So what’s new this month in the world of health and safety?

The HSE (Health and Safety Executive) has published the final version of its new health and safety strategy, which is titled; ‘The Health and Safety of Great Britain: Be part of the solution’.

So why has the HSE launched a new health and safety strategy?

The process of health and safety improvements began 1974 with the introduction of the ‘Health and Safety at Work etc Act’ and the steady improvements continued through until around 2003 where it began to stagnate. The HSE realised they needed to inject some more impetus into improving health and safety in the workplace, hence the new health and safety strategy.

The HSE health and safety strategy defines the need for business leaders to promote and use a practical, common sense approach to health and safety in their own organisation and promote that philosophy to their suppliers. There are a number of goals that the HSE has targeted, but these can be broken down into four clear health and safety objectives set out in the HSE strategy, these are:

• To reduce the number of work related fatalities, injuries and cases of ill-health.
• To gain widespread commitment and recognition of what real health and safety is about.
• To motivate all those in the health and safety system as to how they can contribute to an improved health and safety performance.
• To ensure that those who fail in their health and safety duties are held to account.

The HSE strategy document is available to download from the HSE website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/strategy/

Furthermore as part of the HSE’s drive to reach and address the health and safety needs of small businesses, from October 2009, the HSE is making its HS(G) (key guidance) and ACoP (Approved Code of Practice) documents available on the HSE website, free of charge.

One of the problems that we, at OMS constantly find is when we are speaking to businesses many do not understand how to implement simple, sustainable solutions to address health and safety issues. In many cases this leads to people implementing health and safety systems that are over the top, unduly complicated and are not effective in adequately managing the risks in the workplace.

One way to help this is to provide good health and training for managers and key staff. It is amazing the difference we see in people after they have attended good health and safety training courses, such as the NEBOSH National General Certificate or the IOSH Managing Safely or IOSH Directing Safely. We find that people are much more aware of the issues and are able to implement simple sensible solutions that can be sustained on an ongoing basis without placing an unrealistic burden on the business.

It should be noted that enforcement still remains at the heart of the HSE’s approach, with the Chair of the HSE, Judith Hackitt, pledging to continue to “secure justice in cases of wrongdoing”.

This new strategy has been well-received. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber, who was speaking at the launch, said the union movement shared a joint mission with the HSE and that its 150,000 safety representatives “make an enormous contribution to the development of the safety culture in British workplaces”. He commented that there are still key challenges in some sectors – construction and waste, for example – but acknowledged that this is recognised by the HSE health and safety strategy, which he described as “short on rhetoric, but big on vision”.

Sir Steve Bullock, of the Local Government Association, said the part to be played by local authorities would be crucial, as they represent “the tier of government closest to the people, for whose health and well-being we have an overarching responsibility”. Another of its most important roles, he added, is as a major purchaser of goods and services. He said: “It would be absurd for a local authority to aspire to high health and safety standards for its own workforce and not for the workforces of those who supply it.”

IOSH, which has signed the pledge to be part of the solution, said the strategy provides “a clear picture of the challenges facing the HSE, what it plans to do about them, and how it will get others involved”. Added chief executive, Rob Strange: “There is much that needs to be done, and health and safety professionals will have a crucial role in ensuring that the vision becomes reality.” Rob reiterated the Institution’s previous call for more resources for the HSE, so that the health and safety strategy can “really come to fruition”, and urged business-leaders to sign up to the pledge “to show their commitment to keep workplaces.

OMS has already signed up to the pledge that can be found on the HSE website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/strategy/ why don’t you visit, see what it’s about and sign up to move health and safety forward as well.

Posted by Clive Ormerod – Managing Director