Tel 01204 772977 or 07792 400 503
Comply at Work Upcoming courses
P2-3
Stress P4-5 HSE Strategy
P6-7
Must We Print Everything
P8
Sheltering in Bins
P9
Professional Adobe and Microsoft Training P10-11 Meeting Agendas
P12-13
In the spotlight
P14-15
February 2017
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. Tuesday 28 February One-day Emergency First Aid Also… Thursday 23 March Fire Marshal Training half day course – TBC Manual Handling and Asbestos Awareness pick and mix session – TBC Face Fit Testing for individuals and Trainer the Trainer - TBC One day Health and Safety Awareness training Date TBC
Places are limited on all these courses. Please contact us on 01204 772977 now to register your interest.
e-mail info@complyatwork.co.uk www.complyatwork.co.uk
Safety Snippets | P3
Sn Saf ip ety pe ts Tip. Formalise your arrangements for managing stress in your health and safety policy. Instruct managers to keep a close eye on staff and offer support when it’s needed.
P4 | Safety Snippets
Tel 01204 77 29 77 mobile 07792 400 503
Comply at Work
Stress
Work-related stress statistics HSE statistics identify that work-related stress cases are costing businesses dearly. What are the figures and what do you need to do? The numbers. According to the HSE, in 2015/16 stress accounted for 37% of all work-related ill health cases and 45% of all working days lost to ill health. The total number of cases of work-related stress, depression or anxiety was 488,000. The number of new instances was 224,000. The impact of these cases was 11.7 million lost days. Continuation. Comparing these figures with previous years’ it’s clear that they’ve been this bad for a while now and don’t appear to be getting any better. The causes? HSE research has identified that workload pressures, including tight deadlines, too much responsibility and a lack of management support are the key culprits. What sectors? The construction sector usually leads the way when it comes to health and safety statistics, but with stress the figures are reversed. The usually low-risk service sector, in particular those working in public sector roles such as healthcare and teaching, are suffering the most.
Warning. With occupational health issues a top priority for health and safety enforcement in 2017, you can be sure that inspectors will take any reports of work-related stress very seriously. Work-related stress results in 11.7 million lost working days per year. Statistics show there are no signs of improvement so it remains an enforcement priority. Formalise your arrangements in your safety policy and support your staff. Comply at Work will be arranging Stress Awareness/ Resilience Training soon for both Employees and Managers. If you would like to register your interest now before places fill, please contact us on 01024 772977 or info@complyatwork.co.uk We can also assist with Stress Policies and procedures and Stress Risk Assessment.
The impact. Stress cases usually result in many days of lost time (average 23.9 days each) and the HSE certainly isn’t shy about prosecuting those who fail to take reasonable steps to protect their employees. In addition, there have been a number of successful civil claims brought against employers shown to have failed in their duties to their staff.
Source: Indicator
e-mail info@complyatwork.co.uk www.complyatwork.co.uk
Safety Snippets | P5
Sn Saf ip ety pe ts
Tip. The era of putting health risks in the “too difficult to deal with pile” has gone. If your staff are at risk, use an occupational health management checklist to review your arrangements.
P6 | Safety Snippets
Tel 01204 77 29 77 mobile 07792 400 503
Comply at Work
The HSE’s “Health and Work” strategy The HSE has launched a new strategy document: “Health and Work”. What’s in the pipeline and should you be preparing yourself for sweeping changes and major campaigns? Overview This new strategy is part of the HSE’s promise to put the “health” back into health and safety. The Document three pages of text, most of which provides an explanation about why the subject is important and a description of the HSE’s role in promoting good health alongside other government organisations.
Priorities The regulator has chosen to focus on three causes of occupational ill health where it can make the greatest impact. The subjects are: (1) workrelated stress; (2) musculoskeletal disorders (MSD); and (3) occupational lung disease. Work-related stress and musculoskeletal disorders account jointly for more than 80% of lost time due to ill health, whilst occupational lung disease is the leading cause of work-related death: associated with 13,000 premature deaths each year. The HSE says it intends “to make real reductions in work-related ill health” so we can assume that it will be looking for hard evidence that its strategy has actually worked. The type of evidence it’s after is a real reduction in the number of new cases of ill health from these causes.
What will happen? Over recent years the HSE has become adept at using its limited resources for maximum gain, through partnerships. We can expect more of the same within the Health and Work strategy. There are plans to engage not only with the usual trade and professional bodies, but also “trades unions, individual businesses, charities and researchers” .
The three-page strategy document itself is fairly vague. However, there are draft plans for each of the three topics, and these give more insight. 1. Stress. We can expect a review of the current guidance and more tools which businesses can use to assess their own performance on stress risk management. There will also be a national Stress Summit in March 2017 and pilot studies in selected higher risk sectors. 2. MSD. There are plans to create digital versions of existing tools, e.g. the Manual Handling Assessment Charts. Presently the HSE specifically targets its MSD intervention programmes in the food manufacturing and construction sectors. It will be identifying other industries which would benefit from similar enforcement campaigns. 3. Lung disease. A new leadership body will be set up to tackle occupational respiratory disease. Research will be initiated in the areas of asbestos, respirable crystalline silica, asthma and legionella. Plus, enforcement activity will continue to take place wherever there’s a high risk of lung disease.
This is a determined effort to address the leading causes of occupational ill health, i.e. stress, muskuloskeletal disorders and lung disease. We’re not expecting anything dramatic. Plans include research, updated guidance, enforcement activity, etc. Use our checklist to make sure your arrangements meet the mark. Please get in touch if you would like a FREE copy. Source: Indicator
e-mail info@complyatwork.co.uk www.complyatwork.co.uk
Safety Snippets | P7
Sn Saf ip ety pe ts
Q&A - must we print everything out? Q. Our health and safety advisor has provided us with many standard documents, including accident forms etc. They can be downloaded when we need them from their website. One of our managers is convinced that we must download the lot, print them all and file in a folder. This goes against what our advisor said and seems pretty pointless. Must we do this? A. There’s no legal requirement to have everything printed in a folder. In the past this was a standard procedure, but there’s no longer any reason to give the printer a hammering. Just make sure that whoever may need to refer to or use the documentation is able to do so.
P8 | Safety Snippets
Tel 01204 77 29 77 mobile 07792 400 503
Comply at Work
Sheltering in bins Death bed. It has been reported that at least ten lives have been lost in five years when rough sleepers sheltering in bins were tipped into waste trucks. This causes needless deaths and is an horrific experience for all those involved at the scene. New initiative. A steering group has been formed by waste specialists Biffa, Veolia and B&M Waste Services, the HSE, charities involved with the homeless, the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management and the Environmental Services Association. Moving forward. The group hopes to find new ways to prevent the deaths and to improve awareness amongst businesses and the public. It says that the problem has become worse due to the current homelessness crisis, but that sleeping in bins isn’t confined to this vulnerable group. Some of the victims are those making their way home under the influence of drink or drugs.
Tip. Many waste companies have taken steps to increase awareness amongst their staff. However, waste producers also have a responsibility to do what they can. The best option is to keep your bins locked shut or locked away. This is especially important where they’re located close to routes used by the public.
Source: Indicator
e-mail info@complyatwork.co.uk www.complyatwork.co.uk
Safety Snippets | P9
Bu s By ine te ss P10 | Business Byte
Tel 01204 77 29 77 mobile 07792 400 503
Comply at Work
Gain Professional Recognition in Microsoft & Adobe Skills Fully Funded Online Training Courses If you are a registered self-employed person or an SME Businesses in Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Warrington to can benefit from fully funded upskilling and receive accreditation in several online training courses as follows: Professional Qualification – “Fully Funded” Microsoft & Adobe Online Trainings
The process after the learner decides to undertake the course is:
1. Access
2.
3. OneNote
4. Outlook
• Graham meets with employer and employee to complete the Training Needs Analysis paperwork.
5. Powerpoint
6. Sharepoint
7. Word
8. Dreamweaver
9. Premier Pro
10. Photoshop
11. Indesign
12. Illustrator
Excel
• A learner code is generated and emailed to the learner • The learner has access to the course and commences online training • The learner can take a mock exam and is given the result • Once the learner has passed the mock they can sit the exam
13. Flash Each online training course normally costs around £125.00 but eligible businesses can have this online training funded through the ESF and Skills Funding Agency. You can sign up for multiple Microsoft and Adobe online training courses (minimum of 2 trainings) listed above. Each course must be completed online within 60 days. Each course is 20 hours.
• The process is closely monitored & learner support available required This is an excellent opportunity to add value and upskill employees, with a recognised Microsoft or Adobe accreditation - at no cost to the employer/employee. Please feel free to contact Graham Stuart to find out how you can complete the Training Needs Analysis paperwork now on 07870 222771
e-mail info@complyatwork.co.uk www.complyatwork.co.uk
Business Byte | P11
Bu s By ine te ss
Action point Look at the today’s meetings’ agendas. For each agenda item, replace the Input Verb with your desired Output Verb (for example, ‘discuss’ becomes ‘agree our next actions with’). This will make a huge difference – you’ll achieve much more, and in much less time.
P12 | Business Byte
Tel 01204 77 29 77 mobile 07792 400 503
Comply at Work
Meeting Agendas When someone says they’re “dieting”, how can you tell it’s working? Because they lose weight, yes?
For example, which agenda sounds better?
When someone says they’re “teaching”, how can you tell that’s working?Because the children are learning.
Agenda #1…
But what if someone says they’re “discussing”? How can you tell if that’s working?
• Discuss Project X • Update on Initiative Y
That isn’t so easy, is it? After all, what’s the output of ‘discussing’?
• Download on Strategy Z
And this is a huge problem with meeting agendas. For example, if an agenda item says …
• Agree our new priorities with Project X, including our immediate next steps
“Discuss Project X”
• Identify quick wins we can make with Initiative Y
… you know “discussion” is the input. But what’s the desired output?
• Agree any final changes we need to make, to ensure our Strategy Z launch works brilliantly
You can’t tell, can you?
Agenda #2 is better. No question. It’s the same meeting as Agenda #1. But it’s clearly going to achieve outputs.
But, if you don’t know what it is, how do you know when you’ve achieved it? You can’t. So you’ll all just keep on talking about it, but not achieving anything. Instead, imagine the agenda said… “Agree our new priorities with Project X, including our immediate next steps”
Or Agenda #2…
In fact, Agenda #1’s meeting will just be a Talking Shop. The agenda’s input-focus means it’s been set up to fail. So, let’s end with another question: think of the agendas you write – are they more like Agenda #1 or #2?
… well, the output is crystal clear now. And because you know where you’re going, you’re much more likely to get there.
Of course, getting the agenda right is a great start. But there are lots of other things you can do too. In fact, meetings are so important, here is a whole hour of tips, explaining how to ensure yours work:
And how does this affect you?
https://andyboundsonline.com/
Well, you know all those meetings that don’t work? You know the ones – too long, too pointless, too boring…
Source: Andy Bounds
Look again at their agendas. I bet most of them contain input verbs – discuss, review, share, update, download … and so on. But these make no reference whatsoever to what the desired output is. So you don’t get any. The good news is that this is pretty easy to fix: simply change your input verbs into output verbs.
e-mail info@complyatwork.co.uk www.complyatwork.co.uk
Business Byte | P13
Comply at Work
in the spotlight Accreditations We are pleased to announce some of our clients who have achieved the below accreditations this month: Monoroof Ltd – SMAS Advance Satellite Service SMAS and CHAS CFE Installations, Birmingham Safe Contractor and FGas certification.
NVQ Level 5 As we stated in last month’s Newsletter, we have a new Principal Consultant on board, Helena Pixton. Helena is looking to complete her Health and Safety NVQ level 5 Diploma equivalent at Bury College in due course and will be gathering the necessary evidence to support this. We may be looking to gather specific evidence over a range of health and safety areas/topics during this time and may contact our clients to offer assistance and support at either a heavily discounted rate or free of charge to progress this learning opportunity. Our retained clients will be given priority in this case.
Let’s feel the Love this Valentines! Testimonial’s and Free prize draw We like to ask some of our clients for testimonials, referrals and recommendations. We find there is nothings like a great testimonial to ‘guarantee’ and excellent level of service for potential new clients. If you could do this for us, we would be very grateful and as a ‘thank you’, we will enter your company into our FREE prize draw for one place on an upcoming Emergency First aid course! Please send your letterhead to info@complyatwork.co.uk Thanks in advance for your support!
Here is one of our latest testimonials below: “We have used Comply at Work as our retained competent advisors for many years and found their services to be excellent. All queries are responded to swiftly and thoroughly. They have assisted us with Accreditations such as CHAS and Safe Contractor and with the completion of time-consuming pre-qualification questionnaires. We have also used Comply at Work for the Fire Risk Assessment of our Offices/Unit and for the development of our Health and Safety Policy and Risk Assessments/Method Statements. Recently, we have engaged their services for a Noise Assessment on site. This was carried out in a comprehensive fashion, with a detailed report to swiftly follow. Since then, they have delivered training on Noise Awareness for all our employees. We have also used the company for training such as First Aid, Asbestos Awareness and Manual Handling, all of which was carried out professionally and in an engaging way by their experienced personnel. I would have no hesitation in recommending Comply at Work for Health and Safety Consultancy support.� Mark Darlington Managing Director - K Darlington & Son Ltd www.darlingtontarmac.co.uk
New Clients Speaking of new clients, we welcome on board: EW Building Solutions Atmostherm Services Ltd, Manchester Packaging Automation Ltd, Knutsford Kids Fashion Mart, Bolton Preston Board & Packaging Ltd, Preston
This newsletter has been brought to you by...
cloud ]achine tHE
Providing everything you need for promoting your business, from graphic design for print and web, to advanced marketing for iPhone, iPad, tablets and smartphones
saRa pascoe
www.thecloudmachine.co.uk Graphic Design | Web Design | App Design | eCommerce | eMail Marketing
Give us a call to see what we can do for you on
0777 337 1020
C @
COMPLY at WORK HEALTH & SAFETY CONSULTANCY AND TRAINING
adve r tise with us for unde r ÂŁ10 pe r month Tel 01204 77 29 77 mobile 07792 400 503 e-mail info@complyatwork.co.uk www.complyatwork.co.uk
LRH SOLUTIONS
Your one-stop solution to all your maintenance requirements. Business or Domestic. No job too small.
LRH SOLUTIONS
Please call Les for a no obligation quote on: ✆ 07974 978386 lrh1@btinternet.com
COMMERCIAL AND DOMESTIC QUALITY SERVICE AT A COMPETITIVE PRICE
CONTACT RICK SCOTT ON
ALFA JOINERY LTD
07808 162098 e-mail:enquiries@alfajoinery.co.uk