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This week is European Week for Safety and Health 2007, which is dedicated to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs).

In fact, MSDs, such as low back pain, joint injuries and repetitive strain injuries, are the most common form of occupational ill-health in Britain, affecting one million people a year.

RoSPA offers support in this area to many organizations, and has recently partnered with Arjo, a healthcare solutions provider, to promote a holistic approach to safer people handling. The safety charity is delivering training based on techniques developed by Arjo’s ergonomics division, Corpus.

The new RoSPA courses consider the feelings of the person being moved as well as their safety and the safety of the healthcare worker. They recognise that real-life working environments differ from case to case.

The training is centred on an approach known as haptonomics, which considers human behaviour and feelings, and originated in the Netherlands.

In addition to training Arjo clients, RoSPA offers three safer people handling courses in partnership with Corpus for external delegates - hoist awareness, theatre practitioners and haptonomics foundations courses, which run in Birmingham and Glasgow.

For more details about RoSPA’s safer people handling courses, call 0121 248 2233, email training@rospa.com or visit our website.

Manual Handling Trainers and Risk Assessors Course.

Due to popular demand and in conjunction with European Week for Safety and Health 2007, we have added an additional date for this RoSPA 5-day Course. It will run in Bristol at the Regus Temple Quay, on the week commencing 19th November 2007.

The cost of this course is £895.00 + VAT for members and £995.00 + VAT for non-members.

Special Offer: Safety Representatives (Employee Consultation) Course.

Calling all Safety Representatives and Employee Representatives. Take advantage of our superb 2 for 1 special offer on this RoSPA 2 day Course running in Birmingham on the 5th/6th November 2007.

For 2 delegates the cost is £405.00 + VAT for members and £450.00 + VAT for non-members.

Special offer: Managing Client and Contractor Course.

Do you deal with Contractors? If so, supplement your knowledge with this RoSPA course where you will learn:

There is a superb 2 for 1 special offer on this course, which will be running in Birmingham on the 7th/8th November 2007.

For 2 delegates the cost is £405.00 + VAT for members and £450.00 + VAT for non-members.

For details of all these courses please call 0121 248 2233

Funding Advice – for Home Safety Professionals

Partnership working, data collection and fundraising will be the key issues focussed on at this year’s Home Safety Congress in Cheltenham. Few of us have enough funding or support and most of us experience difficulty sourcing it.

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear presentations from The Big Lottery Group, University Hospital, Birmingham Charities and JPA group that will help you unpack issues surrounding funding and support and their key role in partnership working.

To secure one of our remaining delegate places at the National Home Safety Congress on 12th & 13th November, call the event administration team today on 0121 248 2120 to discuss the flexible range of attendance options available.

Visit our website for full programme details.

With under two weeks to go until Bonfire Night, RoSPA recently launched a new website to help people enjoy fireworks safely.

The website has all the information people need to make sure their firework parties are fun rather than fraught with danger.

If you want to enjoy fireworks whether for Halloween, Bonfire Night, Diwali, Chinese New Year or New Year, www.saferfireworks.com is the place to start.

As well as the Firework Code, the site includes a guide on how to organise a display and how to deal with specific types of fireworks from rockets to Catherine Wheels.

RoSPA’s new ‘Driving for Work: Fitness to Drive’ contains practical advice to help employers place fitness to drive within the overall context of managing occupational road risk and organisations’ occupational health policies.

The free resource, available from the RoSPA website helps employers produce practical systems to assess the fitness-to-drive of their staff and to provide necessary help or adjust work tasks. It also helps them to raise awareness amongst staff of the importance of this issue.

It includes advice on physical and cognitive conditions that may affect driving. For example, a survey found that 90% of drivers (of company cars, motorcycles, buses and HGVs) said their employer did not require them to have their eyes tested. Over half had not had an eye test in the past year, and almost one in five not for over 5 years. 4% admitted to an accident or near collision caused by poor eyesight.

Visit our website for a downloadable PDF and view other free road safety resources.

For companies with a specific interest in the area of Fleet Safety, RoSPA has introduced a new Fleet Safety benefits package. As a Fleet Safety Member, you will enjoy a number of benefits, including the following:

To apply, please select the Fleet Safety option on the online membership form or call 0121 248 2233 to discuss this further.

Visit our website for more information on RoSPA Fleet Safety.

Planning for the future, working safely today

A CPD Accredited Event
31 January and 1 February 2008 with pre-conference New Products Workshops on 30 January

Moving & Handling People is the only moving and handling event that enables delegates to attend the entire conference, see the latest equipment, access their professional representatives and network with colleagues under one roof. This is a key opportunity to view the latest products, equipment and safer handling techniques to aid safer handling for both delegates and their clients.

Moving and Handling People is the must-attend event for practitioners and managers in health and social care, at both operational and strategic levels. It has been designed to provide delegates from both the acute and social care settings with information on up-to-date thinking, models in best practice and the development of safer handling strategies based on the experience of expert practitioners, legislation and professional guidance.

Visit the professional resource centre where a RoSPA Adviser will be on hand to discuss how we can help make you legally compliant, safer in your environment and competent in your management practices.

Visit our website for information on safer people handling.