Occupational Safety : Who, What and Why!
‘Key issue’ projects
Over the last eight years RoSPA has been developing a ‘key issues’ approach to its influencing work, focusing policy development effort on major topics where RoSPA intervention can help secure significant and lasting safety change, working, where possible, in co-operation with others and developing associated products and services where appropriate.
RoSPA’s three main ‘key issues’ at present are:
The need to integrate the Management of Occupational Road Risk (MORR) into mainstream OS&H
Between 800 and 1000 people are killed annually in accidents involving vehicles being driven for work purposes. Risk levels are high as are costs to employers, victims and Society generally. RoSPA has developed guidance for organisations, showing how accident rates and risks can be reduced substantially if employers tackle this issue with the framework they have in place for managing health and safety at work. As a member of the Government’s Work Related Road Safety Task Group RoSPA helped to promote a national debate on this issue leading to publication of Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and DfT guidance, ‘Driving at work’ (http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg382.pdf ). It has also helped to set up the Occupational Road Safety Alliance (visit www.orsa.org.uk ). It continues to lobby HSE to give MORR higher priority.
The need to improve accident investigation
Despite the development over the last two decades of a proactive management system based approach to health and safety, using risk assessment as an essential tool in decision-making, investigation remains an underdeveloped feature of this new approach. Many organisations still only take action on health and safety when things go wrong but, because they adopt superficial approach to accident/incident investigation, they fail to learn underlying lessons which would enable them to improve their management systems and culture. RoSPA has initiated a national debate, contributed to new HSE guidance and is developing new projects on readiness to investigate and sharing lessons from incident case studies.
Poor senior leadership of safety and health
Often the root cause of poor health and safety performance in many organisations is a lack of effective leadership ‘from the top’. (DASH). In support of the HSC’s plans for ‘Revitalising’ Health and Safety at Work’ (see below), RoSPA has taken a number of initiatives designed to enhance ‘Director Action on Safety and Health’. The aim has been to help raise the status of health and safety as a board level business performance issue. RoSPA has produced web based consensus guidance on best practice in measuring and reporting on corporate OS&H performance and on evidence based target setting in organisations. It has researched directors’ involvement in ‘front end’ OS&H management activities such workplace health and safety tours and more recently has established a project, ‘Going Public on Performance’ (GOPOP) (visit www.gopop.org.uk) on web based performance reporting.
Improving health and safety performance
Since 2000 RoSPA has made a substantial input to ‘Revitalising Health and Safety’ and related HSC plans for occupational health (‘Securing Health Together’). It has made input to and supported the HSC’s current strategy for workplace H&S to 2010 and beyond. RoSPA takes the view that, despite some of the UK H&S ‘system’s’ more obvious strengths (including: the shift to goal setting legislation using risk assessment; the role of the HSE; the focus on management systems; employee and union involvement; and the growing importance of the health and safety professional), there are also many weaknesses. These include: significant under-resourcing of the HSC/E; widespread ignorance about hazards, risks and control measures; low penalties; lack of economic incentives (for example, no link between health and safety performance and insurance premia); a lack of strategic delivery of H&S services, lack of integration of health and safety into business development programmes; and the large number of small firms and the problems they face in responding to health and safety legislation (95% of all UK businesses have fewer than 50 employees but employ 45% of the workforce).
Making it happen!
RoSPA is committed to working with HSC/E and other ‘health and safety system’ players to re-energise the UK ‘health and safety system’ to produce sustainable improvement in future OS&H performance.
In RoSPA’s view, a key feature of the current strategy must be a clear commitment from HSC/E to work more closely with all other players in the ‘system’, for example, through ‘Partnership Agreements’ to help ensure that the targets for accident and ill health reduction are met. Examples of what RoSPA wants to see include: tougher enforcement (raising the level of penalties); a new offence of corporate killing as well as innovative penalties (such as compulsory retraining and remedial programmes); a common health and safety management standard or ‘yardstick’; corporate performance reporting to a common standard; a new strategic focus on H&S training (particularly for managers and directors); extension of workforce involvement; making occupational health a key feature of the new strategy (putting major emphasis on job adaptation and rehabilitation); extension of the CDM framework for contractors beyond construction; ensuring exemplar leadership by all government departments (achieving best practice and promoting this via procurement) and scrutinising the OS&H implications of all Government plans; mobilisation of the insurance sector as an OS&H ‘promoter’; working more closely with the Health and Safety Groups; and building OS&H into the Small Business Service. RoSPA is also working to help ensure that safety and risk concepts are embedded in the National Curriculum and in professional education.
Views and partnerships
RoSPA is anxious receive views on these issues and, wherever possible, to establish partnerships with others who can assist with RoSPA ‘key issue’ projects. Enquiries should be addressed to Errol Taylor, Acting Chief Executive, RoSPA House, Edgbaston Park, 353, Bristol Road, Birmingham B5 7ST. (Tel 0121 248 2000, Fax 0121 248 2001. Website www.rospa.org.uk)
Enquiries should be addressed to:
Roger Bibbings,
Occupational Safety Advisor,
Safety Policy Division,
RoSPA House,
Edgbaston Park, 353, Bristol Road,
Birmingham B5 7ST.
Tel 0121 248 2000, Fax 0121 248 2001.
Email: help@rospa.com
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RoSPA is a registered charity: Registered Charity No: 207823 Patron: Her Majesty the Queen RoSPA Head Office: Edgbaston Park, 353 Bristol Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B5 7ST, UK |
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