Tel 01204 772977 or 07792 400 503
Comply at Work Upcoming Courses
P2-3
Major Sentencing Changes
P4-5
Accurate Risk Assessments
P6-7
Presentation Skills
P8-9
In the Spotlight
P12-13
March 2016
P2 | Safety Snippets
Tel 01204 77 29 77 mobile 07792 400 503
Comply at Work OUR UPCOMING TRAINING COURSES…. Ask us about our special offers: Pick n mix sessions, free seminars and discounts for retained clients. Thurs 17 March and Fri 18 March Responsible Welding Co-ordinator course (2 Days) Thurs 5 April Emergency First Aid (1 Day) Face fit testing ‘Open Day’ Date TBC CIEH level 2 Award in Health and Safety Date TBC Manual Handling and Asbestos Awareness pick and mix session Date TBC
Please register your interest in any of the above courses as soon as possible to ensure a place.
e-mail info@complyatwork.co.uk www.complyatwork.co.uk
Safety Snippets | P3
Sn Saf ip ety pe ts
source: Indicator
P4 | Safety Snippets
Tel 01204 77 29 77 mobile 07792 400 503
Comply at Work
Major Changes to Health and Safety Sentencing Now in Place. From February 1st 2016, significant changes in which Health and Safety, Corporate Manslaughter and Food Safety cases are sentenced have been introduced. The new guidelines represent a huge change in the way punishments are given for Health and Safety offences. Consistency The recent publication by the Sentencing Council acts as guidance for Health and Safety offences committed by both organisations and individuals, as well as corporate manslaughter and food safety and hygiene offences. The document is aimed at improving consistency in the sentencing of these cases, as well as ensuring fines are “fair and proportionate to the means of offenders”. Factors Using the guidelines, sentences can be decided by following a detailed stepby-step process. This process includes the use of tables with factors such as levels of culpability and the financial background of the offending organisation. Large organisations could be met with fines as high as £20 million for Health and Safety breaches using the new criteria. Other elements of a Health and Safety offence that will be considered during sentencing include the likelihood of harm, and factors that increase or reduce the seriousness of the potential or occurred incident. Risk In this new legislation, punishments relate to the level of risk – whether there is a fatality or not. If there is a high risk of a fatal accident, the sentencing would still be based on the level of risk exposure. Importance of Health and Safety compliance As of the 1st February 2016, all Health and Safety cases sentenced will follow the new guidelines – including offences committed before the date of the guidelines’ implementation. As well as giving an insight into the level of detail used during sentencing procedures, these new guidelines certainly emphasise the importance of Health and Safety compliance, and how vital it is that employers are well aware of any potential risks within their workplace. Please click on the link for a copy of the sentencing guidelines; http://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/HS-offencesdefinitive-guideline-FINAL-web1.pdf
Source: Business Safety Systems
e-mail info@complyatwork.co.uk www.complyatwork.co.uk
Safety Snippets | P5
Sn Saf ip ety pe ts
Tip 1. If your risk assessments might not reflect your operations, complete an audit (Comply at Work can provide a simple checklist useful to ‘audit’ your risk assessment approach to ensure that everything is covered – just get in touch for your FREE copy). Check that all significant risks are covered, e.g. suitable storage of materials, work at height, traffic movements, etc., and most importantly that your control measures reduce the level of risk sufficiently.
Tip 2. Review your arrangements against those detailed in the HSE’s guidance http:// www.hse.gov.uk/guidance/ You don’t have to follow it to the letter; however, your arrangements must be at least as effective as those identified.
source: Indicator
P6 | Safety Snippets
Tel 01204 77 29 77 mobile 07792 400 503
Comply at Work
Accurate risk assessments A case has highlighted the potential danger of relying on generic, rather than site-specific, risk assessments. What’s to know? The incident. The HSE prosecuted an employer following an accident at one of its recycling facilities. The investigation identified that a worker was struck and injured by a falling bale of waste. He suffered fractures to his face and skull plus brain injuries. The waste was stacked in unsupported columns three bales high. The fact that they weren’t tied into the rows behind left them unstable and prone to collapse. To make matters worse, bales were also placed across the top of the stack. In court. The HSE investigation found a site-specific risk assessment had not been completed. Instead, it relied on a generic risk assessment that listed controls for presumed levels of risk. Also, it hadn’t followed HSE guidance which identified that the bales should be interlinked and overlapped. The company was fined £450,000, with £11,676 costs. There’s nothing stopping you from completing and using generic risk assessments. But, if you do you must ensure that they accurately reflect the risks found on your site. This case makes it clear that if the HSE has provided explicit guidance on how a task should be completed, and your systems aren’t as safe, you can expect your decision to be challenged. Your risk assessments must cover your operations in detail and your control measures be as effective as those identified in HSE guidance. If they aren’t, your systems won’t stand up in court. If you require any advice or guidance on risk assessment, please let us know – we are here to help.
source: Indicator
e-mail info@complyatwork.co.uk www.complyatwork.co.uk
Safety Snippets | P7
Bu By sin te ess s P8 | Safety Snippets
Tel 01204 77 29 77 mobile 07792 400 503
Comply at Work
Presentation Skills We have written in our newsletter before about training and presentation techniques. This is a good refresher and a super-fast way to deliver better presentations! If you have a pen and paper with you, please draw a circle. If you haven’t, imagine you’ve just drawn a circle! You’re going to turn this circle into a pie chart with three wedges. These will show the three things to prepare when writing a presentation:
If you’re surprised by this, don’t worry. Spending time thinking of good questions helps you deliver successful presentations. Here are some questions that work really well: •
After a slide showing the main benefits of your proposition, ask “which of these benefits are the most important?” When they respond with “number 3”, ask “why’s that?” This helps uncover their key priorities, and therefore helps you shape what you’ll say next
•
Running a workshop? After your first topic ends, ask “before we go to the next topic, please look through your notes and be ready to answer this question: what’s the one thing you’ll do differently as a result of what we’ve just discussed?” A great way to turn their learnings into actions
•
At the end of a sales pitch, ask the customer “Out of everything we’ve discussed, what are you most excited about?” This is a very positive, exciting way to finish the pitch. After all, you watch them discuss with each other the most exciting bits of what you’ve just said!
•
Get instant engagement by asking this: “This first slide shows our agenda for today. Which topic would you like us to discuss first?” When they answer, you know what their #1 priority is. So, go straight there. You’re already making an impression.
1. Your slides – what the audience will see 2. Your script – the words you’ll say 3. Your questions – the things you’ll ask Here’s how to do your pie chart: simply split your circle into three wedges, showing the proportion of your prep time that you allocate to preparing each of these three. If you are like the vast majority of people, you’ll have a huge wedge for slide prep and a small wedge for your script. And that’s it. There’ll be no wedge at all for preparing questions. Because people very rarely prepare in advance what they’re going to ask the audience. But, as you know, presentations should be interactive wherever possible. You want the audience engaged, and discussing things with you/each other. Your pie chart should look like this: •
A tiny wedge for the slides – 10% max
•
The remaining 90% split equally between script and questions…
•
…in other words, spend as much time preparing what you’ll ask as you do on what you’ll say
Finally, one very handy PowerPoint hint: some of these questions will result in you needing to change the order of your slides. Tip: If you’re on slide 1 and want to jump to slide 8, just press the “8” key on the keyboard and then “return” and you jump straight there. This tip means you don’t have to deliver it in the order you prepared it. Instead, you deliver it in the order that your audience wants to hear it. And that’s much more likely to impress.
Source: Andy Bounds
e-mail info@complyatwork.co.uk www.complyatwork.co.uk
Safety Snippets | P9
Comply at Work
in the spotlight Welcome to our new clients: 1st Stop Group, Blackpool Tailored Fire & Security (Manchester) Ltd Northern Pets, Ramsbottom SDH Building Services Ltd, Bolton Bartell Cottage Furnishings Ltd, Manchester Congratulations also to Click Fire and Security based in Milnrow on their recent success with CHAS accreditation.
FREE WORKSHOPS Thanks to all retained clients attending our first FREE Health and Safety workshop. The topic was ‘How to deliver engaging Toolbox Talks’. The workshop was very well received and had some excellent feedback: “Thanks for yesterday, the workshop was a good way of boosting my confidence regarding toolbox talks, I will definitely look at coming to other workshops” Desi Dean, Samsys Ltd We aim to deliver our free workshops approximately every quarter. All retained clients will be informed. Please keep an eye on our bulletins and this newsletter for upcoming sessions.
FACE-FIT TESTING We have also held our first Face-fit testing ‘Open session’ where we have offered Face fit testing of respiratory protection to a number of clients followed by a ‘Train the Tester’ session. Face- fit testing is a legal requirement. Please ensure that you are compliant and get in touch for more details of our competitive pricing and when our next session will be.
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