the requirements of the law, as well as corporate policies and standards.
Ensure sufficient resources are allocated to meet health and safety obligations throughout the department.
Monitor health and safety performance throughout their department.
Review health and safety performance annually and provide a summary of that review for the Health and Safety Executive Group.
Develop, as part of departmental Service Planning, suitable health and safety plans that aim to meet corporate objectives and improve health and safety performance.
Ensure staff are involved and consulted on relevant health and safety matters in good time and ensure that their views are considered.
Ensure that health and safety training programmes are in place and monitored.
Managers shall:
Implement corporate and departmental Health and Safety policies, standards and procedures as applicable in their area of responsibility.
Ensure all staff and others comply with the requirements of their department’s health and safety documentation as well as any local health and safety requirements.
Ensure that all work related hazards are identified and suitable and sufficient risk assessments are undertaken.
Develop local procedures and safe working practices that implement departmental documentation and local risk assessments with the aim of eliminating or adequately controlling occupational risks.
Ensure that they and their staff have adequate levels of competency to complete their work tasks safely and where necessary are provided with appropriate health and safety training relevant to the hazards in their work.
Ensure that health and safety systems are maintained locally.
Report and investigate incidents as required.
Health and Safety practitioners and Fire safety practitioners shall:
Act as the “competent persons” as set out in the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 respectively.
Provide appropriate advice and support to managers.
Maintain themselves up to date with legislation and best practice knowledge.
Provide a range of services for departments to meet the department’s health and safety and fire advice needs.
Staff and volunteers shall:
Familiarise themselves with the contents of this policy and those policies and procedures that relate to their work.
Work with due regard to the health and safety of themselves and others.
Co-operate with and support managers in meeting their health and safety responsibilities.
Draw attention to health and safety problems or deficiencies.
Contractors and partners shall:
Co-operate and communicate with Hampshire County Council on all relevant health and safety matters.
Meet the health and standards required of them in the performance of the work activities undertaken with or on behalf of the County Council.
Safety Representatives:
Safety Representatives, both Trade Union and Staff representatives are able to exercise their rights to:
Conduct investigations in to reportable incidents.
Represent the views of the staff to managers and to HSE Inspectors.
Conduct inspections of the workplace.
Clients, service users and members of the public:
Clients, service users and members of the public are requested to co-operate with the health and safety arrangements put in place by Hampshire County Council to protect them and the people who are providing a service for them.
Arrangements - health and safety documentation and procedures
The health and safety documentation is structured on three basic levels:
Corporate
Departmental
Local
Level 1. The Corporate documentation is in the form of Policies and Standards. The Policies set out the overall position the Council takes on the issue covered and the Standards set out who is responsible and what must be done to meet the Policy. In addition there are Corporate Guidance documents where cross-departmental systems and documentation are needed e.g. accident reporting and fire safety.
The Policies and Standards aim to ensure that, as a minimum, the requirements of health and safety legislation are met.
Departments shall meet the requirements of corporate policies and standards as mandatory.
Level 2. Departmental documentation meets as a minimum the standards and requirements set out in the corporate documentation and takes the form of procedures and guidance for managers and staff working in the departments.
Local documentation covers any health and safety procedures and requirements unique to a site or service.
Issue 4June 2008