Archived decisions

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority Item 6

Governance Committee

24^th September 2009

Health and Safety Annual Report 2008/2009

Report by the Chief Officer

Contact: Nick Burchell, Health and Safety Advisor

e-mail: [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 The purpose of this report is to describe the Health and Safety arrangements in place in Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service and includes a summary of Health and Safety issues, performance, activities and audits for the preceding year.

1.2 This report identifies what we are currently achieving with regard to health and safety activities within HFRS, and the actions we intend to take to ensure continuous improvement. Following the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) inspection of the service and the outcomes of the regional Safety Management Audit a forward thinking plan is being created to strategically develop health and safety within HFRS. This will form a strategic plan for health and safety underpinned by an action plan to address all of the issues we face.

1.3 The activities of the Health and Safety department show continuous development aiming to ensure the service maintains a safe workplace and compliant safety management structure.

2. Recommendations

2.1 That the Committee note the content of this annual report for the year 2008/2009.

2.2 That the Committee continues to endorse the reporting format and template as being suitable for their purposes in ensuring adequate health and safety arrangements within HFRS.

2.3 That the Committee endorse the ongoing review and refresh of Health and Safety arrangements that have taken place.

3. Introduction and Background

HFRS is committed to providing effective health safety and welfare arrangements for all of its staff. The Health and Safety department is committed to providing the service with exemplary support. This means having in place effective management arrangements that ensure the Health Safety and Wellbeing of our staff, and minimise the losses (financial and to our reputation) to HFRS from Safety Events. To achieve this we must search out, adopt and update best practice relevant to and proportionate to the risks HFRS faces, and that our policy, procedure and guidance is adhered to for all relevant activities. We are also committed to doing this by creating an environment in which managers and staff work together closely and constructively.

4. Existing Health and Safety Arrangements

4.1 Policy

All existing Health and Safety policies within HFRS continue to undergo scheduled review and will be amended or updated where necessary, as well as following the findings of audits and the outcomes of the HSE inspection. This conforms with the Health and safety Executives guidance for health and safety management (HSG65). This robust system ensures that all policies continue to be working effectively and efficiently.

An overarching Health and Safety 3 year strategy is being produced in line with the new HSE strategy.

HFRS in further support of the HSE strategy will be signing up to the HSE's pledge to work with the HSE and its partners in the promotion of a common sense to health and safety approach and to reduce the incidences of accident or injury.

4.2 Organisation

The responsibility for Health and Safety Management sits firmly within the Service Delivery Directorate of HFRS, this has proven the be effective in the integration of health and safety at the forefront of HFRS activities, whilst the implementation of Health and Safety remains the responsibility of all personnel. HFRS has a dedicated team providing advice and support to all staff giving advice, guidance, monitor and review of services. This team is lead by a Chartered Health and Safety Practitioner, who is located at the Eastleigh Annexe together with a team of three staff.

The Health and Safety Working Group drives Health and Safety issues forward as raised by all employees, representative bodies and the outcome of inspections and audits, the group consists of management, employees and representative bodies. This group reports to the Workforce Wellbeing Strategy Group (chaired by the Director of HR ) which is a direct link into Directors and the Service Management team, additionally the group reports to the Health Safety Strategy and Performance Group (made up of all the Area Managers and chaired by the Health and Safety Adviser) this provides a direct link into all functions. All workplaces have an appointed Health and Safety Representative who along with the workplace Managers, support a comprehensive program of regular health and safety inspections, used to identify and eliminate any potential hazards arising.

Safety event reporting continues to develop in the culture of the service and as a tool to identify and eliminate all safety events and to recognise trends, equally providing data to measure our performance and bench mark against regional and national statistics. Further work is ongoing to improve our quality of safety event investigation and the training of managers to complete detailed common sense investigations.

Additionally HFRS has the benefit of a member Champion for health and safety, Councillor Robin McIntosh. This was highlighted by the HSE as a particular example of good practice.

4.3 Planning

Planning for Health and Safety is undertaken annually in the form of the Medium Term Plan, this process is under review to improve the effective use of resource and fall in line with methodology used by the HSE, equally the findings from the HSE inspection and regional Quality Safety Audit will have a definitive influence. This year we will producing a more forward looking 3 year plan/strategy that is more strategic, this will be underpinned by a functional department activities plan to deal with the detail. Planning is supported by findings from the workplace inspections, risk assessment review and the outcomes identified by safety event statistics along with any changes in legislation, directives from the HSE and any National/Regional health and safety initiatives.

4.4 Measurement

HFRS continue to internally measure performance through collation and analysis of statistics, we have also initiated a regional process to benchmark these figures against our regional colleagues.

An overview of HFRS statistics can be seen at Appendix A.

Statistics showing injuries to fire fighters 1998 ~ 2007 can be seen at appendix B

4.5 Audit

This year HFRS Health and Safety Management Systems have benefitted from three independent audits; Hampshire County Council, Regional Quality Safety Audit and the HSE inspection. It is my pleasure to report that HFRS have achieved a high standard in all Audits this year identifying a good health and safety culture across the service.

HFRS aim to have external audits at least every two years, either as part of the regional collaboration through the Regional Management Board arrangements, or through Hampshire County Council. Audit reports will be presented to the Authority or appropriate committee for scrutiny supported by any necessary action plans.

HFRS annually apply to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) for recognition in their annual achievement awards. This year we again received a Gold Award, this is now our fourth Gold Award though this system, we will continue to build upon this foundation and look to achieve further success and recognition with RoSPA.

4.6 Review

All policies and supporting documents are reviewed on an annual basis to ensure continued legal compliance and effective management of Health and Safety across HFRS. New legislation, Regulatory change, Government Directives or changes in process will be incorporated into policy at the earliest opportunity. The Health and Safety Adviser and line management monitor the Health and Safety Environment and will warn/inform HFRS and the Authority of any pertinent changes.

HFRS continue to maintain a Corporate Risk Register of Health and Safety issues and the Service Management Team will receive a quarterly Health and Safety update.

The Workforce Wellbeing Strategy Group receive a quarterly up date on Health and Safety Statistics and the actions of the Health and Safety Working Group, this group doubles as the Health and Safety Consultation group for Rep bodies. A new group is now in place to ensure the strategic planning of Health and Safety to review policy and the health and safety management systems within HFRS, this is the Health and Safety Strategy and Performance Group made up of Area Managers from all Directorates.

4 Notable Practice

4.1 HFRS aims to be the best fire and rescue service in the country. As part of our performance indicators for fire stations we have introduced indicators for Health and Safety to encourage improved performance. HFRS also have the regional lead on Health and Safety holding the chair for the regional health and safety practitioners group this in turn involves us in the national committees.

This provides us with opportunities to seek and identify notable practice and recognise where improvements can be made by engaging with common policy, adopting a thread of continual improvement in Health and Safety.

5 Planned Improvements

Following the HSE Inspection and recommendations from their report the Health and Safety Department will be developing a health and safety strategy, this will cover a 3 year period and be supported by a more detailed annual departmental action plan. This will seek to strengthen the services performance and ensure initiatives are prioritised and achieved within a set period.

A complete review is being undertaken of the processes used for Safety event investigation and the level of expertise required by the investigating officer, this process will improve how we manage the aftermath of safety events and pro actively respond to any findings.

6 Feedback from external audits

6.1 Early in the reporting period Hampshire County Council completed a Health and Safety Audit of HFRS looking into the internal control system to manage Health and Safety. This report was very positive with few recommendations.

6.2 During January 2009 HFRS received a regional Quality Safety Audit as part of our regional partnership arrangements for Health and Safety. This was a detailed audit against criteria set by RoSPA and looks at detail into our management of health and safety. HFRS achieved a score of 80 which was the second highest achieved in the region.

6.3 In May this year HFRS were the first fire service to be inspected by the HSE in a national program of inspections covering 9 fire services. The outcomes of this inspection showed HFRS to be performing well, the inspection team reported HFRS to have a very good health and safety culture. The final report has recently been circulated to the HFRA meeting held on 16 September 2009.

6.4 During this reporting period HFRS has again been successful in achieving the RoSPA `Gold' Award. This achievement award is given following a submission to RoSPA identifying our safety management systems, statistics and pro active management of health and safety, HFRS has been recognised as providing an `excellent' return. Full details of the award criteria have been included as Appendix C.

7 Future Monitoring of health and safety

7.1 HFRS will continue to apply to RoSPA for assessment and accreditation every year using the current Gold Award standard as our bench mark. We will also seek external audit by Hampshire Council and by another Fire and Rescue Service at least every two years to continue to benefit from scrutiny and challenge. Results of all external audits will be reported to the Governance Committee at the earliest opportunity.

7.2 The Health and Safety entry on the Corporate Risk register will continue to be the driver for Senior Management and the Fire Authority monitoring and leadership of Health and Safety. Together with a quarterly Health and Safety report to the Service Management Team, this will maintain the high profile of Health and Safety and ensure Senior Management focus.

7.3 Internal arrangements for monitoring and compliance are under review, but present systems will continue to be rigorously utilised through consultation, workplace inspections and scrutiny of statistics, as well as the work engaged by the Health and Safety Working Group and network of Health and Safety Representatives who are fully engaged in the process to ensure complete employee participation.

8 Contribution to Corporate Aims and Objectives

9.1 Improved Health and Safety arrangements will support our aim of being the best fire and rescue service in the country.

9 Resource Implications

10.1 Human Resources

There are no additional Implications

10.2 Physical Resources

There are no additional Implications

10.3 Information and Communications Technology Resources

There are no additional resource Implications

10.4 Financial Implications

There are no additional financial Implications arising form this paper.

11 Risk Analysis

11.1 The mass of existing Health and Safety legislation and the introduction of the Corporate Manslaughter legislation will inevitably lead to an increased likelihood of prosecution in the event of serious or fatal accidents. Given the enormity of this risk to the reputation of Fire Authorities inherent in any such prosecution, the focus of exemplary health and safety culture through out the service must be key in all activities and supported at all levels.

11.2 The Committee needs to be aware that while it is the health and safety practices of the service that will be scrutinised in the event of a fatality, it would ultimately be the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority that would be liable for prosecution under the new legislation if there was a breach of duty of care.

Equality Impact Assessment

12.1 The recommendations of this report are assessed as not giving rise to any equality issues for the Authority and are considered compatible with the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Human Rights Act 1998, and the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000.

13. Conclusions

13.1 The Authority has a duty to ensure that robust health and safety policies and procedures are in place in the Service and that these are underpinned by a supportive culture throughout the whole organisation.

13.2 It is also important that both the Service and the Authority are confident that existing health and safety arrangements in the Service are sufficiently comprehensive and robust so as to withstand external scrutiny or challenge.

13.3 Responsibility for effective health and safety falls both to the Authority and the Service and therefore it is considered appropriate that an annual report, and the ability to question the service directly over Health and Safety issues form part of the process of satisfying Members over the efficiency and effectiveness of Health and Safety arrangements in the service.

13.4 It is considered that the general Health and Safety arrangements in place in Hampshire Fire and Rescue are efficient and effective but that we should continue to seek improvement as Health and Safety is a dynamic area, subject to frequent legislative and regulatory change. The continued success with the RoSPA award is seen as a good indicator of our general performance levels and HFRS will continue to build upon this.

13.5 Additionally this years audit results and Inspection by the HSE have identified HFRS as performing well, but with further room for achievable improvements. The action plans devised as a result of these audits have provided the service with a clear direction for further development and to achieve our aspiration of becoming the best.

14. Background information (Section 100D of Local Government Act 1972)

The following documents disclose the facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of the report:

o HSE Final Inspection Report 2009

o Regional Health and Safety Quality Safety Audit

o HFRS Health and Safety Statistics

Note: The list excludes: (1) published works; and (2) documents that disclose exempt or confidential information defined in the Act.

HFRA Governance Committee 24 9 2009

Appendix A

Summary of all Safety Events for the period 2003~2009 (Table 1)

Table 1 shows 5 years of safety event statistics, the overall number of events reported recognises a low incidence rate for Fire Services and the general trend indicates an encouraging reduction in the number of events. The variation for 2006~07 can be accredited to a change in systems and the removal of the accident book (replaced by an HFRS reporting system) , 2007~8 shows how revitalising the system encouraged an improvement in reporting culture. Encouraging all staff to report incidents is a struggle that requires continued monitoring and support from all managers.

Summary of all Safety Events by quarter for the period 2008~2009 (Table 2)

Table 2 shows the events reported for 2008~09, this table shows a significant reduction in work time lost injuries demonstrating an improvement in safety awareness in the workplace. Days lost has increased but this is due to an improvement in the manner we receive and record the information. The increase in RIDDOR (HSE reportable incidents) reported safety events reflects further improvements in our data gathering, the increased number is in recognition of employees unable to attend their normal duties for more than three days.

Trends 2007 ~ 2008 Trends 2008 ~ 2009 (Table 3)

Table 3 shows general trends, there are no surprises here, the trends follow the national statistics.

It should be noted that these statistics are dependant upon the reporting culture of the service and a sustained commitment to report and reduce safety events by managers. The Health and Safety department is committed to supporting and encouraging staff to report all incidents, part of this process includes continued development of our reporting and recording systems.

HFRA Governance Committee 24 9 2009

Appendix B

Injuries to Firefighters whilst on Operational Duties

A Parliamentary written answer from the Fire Minister Parmjit Dhanda on 12^th May 2008, more recent figures are not yet available. This table has therefore been included to show HFRS performance in relation to other FRS's.

The number of firefighters that were injured in operational incidents in fire and rescue services in England since 1998-99 is tabled as follows.

HFRA Governance Committee 24 9 2009

Appendix C

The RoSPA Gold Award

Although we are yet to receive a full report the criteria for the award are as follows;

How the Awards are judged

Awards are made as a result of professional, administrative adjudication under supervision of an independent, expert Adjudication Panel, which is a sub-committee of the RoSPA National Occupational Safety and Health Committee (NOSHC). Decisions about whether or not to make an award in a particular industry sector are based on whether the suggested winner has reached a standard that would be clearly recognised as `excellent' by sector peers.

Judging criteria

In deciding the Achievement Award level merited RoSPA takes account of a range of performance indicators. These include measures of occupational health and safety management` input' such as the level of development of systems and culture; measures of health and safety management `output' such as consistent application of risk control measures; and measures of `outcome' such as reductions in near misses, notifiable injuries, the number of days lost, accident and ill health costs etc.

Gold Award - Entrants would typically need to provide evidence of:

· excellent occupational health and safety management systems (e.g. strong audit results - system used and level achieved e.g. OHSAS 18001 or equivalent) and culture (as demonstrated by answers to the Key Performance Questions)

· a rigorous approach to occupational health

· high levels of compliance with control measures (evidence from active monitoring of performance) for principal risks

· below average and reducing rates of error (e.g. near misses), harm (accidents and work related ill health) and loss (e.g. accident and ill health costs)

· _no fatal or major injuries due to employer negligence

· no significant enforcement issues (notices/prosecutions).

Secretarial/WP/W/C/HFRA/Corporate Governance HFRA Governance 24 9 09 Health and Safety annual report NB/JMW/2/9/09